Will I have just as good results if I take steroids for swelling after Halo facial?

Question

Last year I did not take oral steroids after the procedure. I did have a significant amount of swelling for 3 days and a total down time of one week. This time I would like to decrease the amount of downtime and swelling by using steroids. I know this will help decrease the swelling, however will this also decrease the amount of good results I would get if I did not use steroids? Specifically, will prednisone decrease the amount of collagen stimulation that I am trying to achieve with Halo?

Rebecca Gelber, MD · Answer

Great question! I was fortunate enough to do some of the original Halo research and still use Halo every day in my practice. Unfortunately, some people (myself included) do swell, particularly when you put in laser/metal contact lenses and treat right to the lashes.Although you would think that prednisone would be the best thing for the swelling, when you look at biopsies of skin after Halo, the swelling is more a histamine than a inflammatory reaction. For this reason, although we give every Halo patient a single dose of prednisone before treatment, we also give them an antihistamine and recommend that all our post-Halo patients take Claritin in the morning and Benadryl at night. If people are swelling despite that, the next thing we add is either Pepcid or Tagamet twice a day which blocks the backup histamine system. It's very rare that anyone has to deal with prednisone if they are on that regimen.We also encourage all our patients to sleep upright the first night or two and supplement with arnica and bromelain (an anti-inflammatory enzyme in pineapple). Hope this helps!

Susan Buenaventura, MD, FACS · Answer

We recommend an antihistamine  (benadryl or claritin) to help prevent swelling after HALO.  Steroids like prednisone can help but have more side effects.  If you  do take steroids or a medrol pak, it will not interfere with the results from HALO.  Arnica is also very helpful and can be started the day before the procedure.  Good luck!

Davin Lim, MBBS, FACD - Account Suspended · Answer

All good, this will not markedly interfere with the results. In fact for fully ablative erbium or CO2 I regularly give a short sharp tapering course of Prednisone to decrease the marked swelling post procedure. I even give topical steroids stat. following Pico Fractional lasers to decrease the downtime. All the best, Dr Davin Lim. Brisbane. Australia.

Will I have just as good results if I take steroids for swelling after Halo facial?

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Will I have just as good results if I take steroids for swelling after Halo facial?

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Everything you need to know about Halo Laser

Our mission is to create a world where every investment in modern beauty is Worth It.