Full Ablative Laser Co2re - what to expect?

Skin prep is very important before and after co2 laser. Start with Melarase PM and Melarase AM, followed by extra Vitamin C to promote collagen production. Best, Dr. KaramanoukianLos Angeles

The benefits of fractional CO2 laser resurfacing include faster recovery and consistently excellent results. The depth of injury to the skin and length of recovery is dependent upon the settings used by your surgeon. Discuss the recovery time with your surgeon. As an example, we also prescribe ant-virals 2 days prior to re-surfacing, as well as antibiotics on the day of the procedure. We encourage the use of vinegar soaks following surgery (anti-fungal) and use growth factors to speed healing. We sedate all of our re-surfacing patients to allow a painless procedure yet provide a significant amount of energy with significant results. With our laser settings, most patients are applying make-up by day 7 and back to work. CO2 Fractional laser re-surfacing provides consistently excellent results. Good luck with your procedure.  

Hi Emma. It's best to have all of your questions answered by the physician performing your treatment before you have the treatment done. Different devices have different settings and there are different levels of treatment which all come with varying amounts of downtime. You will feel intense heat after your treatment that can last up to 24 hours. Your face will look worse before it looks better. Depending on the level of treatment downtime can vary from 1-2 weeks, with full healing taking several weeks to months. Again, best to have all of your questions addressed before you get the treatment. Best wishes.

The healing time for any laser, especially the more aggressive lasers such as fully ablative CO2, is completely dependent on the doctor performing the procedure.  The range is one week fully reepithelialized (new skin) and visually fully healed within 7-10 days vs still beet red after three months.  It all depends on the settings of the laser the the doctor performing the procedure.

With the advent of fractionated ablative technology, full laser ablation is not really performed all that much anymore. I can get an awesome results with fractionated ablation with less downtime and adverse events than full laser ablation. Although the textbooks always say that full laser ablation is the gold standard, many doctors perform fractional laser ablation for the above mentioned reasons.