I have melasma on my cheeks and wish to have this fraxel laster treatment. I am worried that it will increase my melasma or it wont fade or even vanish it. Has anyone had any problems with fraxel laser? It is something I am really considering and hope to go along to a derm next week.

Hello,
I had a series of fraxel treatment two years ago for melasma and surface repair. I enjoyed the initial results. Six months after treatment my melasma was worse. My melasma returned as well as darkening in areas from the laser.

There is no permanent treatment for Melasma due the fact that the causes are usually systemic. Having said that Fraxel Restore is a remarkable treatment to minimize the problem. If you were told the results would be permanent you were mislead. There is at home management i.e. bleaching creams and diligent sun management (although hormones are a big player in this problem and cannot be controlled this way) as well as repeat treatments once per year.
For the most part this will fix the issue and minimize potential recurrences. As far as the problem becoming worse; if you are over treated with any laser you can make the problem worse so therefore you want to go to a highly trained, experienced clinic to ensure proper care.

Best of luck.

Making the world beautiful 1 face at a time!
Shawn

Hi,
That is unfortunately the case... Ongoing treatments, products... But I say if there was one treatment I would do (in terms of laser) for melasma, it would have to be FRAXEL 1927nm. This is the new dual system from Fraxel, the wavelength is produced by Thulium laser. The result can be seen in one treatment, and subsequent treatment if necessary. This is ofcourse a very new sorted laser, so I cannot quantify my results, but I have treated patients with melasma with fractionated erbium, IPL, Nd:YAG, Fraxel 1550nm, Hydroquinone based creams, etc.. I hope that we can see more comments on people who use the Dual, and see what they think of it as well.

i had skin discoloration and was treated with the harmony laser and the slight discoloration is now dark brown on both cheeks where there is no cover-up that can hide it and is now on my forehead as well (it was only on my cheeks from the estrogen surge during my pregnancy with my daughter). the RN that treated me said that 1-2 treatments were needed and now she is suggesting that i go every month (for $500 per treatment) and i am embarassed to go anywhere. after reading this post i think i was over treated (the laser was very painful on the second treatment and that was the same treatment where the color went from light to dark brown). i am really scared. i think i was scammed and now the nurse is making it worse to make money.

There is no cure for melasma. The result from any laser will only be temporary.
There is no permanent solution. I have seen many patients with worsen pigmentation from IPL, over powered nd yag, pixel and fraxel.
I have done many melasma patients using low powered photoacoustic effects from q-switched lasers coupled with bleaching cream.
90% of my patients are happy with the 80% clearance result. But the melasma will come back no matter what. It is just a matter of time. Regular maintenance is required.
It is a costly procedure in the long run for any laser treatment.
Often I have seen 15% of my patients with melasma also have the nevus zygomaticus which requires either ruby laser or high powered q-switched lasers to treat.
I am also eager to see if the new fraxel dual will make the melasma vanishes for a longer period of time than q-switched lasers.