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Laser-based beauty treatments have been booming for the past couple of years. In late 2003, the first machine using radio frequencies to eradicate wrinkles appeared—the Thermage—but it was bearable only under sedation. Now an improved variation on the treatment, the Polaris WR, has surfaced, and Dr. Howard Sobel is one of the first to offer it in New York. It combines a collagen-stimulating laser with skin-tightening radio frequencies, and while it’s not relaxing, it’s tolerable and really effective. It isn’t cheap—a $3,000 package for the three recommended facial treatments—but it is quick, lasting half an hour. And the result—clearer, more youthful-looking skin—comes remarkably fast, too.

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Best of New York Awards

• Best Antiaging Treatment (2004)