MiXto Laser Pain and Downtime?

Hi-
I can enthusiastically endorse the Mixto SX laser to you- I have had one in my practice for almost a year, and have treated a large number of patients now. It provides a significant improvement in acne scars, wrinkles, and sun damage, with a single treatment, a very reasonable and comfortable recovery, and a very low level of risk.
The details of the recovery period will depend to a large extent on the indications for the procedure (treating deeper wrinkles and acne scars requires stronger settings and therefore will involve a slightly longer recovery)- but when I say the recovery is longer when the procedure is done for these problems, I mean it is maybe a day longer (not too bad).
As for pain, the level of discomfort associated with the treatment itself also depends on the settings used, but most patients don't require more than a bit of numbing cream and maybe a small dose of valium if you are anxious. Pain after the procedure is usually no more than you would expect from a sunburn and Tylenol is adequate to keep you comfortable.

Mixto involves typically 20% ablation of skin at a time. Active Fx, in its most conservative setting involves approximately 56% ablation. Most experienced laser surgeon would agree that downtime and pain associated with Mixto may be slightly less, given the same parameters.

It depends. We perform a range of MIXTO treatments in our practice that can vary from a no downtime lunchtime procedure to a deep, 2 weeks of social downtime procedure. I prescribe only over the counter pain medications like Advil or Tylenol after the initial procedure. 

I have been using the Mixto Microfractional Co2 laser since September 2007 in more that 1500 patients. We give our patients several mild sedatives to take away anxiety, then we use a specially formulated topical anesthetic using 20% Butacaine, 6% Lidocaine and 4% Tetracaine under Saran Wrap for a mininum of one hour.
We find that using this combination of medications makes the proceedure virtually painless. The best part of using this laser is the fact that you should have no pain in the 7 day healing process. Mild to moderate itching can be controlled with Benadryl

Since our Mixto G2 has arrived, we have parked our Fraxel and Sharplan C2 laser.
Mixto G2 can treat virtually all patients without injections, and has shorter recovery period for equivalent depths of treatment compared to our prior lasers. Fewer treatments are needed to get happy patients.
Dr. Mayl