Even among the surgeon community as well as people considering laser surgery there is often confusion about which laser techniques are the best for particular forms of treatment. Some people have expressed a fear that their doctors will recommend a particular laser treatment for the simple reason that that they have invested in that type of equipment rather than another type and so naturally they are looking to get a return on their investment. For this reason it is a good move to listen to what the specialist laser doctors have to say to get a valuable second opinion to allow you to make an informed choice.
1. Getting to know your way round the laser world
Information is power or so they say and this phase applies to laser resurfacing equipment too. There are many laser devices available to doctors today for skin treatment and the numbers of choices are constantly growing, by doing a bit of homework you will be able to better understand what the different families of lasers do. Essentially they can be grouped into 3 categories:
- Fractional ablative lasers that include:
- Fraxel repair
- Pixel
- DoT
- Lumenis total FX including Co2
- Full ablative lasers that include:
- Co2
- Erbium
- Fractional non-ablative lasers including:
- Affrim
- Fraxel restore
The main difference between these types of laser treatments is how long a recovery period you should plan for the skin to heal after surgery.
2. Estimating recovery time
Should your doctor recommend full ablative laser surgery it is necessary to allow for between 2 to 3 weeks of rest and recovery time to allow your skin to heal, the younger you are the less time is needed is normally a good rule of thumb. It is also not unusual to experience some redness being visible even after this time. Fractional ablative Co2 laser resurfacing normally consists of just one treatment and the healing time is reduced to approximately one week. Non ablative fractional laser treatment consists of four to five treatments however the up side is that recovery takes place in as little as 1 to 2 days.
3. The cost of getting the results
As a broad indication the more powerful the laser the better the results of the treatment will be. In the same way the more aggressive the laser the longer the recovery and repair period will be. Doctors state that more or less all lasers are good for dealing with:
- Wrinkles
- Sun damage
- Pigmentation
- Acne scars
But they generally agree that the most powerful lasers are recommended for the most complex treatment which is wrinkle removal.