Does Fraxel Laser Treatment Tighten Skin?

Hi Les,
I agree with Dr. W. At 41 years old, you should be very pleased with the amount of tightening of your skin and improvement in wrinkles. By far patients are seeing much more skin tightening than with Fraxel restore treatments. Fraxel repair is a great treatment for the earliest signs of aging...early jowling and wrinkles.
This is a very powerful technology and is user dependent. Choose your physician most carefully. Last weekend I attended The Aesthetic Show in Las Vegas where the majority of attendees were non-cosmetic physicians and non-physicians looking to begin aesthetic practices. Even in the hands of the most experienced laser surgeons, there will be some complications with the burgeoning fractionated CO2 laser treatments (there are about 5 other laser companies bringing Fraxel-like fractionated CO2 lasers to market).
In the upcoming months, I am afraid that patients will be treated by practioners who don't have surgical laser experience, and don't have experience with the older traditional CO2 lasers. I am a huge proponent of this incredible technology, but anyone choosing this treatment should make sure that the physician treating them knows what they are doing. Though I recommend the Fraxel repair when performed properly, physicians can only be responsible for their own patients. Be well.
Dr. P

I use the Ulthera procedure alongside laser skin resurfacing to tighten skin and improve the facial silhouette. Raffy Karamanoukian Los Angeles

 


Thermage has noticeable but very limited results in terms of tightening skin..Like other skin resurfacing procedures such as Fraxel it tends to tighten the skin to an extent to smooth some of the fine lines, improve pigment problems and diminish pore size. What they do NOT do well is to minimize jowls and other signs of facial soft tissue laxity. Only a mini facelift or facelift will take care of this problem in a significant fashion. 

The Fraxel ReStore is nonablative meaning that no tissue is removed while the Fraxel Repair is ablative (removes tissue). The Repair will tighten skin as it can remove about 20% of the skin surface area with an average treatment. The Repair will be more effective in treating skin laxity and wrinkles but require more recovery and downtime.

Having used both the Fraxel re:pair (ablative) and the Fraxel re:store (non ablative) in my practice, the re:pair has better skin tightening properties than the restore. Re:pair has a more involved downtime profile when compared to re:store and should only be used on lighter toned Caucasian skin types. Its results (re:pair) are however much more significant and it is a 1 time treatment only. Re:store gives modest results, requires a series of 3-4 treatment at 2-4 weeks interval. It is however used in most skin types with minimal downtime.