LASER REVOLUTION
Timothy J. Mickel, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Fraxel. Remember the name. Over the next several months you will be hearing a lot about this innovative new technique that will revolutionize laser skin rejuvenation. It offers significant advantages over raditional laser skin resurfacing. Instead of messy dressings and ointments, there is virtually no wound care. Instead of ten to twenty-one days of wound healing, there is virtually no down time. Instead of months of residual redness, there is virtually none. And best of all, instead of looking like you have been in a house fire, you could go to your class reunion the next day.

Fraxel uses a new technique developed at Harvard's Wellman Laboratory called fractional photothermolysis. In a nutshell, researchers have figured out a way to take the large beam of a traditional resurfacing laser and split it into thousands of tiny laser beams. The advantage is that between the areas treated by these tiny beams are islands of normal skin, so healing is extraordinarily rapid. Two days after treatment, instead of looking like you stuck your face in the oven, you essentially look normal.

Each treatment session targets about 20% of the skin's surface, so multiple treatment sessions are necessary. Clinical studies suggest that 3-5 sessions spaced 5-14 days apart is optimal. Results are immediate and progressive; optimal cosmetic improvement is usually visible in 3-6 months.

The end result may not be quite as good as aggressive full-face laser resurfacing, but if you can achieve 75-80% of the benefit of traditional laser treatment with no down time, no wound care, no prolonged redness and virtually no risk of scarring or loss of pigmentation, it's no contest. Give me multiple fraxel sessions any day.