Fractional CO2 Laser has become the new gold standard for laser resurfacing for scar revision, wrinkles, and sun damage. The old traditional ablative CO2 laser resurfacing had been the prior gold standard treatment; however, the requirement for general anesthesia and associated downtime has made the traditional CO2 laser resurfacing less desirable. Fractional CO2 laser allows for the CO2 laser energy to be delivered in a fractionated fashion to dramatically shorten downtime 5-6 days and achieve significant smoothing of skin texture and rejuvenation of an aging skin with one treatment. All Fractional CO2 Lasers performed comparably (ActiveFX, Mixto, Fraxel Repair, etc).
The key is to find an experienced physician with a team approach to customize a series of pre-op and post-op care routine to maximize your clinical outcome. Different parameters such as the depths of laser penetration, density of penetration, energy released, number of passes for particular anatomic region vary for different skin types and different priorities of the patients. Ideally, you should be under the care of a board-certified dermatologist who has performed at least 50 cases of your skin type and know exactly what to do in order to prevent and manage complications.
