Does Fraxel Get Rid of Age Spots or Does It Just Make Them Fade?

Fraxel may significantly reduce the pigment in your spots, but 100% reduction is not a realistic expectation. The sunless tanning cream may increase the coloration in the faded Fraxel-treated lesions.  

Yes, The new Fraxel Dual laser removes age spots effectively. Fraxel is a brand name of a laser commonly used in treatments. Q-switch lasers are also used in removing age spots.

Fraxel will reduce the appearance of brown spots, however it will not totally eliminate them.  I use the alexandrite laser for treatment of brown age spots, and it gives excellent results.  Self tanner will definitely make brown spots show up more.

Brown spots on the arms (or the face, or the chest) will look darker when you apply self tanner. The self tanner makes everything darker- it doesn't selectively darken just normal skin and not the spots. If you want to treat the age spots with a laser, the best choice may be IPL (intense pulsed light). After IPL the spots will dry up and peel off. Fraxel treatments will also lighten age spots, but not 100%. Fraxel is a great treatment for texture (fine lines, acne scars, etc) so if you... more

Fraxel lasers can lessen the intensity of brown spots but do not work as well as the Q-Switched lasers or an intense pulsed light (IPL) source. It’s more likely the Fraxel will lighten them than remove them totally. You are right: they will usually not be completely removed and will darken when you apply the self-tanning lotion.

IPL works better for removing brown spots than Fraxel laser does. The first generation Fraxel laser did remove brown spots very well but when upgraded to the second generation it affected this function. While we still love our Fraxel and it works great for wrinkles, pores, texture and tone, we prefer using our IPL for brown spots.

A fraxel laser can help with age spots with several treatments. A better treatment (not guaranteed for total removal) often used either IPL,YAG,or Q-Switch wavelength give a more even treatment for age spots. Your skin type, general coloring, extent of sun based age spot damage drives your results. For many men and women, the completion of a laser age spot removal plan will mean that results are more or less permanent. Caution, however, that if you go back to heavy douses of sunbathing,... more