If my face never peeled, swelled or scabbed after a fractional laser treatment, does that mean it didn't work and I wasted $700?

Question

17 days ago I paid $700 for a fractional laser resurfacing treatment. I can't remember the name of the laser, so I posted a screenshot below of an email stating which type laser was used. I never peeled or scabbed watsoever. I was only red for 2 days. Does this mean it didn't work like it should? My face looks NO better. I followed all directions. I feel I got duped by the RN at the medi-spa. She wants me to spend $2,100 more on 3 more visits but I'm leary. Why didn't I at least peel? I'm upset

Mark Beaty, MD · Answer

It sounds like you had a very light treatment if you never peeled and only had 2 days of redness.  This type of treatment can be acceptable, however, in my practice I generally advocate a more aggressive single treatment rather than multiple milder treatments.  Down time can be up to 10 days and should be supervised by a physician experienced with managing laser treatments.

John Louis Ratz, MD · Answer

First of all, Cynosure no longer exists. Tfohey merged years ago with Sharplan from Israel to form Lumenis. As Cynosure, and now as Lumenis, I always considered their CO2 lasers to be the very best. If her laser is a Cynosure, it's technology may be dated, or it could have been retrofit with the latest Lumenis technology. I assume it's the latter as I believe fractional technology came out after the merger. Regardless of that, these lasers are designed to give excellent results with just one resurfacing procedure. Spacing out resurfacing into multiple treatments is unnecessary but is acceptable. It appears that your total cost would justify that. One treatment of "deep" resurfacing generally costs in the $2500 to 3000 price range. But putting you through multiple treatments to achieve results that could be achieved in just one is unnecessary. Didn't you ask about number of treatments and total price prior to the procedure? If not, you should have.

If my face never peeled, swelled or scabbed after a fractional laser treatment, does that mean it didn't work and I wasted $700?

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