Now, the concept of fractional technology has been applied to ablative lasers. EXELO2 (carbon dioxide) is the newest of this generation of “more aggressive yet safer” laser. Some patients don’t mind 3 days of cosmetic downtime if it allows them a more dramatic improvement in treating deep wrinkles and achieving more significant skin tightening.
The EXELO2 has a built in “cooling system” that allows the patient to have a comfortable procedure with a combination of topical anesthesia, dental type nerve blocks and mild oral medications. This cooling system also protects the skin.
With the EXELO2 (carbon dioxide) laser, pixels or spaced out columns of laser energy will ablate both the superficial (epidermis) and portion of the deep (dermis) skin layers. Because of the more aggressive laser removal of these layers, the patient will experience more redness, swelling and crusting. This generally is evident for 3 days. It will usually subside quickly and the patient may return back to their daily living routines.
With the instruction of the laser team, skin care before and immediately after the laser procedure is key to a good outcome. It important to allow the skin to recover uneventfully. Although the risk of infection and scarring are smaller than the traditional deep ablative laser resurfacing, there are precautions with pre-medication and cleansing post treatment that must be strictly adhered. With the more aggressive nature of this new EXEL02 fractional ablative skin resurfacing, one can expect improvement in wrinkles around the eye, softening of smoker’s lip lines, and tightening of the skin under the eyes and even some improvement in the jowl area. This will not result in a facelift like improvement, but is should be significant. I am of the belief that if one combines EXELO2 fractional ablative laser resurfacing with radiofrequency skin tightening such as Thermage, one can achieve very significant skin tightening as these two modalities should have a synergistic effect. This is just very good news for our cosmetic patients.
The benefits include:
• Better results compared to non-ablative treatments
• Minimal downtime
• Minimal chance of pigment loss
• Safe and effective for all skin surface areas
• Promotes tissue contraction and skin tightening
• Your appearance continues to improve over a period of up to six months
• Can be performed to delay more invasive surgery like a facelift
Am I a candidate?
Any patient who would like to have smoother, tighter, younger-looking skin is a good candidate. For patients who are 40 – 50 years old this procedure can put off the need for a facelift.
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