Do I need a laser licence to run a CO2 laser in my practice?
In Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania, yes: those states license Class 4 laser use and the premises. Elsewhere there is no licence, but the treating practitioner must work within their scope and AHPRA’s advertising and consent rules apply.
Can my practice nurse perform treatments?
Depending on the state and the treatment, a registered nurse can operate under the doctor’s supervision and a documented protocol. Alma trains the whole team, not only the doctor.
Does the laser treat skin cancer?
No, and we do not propose it. Suspicious lesions need histology, and destroying one removes that chance. The laser treats diagnosed benign lesions, scars, photodamage and cosmetic concerns; it complements a skin-cancer practice rather than replacing any part of its diagnostic pathway.
Which patients should not be treated?
Among others: active infection or inflammation at the site, recent isotretinoin under current guidance, a history of keloids in the treatment area without a management plan, unrealistic expectations, and skin types the operator has not been trained to set conservative parameters for. A test patch is standard on darker skin. This is not the complete list: the full contraindications, warnings and precautions are in the Operator Manual supplied with each system and covered in training, and the treating practitioner assesses every patient against it.
Which acne scars respond to fractional CO2?
Rolling and boxcar scars respond best, because the laser remodels the depressed tissue and the surrounding collagen. Ice-pick scars respond less and are often combined with other techniques. Active acne is treated first; the scars are treated once it is controlled. Patient guide: acne scar treatment.
Should the practice buy a microneedling device or a CO2 laser?
They do different jobs. Microneedling makes mechanical channels with no thermal effect, so it suits mild texture and is low cost and low downtime, but it cannot ablate a lesion, vaporise a wart or contour a scar. A fractional CO2 laser does all of that and resurfaces, with a controllable thermal effect that drives collagen remodelling. For a GP practice the laser earns its place on the medical list first; microneedling has no medical list.
Is this the same as CO2 laser skin resurfacing?
Yes. CO2 laser skin resurfacing is the aesthetic use of the same 10,600 nm fractional laser: microscopic columns of skin are vaporised, the surrounding tissue contracts, and new collagen forms over the following weeks. In a GP practice it sits at step four of the pathway, after lesion work and scars, and it runs from a light PixelPeel to a deeper resurfacing on the same Alma Pixel CO2 or Alma Hybrid, with Hybrid adding 1570 nm to shorten the recovery.
Where should a practice start?
With the shortest, most familiar cases: skin tags, seborrhoeic keratoses and sebaceous hyperplasia, then scars after your own excisions. Resurfacing follows once the team is confident, and Alma’s clinical trainers return for each step.
Why Alma rather than another CO2 laser?
Function, mostly. LiteScan runs everything from a single lesion to a full field on one applicator; three delivery modes let the operator set aggressiveness, with PixelPeel’s randomised firing limiting heat in adjacent tissue; parameters are fully customisable at 60 W. Alma Hybrid goes beyond CO2 with 1570 nm fired side by side, integrated cooling and the Impact ultrasound handpiece. Add trainer-led onboarding and a local manufacturer’s subsidiary, and more than 50 practitioners already running Hybrid across Australia.
What does it cost and what is the payback?
Alma does not publish prices. Each system is configured to the practice and quoted individually; finance is available through Medfin. Your Alma representative models payback on your own patient mix.
