Erbium and CO2 are different lasers with different calendars

Erbium and CO2 get compared as though the only difference were strength, with CO2 cast as the serious one. That framing is not much use in a consultation.

The difference that decides the recommendation is the calendar. The two ask for different amounts of time afterwards, and in South Florida the calendar is usually the binding constraint, not the laser.

What is the actual difference between them?

Both are resurfacing lasers, and the practical difference is how much recovery time each one generally asks for. CO2 asks for more. Erbium asks for less, and it can be run at a range of intensities, so the same laser can be scheduled with quite different recovery windows depending on what was agreed.

That is a trade, not a ranking. More recovery time buys something. Less recovery time buys something else, which is the ability to actually take the time off and keep to the aftercare. Which side of that trade is right depends on the person's next six weeks, which is why the question gets answered at the assessment rather than in advance.

Why don't I carry CO2?

Because I am a solo practice and I would rather do a smaller number of things properly than a larger number adequately, and because the recovery CO2 asks for is a poor fit for this population more often than it is a good one.

The useful consequence is that when CO2 is genuinely the better instrument, there is no CO2 laser in my room to argue for. I say so and send the person to a practice that has one. That happens a handful of times a year and it costs me the appointment, which is the point. It is the same reasoning as carrying five relaxers instead of one: what is not in the room cannot quietly become the recommendation.

What does the erbium calendar look like?

Erbium YAG is quoted for the face, or for face and neck together. The part worth planning is not the appointment, which is short. It is what comes after it.

What I ask for, in general terms, is a block of days with nothing social in them while the skin is visibly recovering, then a longer window of strict sun avoidance measured in weeks rather than days. No beach, no pool, no direct midday sun, no hot yoga or steam, and daily broad-spectrum sun protection afterwards without exceptions. I describe that window before anything is booked, because it is the part that decides whether this treatment is a good idea for a particular person in a particular month.

I do not describe a result in advance, and I would be skeptical of anyone who does. What can be described accurately beforehand is the schedule.

Why is September the last comfortable month here?

Because the avoidance window has to land somewhere, and after September it lands in the busiest part of the year. Roughly 145,000 seasonal residents arrive in Palm Beach County from October, the calendar tightens, and the social diary tightens with it. A sun avoidance window that runs through the holidays is a window most people will not keep.

Between June and September the opposite is true. The people here are largely year-round residents, the diary is quieter, and the window is realistic. That is why resurfacing is a summer conversation in Boca and a cooler-season conversation in most other places.

What do I move, and what do I move it to?

• Anyone whose next six weeks contain travel somewhere sunny. The appointment moves. I do not talk anyone into keeping a date.
• Melasma. Resurfacing is generally not my first instrument for it, and pigment gets assessed on its own terms before any laser is discussed.
• Anyone who wants texture work but has no recovery time to give it. SkinPen, with its add-ons chosen on the day, schedules around ordinary life far more easily.
• Anyone who arrives with recent color from the sun. That changes the assessment, and it moves the date rather than the settings.
• Anyone for whom CO2 is the better answer. Out, to a practice that has one.

What is worth asking before booking any resurfacing?

• Which laser, and at what intensity, and why that one for this.
• How many days of visible recovery to plan for, stated as a number.
• How long the sun avoidance window runs, stated in weeks.
• What month it is being booked into, and what the reasoning for that month is.

The last one is the question that gets skipped. Picking the month first and the laser second is generally the better order, and it is the order that survives a South Florida summer. Everything else on the menu will still be there in October.

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Written and medically reviewed by Jamie S. Lobacz, APRN, MSN. Last reviewed 2026-09-23.