Kirkland Active FX doctors

Active fx may reduce your recurrence rate for skin cancer. However, you should know that active fx is a fractionated approach and will get a percentage of your affected cells. Most of the studies on reducing the recurrence of skin cancer are based on complete resurfacing through either chemical peels or laser resurfacing. So, if you really want to reduce your risk of skin cancer I would suggest more complete chemical peels or laser resurfacing.  For Active fx, the term would be max fx and this would be more traditional resurfacing and riskier in some sense but safe in qualified hands and a person with experience.  We have a tremendous amount of information on our website on these subjects with a photo diary of someone who underwent this procedure.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Prolonged redness can occur with laser resurfacing.  Although with Active Fx this should be much less common.  If there is some tenderness, itching, and the redness is persisting and it begins to become more raised, you could be developing some scarring.  High dose steroids would be helpful in this case.  Contact dermatitis can occur if you are starting some creams that could be irritating your skin at this crucial stage. I would then consider holding off on those topicals and stay with some gentler products.  The other possibility is that the doctor was more aggressive around your eyes which could lead to prolonged redness which is common after traditional resurfacing.  I would see your doctor to have him figure out this. He will know his settings to determine what is going on with the setting of your physical exam.

Areas of redness and scratches should heal after Active FX and co2 laser resurfacing. But Scarring should be determined by your doctor.This could be scratches that you did while you were sleeping but could also be from the laser resurfacing itself.  I would continue your current cleaning regime.  Six days after your procedure you should still be healing and with fractional co2 resurfacing, your skin should be totally healed over.  If it were more traditional resurfacing your skin could still be healing over.  The areas that are red will take some time to resolve.  As some of the other authors have suggested sunscreen and sun avoidance are crucial during the first month and up to 6 months after the procedure.  The redness will take some time to resolve but not as long if you had the traditional resurfacing.  Some suggest steroids after your skin has healed over, but this could affect the healing and collagen production and most people would suggest against it.  Intense Pulse Light or the v beam, or any laser that concentrates light in the 585nm range, your doctor should be able to determine what is best, can help with some of this redness by attacking the vessels that are causing the redness.  Otherwise the healing will just take some time.  One thing that could be important to determine is if there is significant swelling, redness and tenderness that could indicate scarring.  This is something that your doctor should determine and in this situation, a high dose topical steroid could be needed to stem possible scarring.