Laser Labiaplasty: What You Need to Know

Lasers have been used in medicine for decades. With different wavelengths of light, lasers can coagulate tissue, reduce pigmentation, and remodel scar tissue. Lasers can also be used in surgery to help reduce blood loss. They are generally used as a cutting tool instead of scissors or a scalpel.

However, lasers burn tissue. It’s precisely how they work: heat energy is imparted to the tissues causing a controlled burn. While this may be favorable in certain situations, lasers are not a good idea when the tissue needs to be sutured closed! So even though lasers can allow for less bleeding during surgery, they will leave a burned skin edge of the labia minora, ultimately leading to slower healing. A better and gentler approach involves cutting the labia and cauterizing only the bleeding points to decrease heat injury.

What is a Laser Labiaplasty?

A laser labiaplasty is a procedure to reduce the size of the labia minora using a surgical laser to cut and cauterize the tissue. Doctors will often market or advertise laser labiaplasty surgery because it sounds modern and high tech. The reality is that medical lasers have been around for decades and are very effective at burning and cauterizing tissue. While there is a role for lasers in medicine, cutting is best performed with a scalpel edge so that the tissue doesn’t get burned, which can delay healing and worsen scars.

Laser Labiaplasty procedure process

Most often a CO2 laser, a labiaplasty surgeon will use a laser–instead of a scalpel blade–to cut the labia minora. This decreases bleeding during the cut, in exchange for more tissue coagulation (burning).

Average Cost of Laser Labiaplasty

I perform a more delicate Labiaplasty procedure with a simple cut instead of a laser burn. The cost at my practice in Orlando can be found HERE.

Laser Labiaplasty Recovery

The recovery from a laser labiaplasty is typically longer than from a standard labiaplasty. As mentioned, this is because the laser burns the delicate labia minora mucosa, instead of just cutting the tissue. While this can decrease bleeding during surgery, the healing time becomes longer because of the burn. During a standard labiaplasty surgery with my delicate technique, the labia is cut, and then a special cautery pen is used to precisely stop the bleeding points, creating much less damage due to heat injury.