Sciton Vs Alma BBL treatment: which is better for sun damage?

Hello Mahasad,Thank you for submitting your question. Scition is the gold standard laser in the industry. With the  Sciton laser you are able to dial the setting to the exact energy, pulsewith and cooling depending on the size, type of target and where the target is sitting (ie. epidermis or dermis). It's safer, you are able to use a number of different wavelength's within one treatment for correction of vessels and pigmentation depending on your skin type. Forever Young is a protocol that uses a combination of wavelength's pulsed over a few passes with low energy as a maintenance for skin aging. Photo Facial is the corrective treatment and most of the time a recommendation of three treatments is required.Alma lasers is great for epidermal pigmentation, however, you aren't able to dial the settings like the Sciton, you have to be careful with settings as well as changing of the wavelength to prevent too much heat induction or post inflammatory hyper-pigmentation.

Fractional laser is an amazing and highly effective treatment in our office. We use the laser treatment to help with acne scars, large pores, fine wrinkles, tissue collagen loss, scars, sebaceous hyperplasia, active acne, and for brightening dark pigmentation. Although there are very strong fractional lasers such as CO2 laser, we use lighter treatments for corrective skincare and maintenance of results. Our Thulium fractional laser, clear and brilliant laser, and Ultra Thulium laser are excellent options in our clinic. We also perform CO2 fractional and erbium depending on skin tone and tolerance for downtime. Patients do have to use a Melarase cream before and after treatment to help further reduce pigmentation after laser. Melarase AM, Melarase PM, and Melapads can seriously improve surface sun damage and UV related pigmentation. Dark spots can improve with these treatments. I recommend fractional laser for incisional scars as well, especially after plastic surgery.
Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

I totally agree with Dr Gelber. If you have dark skin, your Sciton BBL provider will have additional challenges. Slow down and really know who will be doing your BBL. "Dark spots" can be many things and if it is melasma, particular care not to be too aggressive is very important. Don't rush into anything until you are truly informed about what your dark spots are. Your skin color and its tendency to darken with sunlight will be a major factor in your treatment.

Great question - you're really comparing apples with aging oranges here. Sciton makes the most high end systems in the business. They are a big expense to the offices that get them, but they are the most powerful, with the best integrated cooling for precision and safety with all sorts of refined features to allow the provider to get patients the best results safely.Alma makes inexpensive systems for med spas. They do not have BBL, which is a patented product with Stanford research that shows it slows aging (unique to Sciton). They only have IPL on their systems. If the office is telling you they do 'Alma BBL' or 'Alma Forever Young', that is simply not true.I also don't want to discount the operator. I would pit a professional race car driver in a low end car over a student driver in a race car any day. If you do have any friends who have been treated at the two offices, by all means ask them about their experience and ask the offices as well how much experience they have.