Benefits of laser resurfacing: My personal experience.
Posted on Tue, Apr 05, 2011
By Bayardo Aviles
Laser resurfacing questions answered
I recently had a laser resurfacing treatment and it has led to quite a number of interesting questions from many patients and friends. So I decided to write a blog article to share my experience with everyone. The first two questions they ask me are, “what did I have done and why did I do it.” They know me too well already so I cannot give them the, “I got sunburned excuse”. I wanted a treatment that was more aggressive than the previous resurfacing treatments I had, so I decided to have a combination of Active FX and Deep FX, both CO2 lasers.
I decided to have the treatment done two weeks before Christmas because I was going on vacation and I wanted to recover during the Holidays, a not so common strategy for most people. Most patients want to look fabulous during this season, but I wanted to use my two weeks of vacation to recover.
Decreased downtime with FRAXEL
Over the past few years laser resurfacing has become one of the most popular ways to rejuvenate the skin. And of course I had to try it. I had my first laser resurfacing treatment about 6 years ago when Relliant revolutionized the laser world by introducing FRAXEL. At the time, FRAXEL was the only fractional resurfacing laser. What was revolutionary about FRAXEL was that unlike traditional CO2 that tends to remove between 80%-90% of the skin in one treatment, FRAXEL can be set to remove only 15%-20% of the skin. Of course to get a similar result to CO2 one must do 5 or more FRAXEL treatments. This change alone, decreased the typical down time from 7-14 days after a traditional CO2 treatment to 2-3 days of down time with FRAXEL and as a result skin resurfacing procedures increased dramatically since then.
Other benefits of FRAXEL
The other two great benefits of FRAXEL are:
1. It can be used on any part of the body—face, arms, legs, buttocks, etc. (I am currently doing it on my biceps and back to remove some acne blemishes that have bothered me for many years.) In contrast, traditional CO2 resurfacing was mainly limited to the face because it was too aggressive for other parts of the body.
2. It can be used on people of any color. This was a revolutionary change in skin resurfacing since traditional CO2 was mainly limited to Caucasian patients because of the high risk of long term skin discoloration in patients with darker skin types like Hispanics, Japanese, Philipinnos and middle easterners.
Combining Active FX and Deep FX for faster results
So, why did I decide to have Active FX and Deep FX CO2 laser resurfacing instead of another FRAXEL treatment? Simply because I wanted a faster results and I wanted to get more skin tightening...You see, I just turned 41 and I am all about prevention. Active FX resurfaces the skin and Deep FX tightens the skin. I wanted both benefits so I had a combination Total FX treatment. Both treatments, CO2 and FRAXEL accomplish similar goals: diminish fine lines and wrinkles, remove brown spots, improve acne scarring, diminish pore size, tighten the skin, and stimulate collagen and elastin in the skin. However, CO2 does it faster, in one or two treatments. So to me it was worth the longer downtime because I can see the results faster.
If you have any questions about any of these treatments please contact me.
Remember:
- Active FX resurfaces the skin
- Deep FX tightens the skin
- Total FX combines Active FX with Deep FX
The Cosmetic Centers of Hawaii is offering a discount on Fraxel Treatments to Ho'ole'a members on designated Fraxel Days! Not a Ho'ole'a member yet? Sign up, it's free!