Fractora presses an array of pins into the skin and passes bipolar radiofrequency between them. Each pin delivers its own energy, creating a grid of small heated columns with untreated skin in between — the "fractional" principle. Untreated skin between the columns is what makes healing fast.
The tips define the treatment.
60-pin tip (about 0.6 to 1 millimeter) — shallow, dense, and largely a surface treatment. Aimed at tone, fine texture and dullness.
24-pin tip (up to about 3 millimeters) — fewer pins, deeper reach, for scarring and deeper lines.
24-pin coated tip — insulated so that more of the energy is released at depth and less at the surface. Gentler on the epidermis, shorter recovery.
Uncoated tips do something the newer insulated devices deliberately avoid: they heat right at the skin surface, leaving tiny dark points that flake off over several days. That is not a malfunction. Surface injury is part of how Fractora improves tone and texture, and it is why the results feel more like a light resurfacing treatment than like a deep collagen treatment.
That difference is also the honest reason Morpheus8 replaced it. Morpheus8 uses needles insulated except for the last half-millimeter and reaches up to 7 millimeters, so it heats far deeper while sparing the surface. InMode's own regulatory filings treat them as siblings — one clearance is literally titled for the Morpheus8 (Fractora) applicators. If your clinic offers both, they are two settings of the same philosophy, applied at different depths.
Ask which tip is planned and whether it is coated. On this device that question determines both your result and your recovery.
If your skin is medium or deeper in tone, ask directly whether an insulated device would be a better choice for you. A good provider will say yes when it is true.
Stop retinoids, acids and scrubs about five days beforehand.
Tell your provider about implanted electrical devices, cold sore history, blood thinners and any tendency to scar thickly.
Ask for antiviral tablets if you get cold sores and the face is being treated.
Come with clean, product-free skin and allow 30 to 60 minutes for numbing cream.
Avoid alcohol and anti-inflammatory painkillers the day before if you bruise easily.
Book it so you have three to five quiet days afterwards. The pinpoint marks are visible in person and in photographs.
Numbing cream is applied and left on for 30 to 60 minutes.
The provider fits the chosen tip and sets energy and, on the deeper tips, depth.
The handpiece is pressed against the skin and fired, working stamp by stamp across the area. Each firing drives the pins in and delivers energy in a fraction of a second.
It feels like a hot snap, sharper at the surface than most insulated devices because energy is being delivered at the skin itself. Areas over bone are the worst.
There is often a warm-skin smell and small dark points appearing where the pins landed. That is expected with uncoated tips.
Pinpoint bleeding is common.
A full face takes about 20 to 40 minutes of treatment time.
You leave red, hot and swollen, with a visible fine grid of dark dots.
Day of treatment. Red, hot and swollen, with a grid of small dark points across the treated skin. Gentle cleanser and plain moisturizer only.
Day 1 to 2. Swelling peaks on waking. The dots darken and the skin around them turns bronze.
Day 3 to 5. The dots dry into micro-crusts and start shedding. Skin feels like fine sandpaper. This is the part people underestimate — it is visible, and covering it with makeup before the surface has closed is not a good idea.
Day 5 to 7. Most of the grid has cleared, leaving pink skin that makeup covers well.
Week 2 to 3. Pinkness settles. New surface skin looks brighter, sometimes after a dull phase first.
Coated tips shorten all of this considerably.
For at least a week: no retinoids, acids, exfoliation, saunas or hot yoga. Daily sunscreen, and be genuinely strict for a month — freshly resurfaced skin marks easily in sunlight.
None. Fractora uses sterile disposable pin tips and clinic-level radiofrequency, and the surface effect it creates is precisely the kind of injury that should not be produced at home.
Home derma rollers have no radiofrequency and cannot reach the dermis. Home radiofrequency wands warm the surface at a fraction of the energy.
If cost is the issue, microneedling or a chemical peel in a clinic will both address surface texture at lower cost, and for tone specifically a peel is a reasonable direct comparison.