What Is It?
Ablative fractional lasers attempt to reduce the size of raised scars by shining an intense beam of light on the scar in a dot-matrix (imagine tiny polka dots) pattern, which completely removes (ablates) the skin in this dot-matrix pattern, leaving some of the skin intact.
Zapping away the old, damaged skin leaves a new scar behind. The newly formed scar is smaller than the old one and contains less collagen.
This treatment is normally repeated multiple times (4 times or more) in 2 to 8-week intervals. You should see gradual results with each session. After your last session, your scar(s) should continue to improve over time. However, in some cases, scars may grow back after treatment.
Results
Expand for result statistics
Scar Height Reduction
Average 20% reduction in scarring
Mean improvement in VSS total score
Average 50% reduction in scarring
Mean improvement in VSS pigmentation score
Average 37% reduction in scarring
Mean improvement in VSS height score
Average 50% reduction in scarring
Mean improvement in VSS pliability score
Average 47% reduction in scarring
Mean improvement in VSS vascularity score
Average 54% reduction in scarring
Side Effects
Side Effects
Medium side effects and adverse reactions