Photofacial Side Effects

Thank you for your question. A photofacial is good for dark spots (lentigos) and facial vessels / rosacea / redness of photodamage. After a photofacial, it is normal to appear sunburned for 2-4 days. As the IPL targets pigment, previous light brown or dark brown lentigo and photodamage spots will appear darker brown and start to scab and flake. This is normal as well and is actually a very good sign that you received a very good photofacial that will help you look younger, brighter, cleaner... more

After you have IPL, it is totally normal to have what appears to be additional, darker brown spots on the surface of your skin. These brown spots will look like "coffee grounds" and will typically shed/flake within 3-7 days of your treatment. Do not pick these spots! This is generally the sign of a good, results driven treatment. The sunburn feeling should go away within several hours- however you can use cold compresses or hydrocortisone... more

Redness, slight swelling, and darkening of brown spots can all occur after IPL. Cooling the skin with cooled gel or air can help with patient comfort during the procedure and also protect the skin following the procedure. Redness usually lasts 0-2 days, swelling 1-3 days, and dark spots flake off typically in 1 week.

These spots are actually signs of healing from the treatment. The purpose of the treatment is to attack targets called chromophores, namely pigmentation spots, broken capillaries, and skin color irregularities that are red or brown in nature. Anticipated in the recovery should be 3-4 days of swelling, a pink glow to the skin and the formation of microcrusts creating a salt and pepper appearance to the complexion. These surface changes should resolve within 7-10 days and not be expediated... more

Getting dark spots immediately after a photofacial treatment is normal. These will likely flake off after a couple of days.

What you are describing sounds like a normal result. High energy (fluence) laser or light based treatments can cause the redness you describe and the dark spots. The redness is related to the trauma from the heat of the laser. The dark spots are pigment in the skin that was there before the treatment but not visible until after. When a laser or IPL is used for sun damage, the freckles and sun spots below the skin's surface absorb most of the the light energy. These spots heat up to... more