For years, doctors have had a difficult time treating acne scarring. Traditional approaches like topical agents, abrasion therapies even conventional lasers have yielded only moderate results.

"When it first came out about a year and a half ago, it was positioned as a treatment for wrinkles and sun damage," dermatologist Dr. Gregory Nikolaidis said.

Nikolaidis says it didn't take long for him to realize the Fraxel's benefit in the treatment of acne scarring, especially compared to other laser and chemical peel treatments.

"When you start to get aggressive or deep, whether it's with lasers or surgery, often times you make the scars worse rather than better," Nikolaidis said.

"Laser procedures in the past are sort of removing the top layers of skin. Well, the scars aren't just on the top layers, they go down so you want to treat the scars in the same fashion that they occurred or in a similar fashion that they exist," Nikolaidis said.

Nikolaidis says the Fraxel Laser is unique because it's fractionated which means the skin is being treated as if it were pixels on a digital monitor. In other words, thousands and thousands of tiny micro cuts replace the larger more invasive cuts of past acne treatments.

Blue food dye is applied to the patient's face to guide the laser. Patricia Phillips admits she had tried just about everything, but she says the Fraxel's results make enduring the blue dye is worth it.

"It is a somewhat invasive procedure without damaging the outer layers of skin without having open wounds, or anything like that, but going pretty deep at the same time," Phillips said.

"After a micro-derm abrasion, you see results for about a month, two months, but the results are continually diminished. With this, I immediately saw results and better results than I have seen with micro-derm abrasion," Ohanian said.

Patients are typically back at work in a day or two after each procedure. Nikolaidis says there's no wound healing and very low risk of infection.

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