I'm Not Completely Happy with Full Face Total FX Results, is It Safe to Repeat Within Same Year?

Question

I had a full face Active/Deep FX done 10 months ago, will I have further improvement to do secondary full face laser? I am turning 50 yrs and am a former smoker. I did see about a 40% improvement from the first time, hoping to increase outcome by repeating the procedure.

Ivan Wayne, MD · Answer

Your question is impossible to answer without knowing the settings that were used in the TotalFX treatment you had as well as the amount of sun damage you started with. My experience with the TotalFX is most patients will get 30-40% improvement in wrinkles, though some will get even more than that. The few patients I have done a second treatment on will get around 20% additional improvement. I hope this helps.

Carla R. Retief, MD · Answer

Because total fx is not as intense as traditional CO2, the company even suggests that 50% of patients will require a second treatment.  It doesnt matter what settings were used on the first treatment.  If you are at least 4 months out and have no remaining redness from the prior treatment and you still have wrinkles, you are safe to have a second treatment.  I try to really be aggressive with the first treatment so that 80% of the wrinkles are gone with the first treatment.  This allows me to perform a less aggressive treatment on the second treatment on the few that require a second treatment.  The more aggressive the treatment ( the deeper the treatment), the better the results.  Your final result will always be only as good as your most aggressive treatment.  In other words, if you have 2 treatments that are moderate in aggressiveness or 4 treatments at minimal aggressiveness or one very aggressive treatment, you will get the best results from the very aggressive treatment even though you only had one treatment.  This is because this treatment went the deepest and was able to eliminate wrinkles at that depth.  No matter how many treatments you have at a shallower depth, it will never be deep enough.    If you don't go as deep as you need to go to laser the wrinkle away, going more superficially more times will not increase your odds of getting the wrinkle.

Sumit Bapna, MD · Answer

Many patients do require a second treatment with Total Fx to achieve desired results. It is safe to repeat this treatment within the same year, and more likely as soon as 6 months.

Edgar Franklin Fincher, MD, PhD · Answer

A second treatment may be an option for you so long as your skin no longer shows visible signs from the treatment and the settings that were used were not very high. At 10 months your skin should be completely healed and should have stabilized with regard to topical products and skin care. If this is the case, then you should go back to your MD and discuss the possibility of having a second treatment. Topics to discuss could be treating again at the same setting versus using a lighter treatment, treating a smaller area(s) as a touch up type procedure or possibly other laser options to meet your needs.

I'm Not Completely Happy with Full Face Total FX Results, is It Safe to Repeat Within Same Year?

Answers (4)

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