Alma’s clinically-proven skin resurfacing technology significantly improves the appearance of photo-aged skin, age spots, blemishes, pigmentation, fine lines, uneven skin and more, to instantly reveal smoother, brighter, healthier-looking skin.
Every resurfacing decision comes down to one trade-off: how much of the skin surface you remove against how long the patient is out of circulation. Everything else, wavelength, fractional pattern, density, is a way of moving along that curve. Understanding the three axes below is what lets a clinic buy once rather than three times.
Ablative lasers vaporise tissue. Water absorbs their energy so strongly that the treated column is removed outright, and the healing response rebuilds it. CO2 at 10,600nm and Er:YAG at 2,940nm are the two that matter. Results are the strongest available without surgery, and so is the downtime.
Non-ablative lasers pass through the surface and deposit heat in the dermis, leaving the epidermis intact. A wavelength such as 1570nm stimulates collagen with minimal visible recovery. Results build over weeks rather than appearing after peeling, and patients can work through the course.
Full-field ablation treats every square millimetre and heals as one large wound. Fractional treatment splits the beam into a grid of microscopic columns and leaves untreated skin between them. Those bridges of intact tissue are the entire reason modern resurfacing recovers in days rather than weeks: healing migrates inward from every side of every column at once. Density and depth then let the practitioner dial the same machine from a light refresh to a deep correction.
Downtime is the single most common reason a patient declines resurfacing. Pixel Peel, available on both Alma CO2 platforms, fires the fractional beam in a randomised rather than sequential pattern. Adjacent columns are not treated back to back, so each has longer to shed heat before its neighbour is treated. The skin holds less bulk heat at the same treatment density, and patients recover faster for the same result.
A light fractional pass typically means two to four days of redness and flaking, with make-up back on around day five. A deep pass for acne scarring or heavy photodamage runs closer to seven to ten days. Non-ablative work is measured in hours of redness rather than days. Setting these numbers out before treatment, not after, is what keeps a resurfacing programme running.
Ablative resurfacing lasers are Class 4 devices, regulated state by state rather than federally. Most Australian clinics run them with a doctor, nurse or senior therapist who has completed manufacturer clinical training. Alma Lasers Australia trains your team on site at installation and takes each clinic through the rules that apply in its state. See laser and IPL regulations.
Leah T. Shenhav BMedSc | Waseem Shehadeh MD | Inbar Alcotzer BMedSc3 | Ofir Artzi MD
Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, 2023
Mario A. Trelles
Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2011
PABLO NARANJO
The jornal of clinical and aesthetic dermatology, 2022
CO2 laser skin resurfacing uses a laser emitting at 10,600nm, a wavelength water absorbs so strongly that it vaporises a controlled depth of tissue wherever the beam lands. Removing that tissue triggers a wound-healing response, and the skin rebuilds with new collagen, which is what improves texture, fine lines, acne and surgical scars, pigmentation and photodamage.
Modern treatment is fractional. Rather than ablating the whole surface, the beam is split into a grid of microscopic columns with untreated skin left between them. Those bridges of intact tissue are why recovery takes days instead of weeks: healing migrates in from every side of every column. Adjusting density and depth moves the same machine from a light refresh with two to four days of flaking to a deep correction with seven to ten days of recovery.
Alma builds two CO2 platforms for Australian clinics. Alma Pixel CO2 is the dedicated fractional CO2 system, led by the LiteScan scanner, included in the ARTG under 323941. Alma Hybrid adds a second laser, firing ablative CO2 and non-ablative 1570nm side by side in one grid at a ratio the operator sets, included in the ARTG under 321320. Both offer Pixel Peel, which fires the fractional beam in a randomised pattern to spread heat over time and shorten recovery.
It depends on how aggressively you treat, which is the point of a fractional device. A light full-face fractional pass usually means two to four days of redness and flaking, comparable to sunburn, with make-up back on by around day five. A deeper pass for acne scarring or heavy photodamage runs closer to seven to ten days. Pixel Peel changes this equation: by firing the fractional beam in a randomised pattern rather than sequentially, it lengthens the thermal relaxation time between adjacent columns, so the skin holds less bulk heat and patients recover faster at the same treatment density.
The technologies in Alma’s skin resurfacing solutions range from the unique and innovative Hybrid platform, to Alma’s patented microplasma technology available on the Opus and Accent Prime devices.
Alma’s dual laser device, the Alma Hybrid, incorporates both ablative and non-ablative lasers together with a trans-epidermal delivery system, making it an extremely versatile and superior platform for skin resurfacing.
Alma’s devices combine technologies. The Harmony, for example, incorporates a number of technologies for a range of skin resurfacing and skin rejuvenation treatments. Alma also provides a stand-alone CO2 laser for resurfacing treatments.
