Laser Resurfacing w/ Post-op Pain Medication?

Pain tolerances vary from patient to patient. While it is possible to avoid pain medicine after a laser resurfacing procedure, sometimes advil or alleve is sufficient for the pain or plain tylenol. It also depends upon the depth of the resurfacing procedure. Keeping it covered afterwards with ointment helps to minimize the pain and yes you can use some numbing creams but you have to be careful not to use too much as it can have side effects. Good luck with your procedure.

Most cases of resurfacing do not involve painful recoveries. In fact, sudden pain in the recovery phase can be a warning of viral infection such as a cold sore virus in the skin. There may be discomfort from swelling and itching but pain is more rare. Appropriate wound care is extremely important and moist treatment helps a great deal. Usually this applies for medium depth chemical peels, dermabrasion, carbon dioxide ablative laser resurfacing and fractional ablative carbon dioxide CO2 laser resurfacing. Fraxel Restore is a nonablative erbium laser which is more gentle and its recovery does not involve pain and the treatment is tolerable without pain medication but Fraxel Repair requires pain medication during the treatment usually.  You should not use a topical anesthetic after treatment as it can cause a lot of burning, an allergic contact dermatitis and serious toxicity from absorption.