Dr. Buckingham’s Q&A

February 9, 2012

What is the difference between the fraxel laser and the erbium laser?

Filed under: Fractional Skin Resurfacing,Fraxel Laser — admin @ 11:30 am

Question:
What is the difference between the fraxel laser and the erbium laser? Is one considered best?

Answer:
Fraxel is a brand of laser. They produce two different types. The Fraxel re:pair and the re:store. The re:pair is a CO2 laser and the re:store is an erbium. There are also other types of erbium lasers so your question is difficult to answer. Comparing fractionated erbium and CO2, the CO2 tends to be more efficacious; however the recovery time is also longer. The erbium is intended to be performed as a series of treatments at one month intervals. It works very well for pigment and fine lines. The real advantage of the erbium however is that the recovery time is limited to a couple of days.

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December 1, 2010

What is Fractional Skin Resurfacing?

Filed under: Fractional Skin Resurfacing — admin @ 11:05 am

Question:
What is Fractional Skin Resurfacing? What does it do and how effective is it?

Answer:
Fractional skin resurfacing is a laser treatment for the skin. It utilizes a laser of either an erbium or more commonly carbon dioxide wavelength to resurface the skin. The difference between fractional and traditional laser resurfacing is that in traditional resurfacing the entire outer layer of the skin is removed. This yields good results, but the healing time is long and complicated. A fractionated laser removes a portion of the outer layer of the skin, but leaves a portion intact to heal. The treated portion can be adjusted tailored from patient to patient to meet desires for result with limitations in downtime. The more tissue treated the better the results, but the longer the downtime.

Posted by Dr. Buckingham

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Dr. Edward Buckingham is a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon who specializes in Rhinopalsty, Facelifts, Eyelid Surgery, BOTOX, and many other
Cosmetic Facial procedures. His office is located in Austin, Texas and services the surrounding areas including: Sunset Valley, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park,
Round Rock, and many of the other nearby Texas cities. © 2011 Austin Texas Facial Plastic Surgery
Dr. Buckingham is a Eyelid Surgery and Rhinoplasty expert in the Austin metropolitan area on RealSelf.