Good or Excellent Response
44%
Based on All Available Studies
Strength of Evidence
Moderate Response
82%
Based on All Available Studies
Strength of Evidence
Side Effects
Medium-High
How to Get It
Have a dermatologist or plastic surgeon? Make an appointment to get this procedure done. Don't have a dermatologist or a plastic surgeon? See The American Academy of Dermatology Physician Database to find a dermatologist or the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to find a plastic surgeon.
Used Ablative Fractional Lasers? Rate It:
Choose from 1 to 5 stars
August 8, 2023
Scars look worse. Highly not recommended.
Made my scars look worse. It seems I had a bit of fat loss too, which resulted in new indents and generally my skin looks worse. Also at a certain part of the face I still have redness 6 months post laser despite moisturizing it and using sunscreen everyday. Might be good for people without acne scars to tighten the skin but highly not recommended for people with pitted acne scars. Please dont listen to doctors and their marketing. My perception is that majority of them are interested in your money. When things go wrong ( cause they can go wrong) thats when you will only know if you are dealing with a good doctor or not.
February 10, 2015
Laser will Destroy your life
Please don't go to laser whatever the issues. I've done lasers & it ruined my face completely: super large pores, lines, wrinkles, scars, pot holes, ice pick holes will suddenly appear out of no where. my skin aged 10 years & now i look like I am an old man with wrinkled face!!! I believe all doctors know the side effects but lie to patients because of $$$. please do not trust them. I am warning you there is no turning back!!! I am so depressed that I often contemplate suicide coz my face is in a mess & i look very very ugly. If u want to be like me go ahead & do lasers!!!!
September 4, 2013
Don't use this treatment, if you don't want ur skin look worst.
Cons:
Expensive
Painful
Severe acne/sensitivity
I'm 31 years old. I had two treatment of fraxel n one more to go. But after my two treatment my skin get so sensitive and irritation that give me pimples and blackheads around my cheeks area. I noticed that my skin get so red n inflamed from all types of products that contain alcohol or acid in it. Right now, I'm so embarrassed to go out without any make-up on. I also take picture before and after from my camera. When I had a look at my before pic for fraxel treatment my skin didn't had any pimples or blackheads. After two treatment my skin getting worst and the acne scar doesn't look any better after 6 month post treatment. Honestly, don't waste ur time and money, bcus it is a lot of pain if you're not high pain intolerance.
February 24, 2013
Pros:
Peeled some older marks
Cons:
Pain
Can't go out for atleast 5-6 days
Expensive
Orange peel texture
Made face more oily
Broke me out horribly
Made new scars appear
Red Blotchiness
Big pores
Don't do it! it may seem like it works at first but after 6 months your face becomes a mess. I only got it done on my cheeks and you can see the difference from my skin before fraxel and its SO much better. And its funny because I ONLY breakout where I got fraxel done..... I regret it. At first it seemed like it worked but after a month I started getting real bad cystic breakouts. PLEASE DON'T do it, its not worth it!
January 16, 2013
Pros:
1. Gets rid of most scarring (temporarily)
Cons:
1. The great results only lasted 1 year
2. Had to do 5 rounds of very painful visits
3. A week of downtime needed after treatment
4, Skin is now red alot of the time and VERY sensitive to sunlight
I did the treatment 3 years ago. After I did the treatments my acne scars were almost completely gone. I had pitted scars and hyper pigmentation..You name it I had every form of scarring. Unfortunately for me the scarring slowly but surely came back even tho i stopped breaking out.. I no longer have acne but am still left with these horrible pits in my face and negative $2500 dollars. Also my doctor at the time was very rude, yelled at me, and basically told me I was very pretty if only I didn't have such horrible pitted skin.. Ya.. thanks. His name was Dr.Rispler.. If you do choose to do this do not use him Im sure you can find a dermatologist that's a lot nicer and just as "good".
December 19, 2012
Pros:
None
Cons:
Orange Peel Texture
Fat Loss
burning and tightness under skin
More scars
Micro holes
Hypo and hyper pigmentation
Cystic acne
I had Sciton Profractional laser done to my cheeks for mild acne scarring. Before this I was just using lemon juice to take care of my scars and it worked so much better. If I could only turn back the hands of time. Please really think about having this procedure done. A dermatologist performed this procedure and it ruined my skin. It is serious surgery. It destroys all your good collagen and replaces it with weaker scar tissue. I am 33 and am considering getting a fat graft. Before this I only had to worry about acne scars that only very few people notice. Now I am battling skin discoloration, more severe acne, scarring and textural changes, rapid aging and depression.
April 15, 2012
Pros:
There probably are I just can't think of them at the moment
Cons:
Caused Cystic Acne! (Never ever had this before!)
This is my third treatment with the Fraxel Laser and it caused Cystic Acne all over my chin. I have never had cystic acne in my life. This is one of the most awful experiences of my life. My New Year's resolution was to treat the minor scarring I had on my face so I wouldn't have to wear liquid foundation and now I've been left with much more scarring and active acne. I would definitely not recommend this to anyone in their teens or twenties or anyone who still have any active acne.
March 27, 2012
Pros:
Had a cute plastic surgeon :)
Swelling gives your face a beautiful glow for about 3 days
Cons:
Each time gets more and more painful
You have to stay out of public eye for about 4 days
Swelling gives you false hope
Makes your skin break out after you've had the treatment
I received 4 fraxel treatments from a plastic surgeon and I've got to say that it was the biggest waste of money I've ever spent. First off, it is painful and anyone that tells you otherwise is has only had one or two treatments. They start off on a low setting and progressively work their way up each treatment. Your face is swollen for about 7-10 days..four of which you wouldn't be caught dead in public. The perk about your face being swollen is that your skin looks amazing! You have perfect glowing skin but it soon fades after about three to four days revealing that your skin looks exactly how it did before the treatment. Something they don't tell you is that the fraxel makes you break out horribly for about a week after the swelling goes down in your face. After four treatments, my skin looked worse then when I started. If you have deep indented scars please do not do this because I promise you it will only be a waste of money. After the realization the fraxel did nothing for me, I decided to get dermabrasion on one side of my face and excision on the other (both were small areas) I would recommend dermabrasion to anyone...please know I am not talking about microdermabrasion, dermabrasion is more aggressive. Dermabrasion improved my deep scars by 85% and it looks so much better. Dermabrasion was $500 for an area the size of a quarter. Excision was $250 and he took out 3 scars for that price. The only thing with excision is that you are trading acne scars for a surgical looking scar. To me it was worth it because even though I still have a scar on my face, it's less embarrassing than holes in my face from where I picked at my skin. It's been a month now and the excision scar is still very red but it will fade over the next year to my normal skin color (possibly lighter). Please know there are other cheaper options out there that work better than fraxel. I just don't want you guys to be disappointed and in debt like I was for something that never worked
October 31, 2011
Pros:
none that i can see
none that people close to me can see
Cons:
i got a horizontal scar on my face! it's not transient pigmentation either it's an actual gash
some of the small scars that were there are worse than before.
I had it done and I can't see any improvement. Those close to me can't see any improvement. Well, that is all fine, but in fact we can all see it has made things WORSE! There is a new gash on my face, which is not pigmentation, it is a horizontal scar. And some small scars are now larger. What can I do??? This is so stupid and regrettable. I don't care about the money I jsut want results. But how can they screw up so bad. Don't want to bring out the lawyers just want things back the way they were. I wanted just a little improvement to begin with but now it's a case of trying to figure out how to minimise the damage. More fraxel needed...?? OMG what are my options.
October 3, 2011
Pros:
At this stage, after 8th day, none.
Cons:
Pain, swelling, terrible cold sores, Not enough info on side effects, pushing for more spending,
So far I see some grooves on my skin I did not have before, my face is still bit swollen and red. Sun spot did not fade, and few acne spots appeared. I am not impressed and upset that cold sores might leave scars? Very expensive, and pressure on more purchases made me feel used for money with empty promises and no improvements.
Pros:
Minimal result