Skin Care After Laser Resurfacing?

Each laser and physician's recommendations will vary, but in general, my patients are instructed to do the following after an aggressive laser resurfacing treatment:1. Rinse the face 3-4 times per day with water only for the first week (during the peeling phase).2. Apply a moisturizing ointment (which we provide to patients) after each face rinse.3. Once the peeling is finishing, a lighter moisturizer can be used and physical SPF sunscreens can start to be used. We generally recommend specific products for patients to use.4. Water-based makeup can be used to cover pink areas after the skin is healed (usually around day 7-10).Be sure to see a physician specializing in facial aesthetics for any facial laser resurfacing treatments.All the best,

Depending on the type of laser used, or device for that matter, healing may involve mild pinkness for a few hours to purposeful wounding that requires almost two weeks of wound care. During the consultation after examination and planning the right treatment for that patient's individual needs, I disucss what postoperative time and needs they will have to take care of their skin.
Sensitive skin cleansers, protective barrier creams and non-irritating sunblocks are recommended, but the timing of their application is discussed specific to that patient's needs. More aggressive laser resurfacing requires more potent barriers and moisturizers and the type of moisturizer changes after a few days. 
We now have excellent products to stimulate collagen production and improve one's dermal (under the skin's epidermis) elastic properties, such as TNS Essential Seruma and Alastin that can be used after healing for improving the laser's result.

Your skin is like any other part of your body. It needs to be preconditioned and maintained in order to optimize its health over a long period of time. If you have not taken care of your skin, you're probably right, it is not going to react well initially, which is why we always recommend you to precondition your skin to get it optimized, and in as good as shape as possible prior to any laser treatment. The laser treatment is really the final step in improving your skin, and the beauty of laser technology today is that it is able to address multiple issues in your skin. Namely it can address: pigmentation, vessel hyperactivity or rosacea, acne scarring or any post surgical scarring, large pores, texture abnormality, any kind of fine lines or aging atrophy of your skin. It is most important to have the right kind of laser for the right type of skin, and the right type of patient, which is why I recommend you find the right practitioner with the right experience who can diagnose your skin condition and know how to treat it properly. At our practice we use a number of of different technologies, because we want to treat the many diverse problems in the diverse patients we see in the New York metro area.