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Will Fraxel Leave my Skin Looking Darker?
asked 3 years ago by harvard in Canada
Latest answer by Sanusi Umar, MD
Question viewed 2,137 times
Tags: dark
I saw a youtube video were a lady showed how much darker her skin looked even a month after treatment with Fraxel.
I'm hispanic, and I have had other lasers for the treatment of brown spots. My skin is so sensitive to irritants that the lasers made the spots worse. I'm considering having Fraxel done on my face, but I'm a little scared that my skin will stay darker and the spots won't go away.
How can I tell if Fraxel will make my skin darker? Is there a less risky treatment for removing brown spots?
4 answers to Will Fraxel Leave my Skin Looking Darker?
+2
Get a test spot before treatment
Unfortunately, all treatments for dark spots in dark-skinned individuals, and light-skinned patients too, have a risk of creating post inflammatory hyperpigmentation…or in other words the pigment of the skin reacts to the treatment by dropping the pigment cells or melanocytes in the dermis under the epidermis. This can leave you with a temporary darker coloration, which may be splotchy. Especially after individual spots are treated with pigment specific lasers rather than treating...
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Fraxel and Darker Skin Colors
Hispanic skin is fine for Fraxel treatments, but you definitely want to proceed with cautious. Treatment could possible darken your skin, which I know you probably would want to avoid. Darkness can last for up to 3 months, so again, you want to be really careful. The main thing I want to see you avoid is post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. Fraxel Re:store is by far the best option for treating dark-skinned patients. You should ask your doctor if he or she is willing to run...
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Fraxel for brown spots
Fraxel can be used to treat brown spots on Hispanic skin. In general, though, there are better lasers than Fraxel for this, including the Q-Switched Ruby, Q-Switched Alexandrite and Q-Switched YAG lasers. In addition, a variety of intense pulsed light (IPL) sources can be used to treat brown spots. Although a Fraxel laser will lessen the darkness of brown spots, it’s a much better laser for improving the quality of skin and wrinkles than for treating brown spots.
David Goldberg, MD
New York Dermatologic Surgeon
New York Dermatologic Surgeon
+1
Fraxel: Will it make your skin darker?
Fraxel can make your skin darker. To help prevent or minimize the darkening of the skin, skin care treatment of Retin-a and/or Hydroquinone should be utilized before and after Fraxel Treatment. If it does darken, it will take anywhere between 1.5-3 months until the “darkness” goes away.
Usha Rajagopal, MD
San Francisco Plastic Surgeon
San Francisco Plastic Surgeon