I Have Active Acne/cysts, Should I Wait to Get the Fraxel Till Acne is Cleared?

You should try to get your acne under control before doing a Fraxel Laser treatment. Oral antibiotics can be prescribed and taken both before and after your Fraxel treatments to control cystic acne. Fraxel laser treatment can flare cystic acne in some patients immeditalty after treatment.  Therefore, an oral antibiotic may be prescribed to be taken during the laser session even if your acne is already controlled.

 

There is one small recent study showing improvement of acne with coincident fraxel laser treatments for acne scarring.  So, I do tell patients they can pursue fraxel laser treatment while using traditional acne medications to help clear their skin.  The only exception is if you are using isotretinoin therapy.  If you are using isotretinoin you should have NO laser treatments of any kind for at least 6mo (and preferably 1 year) after your last does of isotretinoin.  There have been case reports of poor skin healing after laser treatments on patients recently taking isotretinoin for acne.