Is Active FX a Good Treatment for Smoker's Lines?

Fillers such as Restylane Silk, Belotero, or Juvederm can work well to treat lines around the mouth, but the best first option is laser resurfacing or deep peels to induce collagen production. Superficial radiofrequency devices and microneedling can help as well and are less invasive. I suggest going to an experienced cosmetic dermatologist with expertise in lasers and fillers. Best, Dr. Emer

The Active FX laser is an excellent treatment for the treatment of smokers lines. Depending on the severity of their appearance, multiple treatments may be required, and as a rule of thumb, I generally advise my patients to undergo the procedure at least twice to receive the best results possible. I also combine the Active FX with the Deep FX to get even better results. Keep in mind that the Active FX is a very strong treatment that yields great results, however there will be 7-10 days of downtime necessary following the treatment. As a dermatologist and Diplomate of the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery, I would advise you to visit a board certified dermatologist to learn more about your options and the best treatments available.

Active FX can be a great treatment for smoker's lines.  The downtime, however will usually be longer than a week.  The reason is that the treatment settings must be made to address deeper lines in the collagen.  We usually do 2 passes around the mouth with higher energy settings and have achieved very nice results.  As with all lasers, the treatment settings play a crucial role.

Deep perioral or smoker's lines can be treated with fractionated CO2 laser resurfacing. We find the best results when we combine Deep FX with Active FX. The Deep FX penetrates deeper and stimulates the collagen remodeling necessary to tighten the skin while the more superficial Active FX will improve overall texture and pigmentation. Down time is not significant; most patients are healed by day 5-7 and can apply makeup to camouflage any residual redness.

I have used the Lumenis Encore with FX technology for the last few years and am very impressed with its ability to soften lines of facial wrinkling and do so with much less downtime than with previous technologies. In the past, smoker's lines have been addressed in many ways--most of which provided little to no improvement.

My experience with the FX is that to really treat these lines, you need to use a combination of DeepFX (for skin tightening) and ActiveFX (for softening of the actual lines themselves) following pre-treatment with BOTOX.

In some cases, I will go back and add Juvederm to the vermillion border and mucosa to provide a thicker base but this is often not required. Saying that, it is sometimes necessary to treat a second time if adequate improvement is not seen.

The benefit of using this technology versus the previous CO2 laser treatments is that this can be performed in an office setting under regional blocks with very little treatment discomfort and in about 20 minutes. Downtime is generally around 5-7 days depending upon the depth of treatment and most patients are very pleased with the results.