San Diego Facial Plastic Surgery

Active FX and Total FX are two of our most popular San Diego skin rejuvenation procedures. The reasons for this are that these procedures are quick, involve minimal downtime (generally one week at the most) and are effective. Patients achieve often dramatic improvement in wrinkles, loose skin around the cheeks, eyes, and jowls, and acne scars. Despite these great results, it is important for patients to understand that great looking skin requires maintenance. If bad habits resume after your laser skin resurfacing treatment, the brown spots, wrinkles, and crepey skin will also return.

Most of our patients pre-treat their skin with retinol and hydroquinone based products as recommended by our aestheticians. Medical grade products have a higher concentration than regularly found in the drug store, and act to inhibit hyperpigmentation (dark spots) and also allow a deeper, more effective penetration of the laser.

In addition to pre-treatment, we recommend avoiding direct sun exposure and using a high quality sunscreen with UV-a and UV-b protection.

Approximately one to two weeks following Active FX, patients are generally ready to resume their skin care, which at this time can be re-tailored to their current skin condition. The goal at this point is to maintain the result of the laser treatment, and also to build upon that with even more improvement over time. Having a great team of aestheticians and an aesthetic RN allows us partner with our patients for long term great looking skin!

Labels: active fx, laser resurfacing san diego, laser skin resurfacing, medical spa, skin care after laser

Many patients have expressed confusion about the differences between Total FX, Active FX, and Deep FX skin resurfacing, so I'd like to clarify a few things.

All these names refer to treatments performed with the same laser- the Ultrapulse CO2 Laser from Lumenis. Active FX is the term coined to refer to a frationated treatment with a 1mm spot size. Active FX allows for quick healing, minimal risk, while still achieving excellent skin contraction and tightening and removal of brown spots and sun damage. Deep FX refers to a fractionated treatment with the 120 micron (smaller) spot size, which penetrates deeper into the skin, enabling treatment of deeper scars, wrinkles and irregularities. Because of the smaller spot size, deep fx is not as effective for superficial brown spots. For that reason "Total FX" combines one pass each with each of these different spot sizes, theoretically providing the best of both worlds.

So what kind of results have we seen?

The look and feel of skin after a Total FX treatment is truly impressive, and our patients have been very satisfied. I believe that for patients with moderate skin laxity and wrinkles- Total FX is a great choice.


I advise patients not to be too concerned about the "name" of the treatment they receive. We customize all laser treatments to the patient: to their desires, their skin quality, and the downtime they want. The best choice will be made after a comprehensive consultation in our office.

Labels: active fx, deep fx, laser resurfacing san diego, san diego laser, total fx

Our San Diego Plastic Surgery office has performed hundreds of fractionated CO2 laser resurfacing treatments using the Lumenis Ultrapulse laser. Initially, the technology was called "Active FX" and allowed us to achieve dramatic skin tightening, wrinkle reduction and removal, and removal of sun damage- with a quick recovery of 7-10 days and minimal side effects. This has been an excellent adjunct to our practice, with about 75% of our facelift patients also undergoing an Active FX or Total FX treatment to achieve a "3-dimensional" improvement.

The company later introduced "Deep FX" which was an additional treatment head for the laser allowing a smaller spot size with deeper penetration. By combining Active and Deep FX, one achieves a "Total FX" skin resurfacing which allows resolution of deeper lines and scars as well as more superficial brown spots .

Total FX is our treatment of choice for darker skinned patients (Asian, Hispanic) with acne scars, as well as younger patients with moderate sun damage and lines.

Older skin is often best treated with an aggressive Active FX, or combination of Total and Active FX.

Labels: active fx, laser skin resurfacing, san diego, total fx