TL;DR CO2 Laser treatment called Cool Peel and what are the effects.
The CO2 laser has been around for decades and there have been significant advancements in use of the laser by controlling the laser beam itself. In simplistic terms, when the laser fires a pulse beam of light it reacts on the skin by its attraction to water. The amount of reaction that occurs is dependant on the amount of energy (power setting) and the amount of time the beam is turned on for and how much water is in the skin.
The most advanced CO2 laser can control these variable and very reliably predict the amount of result a person can expect from the treatment. The CO2 laser effectiveness results by literally removing some percentage of the skin. The higher the percentage of skin removed, the longer the recovery but also the better the result. The better CO2 lasers can actually further adjust the recovery by controlling how the beam is actually fired. The best CO2 laser available today is the Tetra Pro. It provides the best setting adjustments to allow for the best treatment for any particular patient.
The significance of the ‘Cool Peel’ treatment is that the laser settings are made to really limit the recovery time from the treatment while still providing some degree of improvement.
So with these limited low settings, the treatment will allow for a fast recovery with 1 to 2 days of limited downtime.
This is because only 11% of the skin is being treated. This allows a person to have a treatment and most likely go back to work the next day. This also allows for another treatment to be performed usually about 4-6 weeks later. Since the treatments are cummulative, there will be better results with every treatment even though 11% is being removed at a time.
It is important to appreciate that this limited downtime approach does not give the ‘amazing’ result in one treatment. It takes multiple treatments.
If a more significant result is desired faster and a few more days recovery is acceptable, then the CO2 laser settings can be adjusted to achieve an ‘amazing’ result in 1 or 2 treatments. In some instances, only a single treatment is necessary.
So Cool Peel CO2 laser treatments are not for everybody. There are many options available to meet the desired outcome.