IPL After Non-ablative Fractional Laser?

How soon after a non-ablative fractional laser treatment can I do a photofacial (IPL) treatment? In order to be "pretty" and recovered for an event in few weeks, I was thinking about having a fractional treatment, with an IPL about 10 days later. Is that too soon?

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4 Doctor Answers | Asked by SuzyAv8trix in Phoenix, AZ

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It might be worth waiting

Thank you for your question. Theoretically, you should have no problem doing IPL right after doing a nonablative fractional treatment, but my only caution is this: nonablative fractional treatments do result in redness that may last longer than 7 days in some patients. In some cases, as this redness resolves, it may even lead to slight darkening of the skin that may take even longer to go away. This redness and resulting darkness is primarily due to the inflammation that is caused by the... more

Waiting time after fractional laser for IPL

It's probably important to first clarify what is meant by nonablative fractional laser. That term is often misused. Ablation means to remove the surface with vaporization. Most fractional lasers are not truly nonablative. For example, fractional CO2 such as ActiveFX, DeepFX, Repair, CORE, Mixto, all cause an injury to the skin and are not nonablative. Other fractional lasers such as the Restore, Refine, Pearl, Profractional also cause an injury to the skin... more

IPL after non-ablative Fractional Laser

If you are having the Fraxel procedure I would definitely wait a few weeks for the skin to recover. Your skin may look back to normal in a week but it can take longer to really recover and I would not rush to do the IPL 10 days after your initial treatment. Please find a board certified dermatologist in your area with experience in lasers. see video

Treatments

If you wanted to you could do both lasers at the same time, its not uncommon to pair treatments together, I would be cautious on doing any treatments close to any events you have planned as you can never guarantee 100% recovery time.