Nothing you see this week is the result.
Day one is redness. Days two to five bring the bronzed, speckled shedding phase. By about day seven the outer layer of skin has renewed and most people notice their skin looks fresher and reflects light better.
That early brightness is real but it is mostly the new surface, not the pigment change.
Brown spots continue to fade after the shedding finishes. This is the stretch where people start noticing that specific marks they had pointed out are lighter or gone.
Around one month is where the published study found its clearest result — a significant improvement in pigment after two sessions given a month apart.
This is the part worth reading carefully, because it is usually reported one-sidedly in both directions.
In that same study, instrument-measured pigment had drifted back toward baseline at three months. The researchers linked that partly to summer sun exposure during follow-up — pigment that came from the sun comes back with the sun.
But two other measures held up. Brown spots specifically were still significantly improved at three months, and the clinicians assessing the patients rated them at about 50% improvement — slightly better than their one-month rating.
So "Moxi wears off by three months" overstates it, and "the results last" overstates it the other way. The fair reading is that the instrument saw pigment creeping back while the eye still saw a clear improvement, and sun exposure is the variable in between.
Moxi's FDA clearance covers soft tissue coagulation, actinic keratosis, and benign pigmented spots — lentigines, solar lentigines and freckles.
Wrinkles and texture are not in that clearance. Providers do treat them, which is legal and routine, but it is off-label and the expectation should be modest. Sciton puts Moxi's penetration at roughly 100 to 200 microns — a manufacturer figure rather than an independently measured one, though it is consistent with how a water-absorbed 1927 nm wavelength behaves. Either way it is working in and just under the epidermis, and lines and scars live deeper than that.
If your main concern is deep lines or indented acne scarring, a gentler surface laser is not the tool, however many sessions you have.
A fair summary of what a good course of Moxi does: brown spots noticeably lighter, skin tone more even, surface brighter and smoother to the touch.
What it does not do: remove deep lines, flatten scars, or produce a permanent change you never need to revisit.
If you get cold sores, tell your provider before booking. Laser can reactivate the virus, and antiviral medication started in advance is the standard precaution — cold sore reactivation occurred in 0.6% of one large series of non-ablative fractional treatments.