My guess is that he is talking about a fully ablative erbium resurfacing. What it boils down to is that the risk of what he is proposing is greater - anesthesia, hypopigmentation, and scarring are much greater than the Fraxel re:pair which is done in the office. Also, the healing time and wound care are much longer with total ablative technology vs fractional ablative technology. If everything goes perfect, and your healing time is not prolonged (less than 2 or 3 weeks), you might get a better result. Total ablation has been around longer than fractional ablative. However, the trend is towards fractional which will give close to comparable results, with less downtime and less risks. All the buzz at meetings and all the laser companies want to market is fractional lasers.
Less downtime and risk with fractional
Best laser for limited wrinkling around the eyes and lips?
I saw a plastic surgeon today who suggested that putting me to sleep (no pain!) and doing a full-face and neck non-fractional treatment with the Sciton laser (erbium) would give me a better and longer-lasting result than a full face and neck fraxel re:pair treatment. He admitted that he has only done two Fraxel Re:pair treatments so is working on limited evidence.The laser price is the same for both although the cost to be put to sleep adds $2500 to the bill over and above the laser cost. I am a 51 year old woman with some limited wrinkling around the eyes and lips. What will give me the best results?
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