IPL After Non-ablative Fractional Laser?

In my practice, I do not perform non-ablative laser resurfacing because it takes many treatments to achieve similar results to the laser treatments that I typically use (ablative fractional CO2 and ablative Erbium:YAG). That being said, I would typically advise my patients to wait until all redness, swelling, and peeling is completely resolved after any laser treatment before proceeding with IPL. Depending on the laser that was used, and the patient's response, this might be a minimum of 3-4 weeks, but could take much longer before being safe to proceed with IPL.Best,

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 recommend having the IPL first and then the Non-ablative Laser. There are specific protocols that can be followed that allow the IPL to be performed the same day as the Laser, however it depends on the device and physician office protocol. If time is needed in between the two procedures then a week maybe sufficient. If your event is important...I would recommend allowing a month to recover and just having a Microdermabrasion and IPL two weeks before a big event. 

If you wanted to you could do both lasers at the same time, its not uncommon to pair treatments together, I would be cautious on doing any treatments close to any events you have planned as you can never guarantee 100% recovery time. 

If you are having the Fraxel procedure I would definitely wait a few weeks for the skin to recover.  Your skin may look back to normal in a week but it can take longer to really recover and I would not rush to do the IPL 10 days after your initial treatment.  Please find a board certified dermatologist in your area with experience in lasers.

It's probably important to first clarify what is meant by nonablative fractional laser.  That term is often misused.  Ablation means to remove the surface with vaporization.  Most fractional lasers are not truly nonablative.  For example, fractional CO2 such as ActiveFX, DeepFX, Repair, CORE, Mixto, all cause an injury to the skin and are not nonablative.  Other fractional lasers such as the Restore, Refine, Pearl, Profractional also cause an injury to the skin but they are often called "nonablative" resurfacing.  

So if you're having a fractional laser that causes a thermal injury to the skin, then It's better to wait until your face is properly healed.  I usually advise my patients to wait at least a month before having an IPL treatment after fractional resurfacing.

There can be residual redness or discolorations after fractional CO2 that can improve or completely resolve with time.  As with any resurfacing procedure that causes a thermal injury, a patient can develop prolonged redness or discolorations that may not resolve on their own without assistance.  Performing IPL after fractional laser can help speed up the healing time if it's done properly.  This should only be done by an experienced physician who understands how and when to perform IPL after resurfacing.  It should not be done at the normal settings because the patient's skin is more sensitive after resurfacing, has more density of oxyhemoglobin (causes red) and melanin (causes brown) which absorbs more of the IPL energy.  If the IPL treatment is performed incorrectly (ie: too high fluence or energy, incorrect settings, etc.) the redness and discolorations can actually worsen, and the patient can develop worsening pigmentation known as post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

There are noninvasive lasers that work better than IPL at clearing redness and pigment because they are more specific for oxyhemoglobin and melanin and penetrate deeper, therefore are more effective at clearing the targeted lesions.  These include KTP, Nd:YAG, and pulsed dye lasers.  It's also possible to combine IPL with different lasers to achieve a better effect.  Once again, these procedures should only be performed by a highly skilled physician who has a lot of experience doing resurfacing and understands the ins and outs of when and how to utilize different lasers or IPL after fractional laser in order to enhance the results or speed up healing.

 

Thank you for your question.
Theoretically, you should have no problem doing IPL right after doing a nonablative fractional treatment, but my only caution is this: nonablative fractional treatments do result in redness that may last longer than 7 days in some patients. In some cases, as this redness resolves, it may even lead to slight darkening of the skin that may take even longer to go away. This redness and resulting darkness is primarily due to the inflammation that is caused by the nonablative fractional procedure.
If you do IPL, you will also get some degree of inflammation and redness, but in combination with inflammation that might already be present from your fractional treatment, you are likely to be at higher risk for hyperpigmenation (darkness). That would likely be undesirable for you, so I would recommend waiting for the redness from the fractional treatment to completely resolve, and then pursue the IPL treatment. You don't want to race when dealing with cosmetic procedures - slow and steady always provides better results.
Good luck!