In short. What the days after erbium involve: the burning treatment day with pinpoint bleeding, the raw oozing first days, the pink month, and when make-up and work resume.
Key points
- For the first days you are unlikely to want to cook, shop, drive or look after anyone else.
- Arrange someone to bring you home, someone with you for the first two days at least, and food that needs no preparation.
- Ask the clinic who to call at night and keep that number where you can reach it without hunting for it.
The healing after erbium has two halves that are often described as one. The raw days are a wound: open, weeping and socially impossible. The pink weeks are a recovery: intact skin that is red, sensitive and visible. Planning both honestly is the difference between a difficult fortnight and a bad experience.
The treatment day
The face is treated under anaesthesia, so the session itself is not the hard part. You go home with skin that feels burnt and warm for several hours, with pinpoint bleeding where the laser passed and a dressing over it if one was applied. Because a lower-heat ablation seals small vessels less than a heat-heavier one, some oozing on the first day is expected rather than a sign that something has gone wrong.
The raw days
The surface is open for roughly four to seven days. It weeps, crusts and feels tight, washing is gentle and frequent and follows the clinic's written instructions, and swelling usually peaks around the second or third day. Nothing should be picked at, however tempting the edges become. Most people stay home through this stage, and it is the part that cannot be shortened by wishing it were shorter.
Arrange help before, not during
For the first days you are unlikely to want to cook, shop, drive or look after anyone else. Arrange someone to bring you home, someone with you for the first two days at least, and food that needs no preparation. Ask the clinic who to call at night and keep that number where you can reach it without hunting for it.
The pink weeks
Once the surface has closed, the skin is pink, shiny and easily irritated. Cover make-up can usually restart at that point, and most people are back in public somewhere in the second week. Redness after erbium is usually shorter than after a heat-heavier ablation, but it is still measured in weeks and it shifts through the day with heat, exertion and emotion. Sun exposure during this window decides whether pigment settles evenly, so protection is part of the treatment rather than advice about it.
What has to be cancelled
Work that involves being seen, travel, swimming, saunas, strenuous exercise and anything that makes the face sweat. Alcohol for longer than most people expect. Sun on the treated area for months. And judging the result, which is impossible in the first fortnight, because what is visible then is a healing face and not an outcome.
Contact the clinic the same day if
- Pain is increasing after the third day instead of easing.
- One area is much redder, hotter or more swollen than the rest, or there is a smell.
- Bleeding continues beyond the first day, or a cold sore erupts on healing skin.
The raw days end when the surface has closed, not when you feel comfortable, and the pink weeks end when the skin stops reacting to heat. Both are finite, and both are easier when they were described before the treatment rather than after it.
Frequently asked questions
How long is the skin actually open after erbium?
Usually about four to seven days. The surface weeps and crusts, washing is gentle and frequent, and swelling tends to peak on the second or third day rather than the first. A shorter red phase afterwards does not mean the surface closes sooner. A plan promising a much shorter open period is either treating less of the face or removing less skin.
When can I wear make-up and go back to work?
Cover make-up usually restarts once the surface has closed, which is commonly within the first week to ten days. Most people are back at work somewhere in the second week, still pink and often still covering it. Work that involves being photographed, travelling or meeting people face to face is the last thing to return, not the first.
How much help will I need at home during the raw days?
More than most people expect, and mostly in the first three days. You are unlikely to want to cook, shop, drive or look after anyone else while the surface is open and the swelling peaks. Arrange someone to bring you home, someone with you for the first two days at least, and food that needs no preparation.
Risks & Limitations
- The surface is left open rather than sealed by heat, so pinpoint bleeding and oozing on the treatment day are expected; bleeding continuing beyond the first day or two needs review.
- Infection of open skin is the risk of the first days, which is why antiviral cover is ordinarily prescribed; increasing pain after the third day, spreading redness or fever needs same-day review.
- Pigment can shift in either direction: darkening is more common, more stubborn in darker skin, and can take months to settle, while lightening is uncommon and may not recover.
- A visible border can remain where treated skin meets untreated skin, and it is the one change on this list that time does not reliably soften.
- Scarring is uncommon but real, and no lower on a gentler plan; risk rises after infection, after treatment too deep for the skin, on thin skin, and in people who form raised scars.
- Each pass removes tissue that does not come back, so the number of times one area can be treated has a ceiling, and less residual heat means less tightening and less change in deep folds.
When to Seek Care
- Pain that increases after the third day instead of easing, or one patch much hotter and more swollen than the rest.
- Fever, spreading redness, or discharge from the treated area.
- Bleeding that continues beyond the first day or two, or that restarts after it had settled.
- A cold sore erupting across healing skin, which should be reported the same day.
- Blistering, dusky or grey patches, or a sore that is not crusting like the rest of the face.
References & Further Reading
- American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) — patient information on laser and energy-based treatment
- American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) — guidance on laser resurfacing and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, UK) — relevant guidance on skin treatments
- Cochrane Library — systematic reviews in skin resurfacing and scar management
This page is patient education, not medical advice, and it does not cite individual studies. Discuss your own case with a qualified clinician. To arrange an assessment at Chongqing West District Hospital, see Contact & Consultation.