sun damage and smoking help break down the collagen layer so that the skin 39 s once smooth surface develops wrinkles new more youthful collagen actually forms after laser treatment the disclosed automated laser debridement system can readily map the face of the patient and recognize and eliminate areas where laser surfacing is not needed for example above the hairline the lips the eyes and eye lids eyebrows and other facial hair areas furthermore other features such as around the lips and nose can be automatically identified the identified portions of the patients face other than the excluded areas can then be laser resurfaced automatically without the need for constant monitoring by an attending physician or medical technician however perhaps the largest group of patients who can potentially benefit from cosmetic laser procedures are those with scars resulting from surgery in the u s alone the ongoing surgical caseload produces more than 50 million incision sites annually that can benefit from early intervention with laser treatment a c beam pulsed dye laser has been found to be effective on scar tissue this is a larger patient population than any other group in the aesthetic laser field it includes all plastic surgery particularly facelifts abdominal breast cesarean sections sternotomies small telltale scars from liposuction and other less invasive procedures and others the novel automated.