156 replies to this topic

[anonymous007]

Hi guys,

Well healing is stillgoing on right now. For the most part, I am still very red. Looks like an extreme sunburn. My scars have definitely reappeared a little, but there still seems to be a major improvement hiding behind all this redness!

I'm trying to still be skeptical about the improvement,considering all the many let downs of the past that members have gone through, but maybe I shouldn't be. Maybe this new generation of lasers really does work. Maybe my young age has allowed the process to be much more effective.

But hey I really won't know until all this damned redness goes away. I am now 7 days post treatment & does anyone know when I might be able to expect to have the redness go away? Or at least when it will be less severe? Is there anything I can do to speed up the transition back to my regular skin color without harming my new skin?

And yes, I was outside taking those pictures as you can see the scars the best in true outdoor light. I am hiding from the sun & putting on major sunscreen, BUT is this the reason I am still so red? I know pigment & melatonin production are increased when your skin is comes into contact with the sun.

Well, I await your responses and until next time,

AJ

I'll go ahead and give you guys a little update. I had the totalfx on March 21. On day four the brown skin sloughed off revealing new pink skin underneath. It really wasn't even that pink. By day six you could really only tell something may have been done by the slight demarcation line and the fact that the hyperpigmentation/sunspots were gone. It's now been 11 days since the procedure. My skin is definately smoother and the pigmentation looks pretty even. Unfortunately I can see that my scars are still there. I only have a handful of scars but a couple of them are quite large rolling scars. One of them never came to a head as it was injected with a cortisone shot. Only problem is this left some skin atrophy. They do look a little softer now. Here's hoping that the 4-6 month collagen rejuvenation period really shows it's magic. The doc said not to expect great things shortly after the treatment so I didn't have unrealistic expectations. I took pics each day after the procedure up until day 7 and will probably take new ones every week for the next couple of months. I want to wait to publish my photo album as to show positive results otherwise it would be pretty pointless. Hopefully by then I'll have some good incentive to post them. AJ, I would just make sure not to stay in the sun for more than a couple of minutes. The scarred areas will be the first ones to get darker than the rest of the skin.

[Scientist]

After a fractional ablative procedure whether this is Total FX or Fraxel Repair both CO2 lasers or Sicton Profractional or Palomar Lux 2940nm both of which are Erbium YAG lasers you should expect erythema (redness) post treatment for 2 - 6 weeks. The worst should subside by 2 weeks - for the gals will be easily covered by makeup. Redness will probably last slightly longer with the Total FX or Fraxel Repair as they are CO2 lasers.

These fractional devices are new and as with any new devices it is easy to get caught up in the hype. Laser manufactures will sell the system to Dr's stating that only one treatment is required but I know Dr's are already carrying out up to 3 sessions on patients for acne scars for about a 50% improvement.

[katiekat]

Any updates guys? I'm having mine done tomorrow.

[creative303]

Face is still red, neck is red. I still get question by people about my face.. I just tell them I got sunburn or I just tell them I'm on Retin A lol. If you get your neck done, make sure they feather it so you don't get a demarcation line. I see improvements, my pores are smaller. Skin texture looks a lot better. The acne scars look smoother. My face feels tighter. I still feel stinging sensations on my skin. It's definitely still healing, I had it on max setting both for deep fx and active fx. It's my 12th day and I still wear aquaphor at night. It's the only thing that keeps my face feeling better, when I have it on, my skin texture and color actually looks kinda normal and not as red.. It broke me out the first few days but after that, it seem like my skin adjusted to it and the acne are gone now, like they were never there in the first place, no scars or blemishes where the acne were breaking out.

The improvements could all just be micro bruising, I can't say for sure what my results will be yet. When the redness and micro bruising fades away, and collagen improves in a few months, I can give you a more accurate percentage of the results.

Tell them to give you the happy pill and get the dental blocks if you can, it'll help with the pain. The area around the lip and eye are kinda painful.

I only paid 2250$ for my total fx for full face and neck. My doctor told me, if I want to do it again down the road, he'll charge 1500 or less depending on what region I want done. If I was to do it again, I would. I felt like I got more improvement from 1 setting of total fx then I did with fraxel. Although I haven't tried the new fraxel yet.

[katiekat]

Thanks for the update. I had mine done early this morning. She said she beat me up. She just got back from a laser conference. She said the Dr. were using higher settings, so she cranked it up. The only thing I was givin for pain was a cucumber mask with numbing cream, and valium. And it did hurt. But when you want it that bad, you manage. In comparison to the Fraxel. They need to come up with something better for pain management. The part that bothered me most was the Co2 part. She did a pass over just the scars with a piece that was small and round. Then she did a pass with the Co2 over the complete face, then a pass with the active fx. My face looks like I have road rash. Little pin points of blood over my entire face. She gave me a moisturizer that was meant for use after a chemical peel or laser so that hopefully I don't breakout. The heat wasn't that bad. And I know I read somewhere's not to try to cool it down, to let the heat do it's job.

[btb925]

Hey Creative and Southpole, I have a few questions for you guys if you would be kind enough to answer them then I'd be extremely appreciated! Katiekat, if you could answer this too - that'd be awesome but exactly, which one did you get done? The active/deep/total?

1) It is a few weeks since your guys operation, how have the results been and do you notice constant improvements on a week-by-week basis?

2) My main concern is hyper pigmentation since I am Asian (Chinese with light skin). Given you have olive skin and Creative looks to me as if she's Asian, did the PS/derm do anything special in terms of medications, advice, settings on laser to tune the surgery for your special case? Basically, was there work done beforehand and after hand to ensure that hyper pigmentation is kept at a bare minimum.

3) Have you guys noticed ANY slight hyper pigmentation since treatment? How do you guys scar when you get acne (redmarks, rolling scars, etc)?

4) Southpole's picture was a lot more clearer but I'm also very interested in yours Creative since you're Asian. What was your scarring like before ... where was it and what type/severity? Do you have any recent pictures?

5) I'm assuming you guys looked through your surgeon's before/after albums of similar patients. What did you guys generally find in them in terms of ethnicities, improvements, the worst-case-scenarios, etc.

I really appreciate your guys help as you guys know scars are a huuuuuge BITCH to deal with. Hopefully you guys won't mind me sending a PM as well.

Thank you!! : ]

edit - I just noticed your recent Apr. 10 post, sorry if there's any repeat questions you already answered.

[SweetAndNatural]

I'd love to see new pics of Southpole now. I'm sure his redness is gone.

[MonteroMan]

I'd love to see new pics of Southpole now. I'm sure his redness is gone.

Southpole... could you please post your results after 1.5 months?

I'm considering this procedure.

Thanks!

[ArcadeFire]

if i still have redmarks is it bad to get this procedure?

[bug]

how did you people choose your doctors? did you check to see if they were board certified in cosmetics or lasers, or was that not a big deal to you?

[nma]

You can check out my photo's here, although it's only been a day.

Oh, my God, your pics scared the shit out of me. No offense, please. I had no idea that can look so dramatic. I am also considering a MAXFx laser treatment for my scars. This is similar to the ActiveFx, only much deeper (especially for acne scars). I am having my procedure done at a clinic in Odessa, Ukraine. The doctor said the skin will be pink for a period of 2-3 months after the procedure. I am extremely scared about the hyper pigmentation. Hope the pinkness will really fade away, otherwise I might end up killing myself. lol Anyways, I will stay 10 days in the clinic following my procedure to ensure that there are no complications. My question is: how bad does the face look like 10 days after a deep laser? I ask this because I have to come back by plane home (you know, airports, lots of people). lol I think it will be a very embarasing situation.

[*unknown*]

guys any updates?

Southpole can you please post your pictures? my scars look like yours too..
I hope you got the results you wanted

*waiting* . . .

[bug]

i just did total fx 4 days ago. it didn't hurt me at all. maybe they went gentle w/ the settings (15 mJ on deep; 100 on active). but here's my concern. people report happy results right away. but it's only 4 days, and i can already see all my scars. and i'm still supposedly swollen! i dont see any improvement. is that how it's supposed to be? only notice results after months, after collagen's been stimulated?
why did my face go back to normal, when everyone else's seemed better even right after healing?

[nma]

Hi,
Could you post some pics after the laser procedure? I would like to see how the face looks after the procedure, because I am considering a MaxFx. Is total fx also a deeper laser?

[bug]

day after total fx procedure. morning pic and night pic, about 12 hours difference.


quick notez: difference in pictures mostly due to dried blood washed off, with some healing (sting gone by 2nd picture when washing face). they don't do full face on the deep fx part, just at places there they deem necessary (scarred regionz). dark blood is where they did deep fx. so deep fx leaves face dark, scabbed n bloody, while active fx leaves face pink. neck is risky area, so usually don't do deep fx on neck. if they do, have to significantly decrease settings . can do active fx on neck and other sensitive areas (around eyez, etc), no problem.

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[katiekat]

[quote name='bug' date='Oct 12 2008, 09:51 PM' post='2429087']
i just did total fx 4 days ago. it didn't hurt me at all. maybe they went gentle w/ the settings (15 mJ on deep; 100 on active). but here's my concern. people report happy results right away. but it's only 4 days, and i can already see all my scars. and i'm still supposedly swollen! i dont see any improvement. is that how it's supposed to be? only notice results after months, after collagen's been stimulated?
why did my face go back to normal, when everyone else's seemed better even right after healing?
[/quote


Yeah, I could c my scars about the same time frame. It took me about 4 months to notice a diff. To me , it made them a little smoother, but still there. I wondered about the whole Total FX or Max FX. I was told by one dr in Detroit that the Max was actually the original Co2. Does anyone know what the diff is?

[bug]

i just did total fx 4 days ago. it didn't hurt me at all. maybe they went gentle w/ the settings (15 mJ on deep; 100 on active). but here's my concern. people report happy results right away. but it's only 4 days, and i can already see all my scars. and i'm still supposedly swollen! i dont see any improvement. is that how it's supposed to be? only notice results after months, after collagen's been stimulated?
why did my face go back to normal, when everyone else's seemed better even right after healing?

Yeah, I could c my scars about the same time frame. It took me about 4 months to notice a diff. To me , it made them a little smoother, but still there. I wondered about the whole Total FX or Max FX. I was told by one dr in Detroit that the Max was actually the original Co2. Does anyone know what the diff is?

this is my understanding, based on what my nurse told me. after she did total fx on me, i asked her to write down the settingz she used, which she politely did. one of the settingz she wrote down was DENSITY. i guess you could increase the density of the laser to a point where it's basically the same as full co2 (sacrificing the fractional quality that gives you quicker healing). but since it penetrates deeper, it'd present more risks.
now, i did full face co2 back in 2005, and resultz were junk. even though i have a bad history w/ the co2, the reason i did total fx is cuz the total fx laser penetrates deeper, stimulating more collagen to be produced. i don't notice any difference in my scarz yet, but i guess time will tell. (i know it should be slow and i should be patient, but people say they have immediate resultz, and i'm wondering why i'm missing out).

katie, did you like your results? would you do it again, or would you say it wasn't worth it? i'll do it again cuz healing time is low, but ONLY if i see promising resultz from this one

[sydney_domomo]

one of the settingz she wrote down was DENSITY. i guess you could increase the density of the laser to a point where it's basically the same as full co2 (sacrificing the fractional quality that gives you quicker healing). but since it penetrates deeper, it'd present more risks.

DENSITY imo is a key issue that hardly ever gets talked about. The whole point of fractionated laseri is the support healthy skin that assists the damaged skin to heal.

I think this is the reason why I had some mixed results from my fraxel repair as the density was so much that the skin crusted as badly as it did (skin around the area that was heavily densely treated was completely obliterated) you can see the "fraxellated" area vs the obliterated zone of skins as it was healing.


http://i33.tinypic.com/6oe6c5.jpg


from my thread, the skin there is still has tiny red capillaries from the laser and... I can't wait for the body to absord it fast enough. wow. bug at your photos. Garish like mine! I would totally get my neck treated as well if I had to do it again because the line was too apparent after the procedure for me without treating the neck.

[Minty Peas]

Hi everyone.

I just thought I'd write my TotalFX experience here for those who are interested.

I had it done about one week ago. The treated skin is still pink, and I am breaking out mildly from the days of pore-clogging Aquaphor ointment. I've stopped putting it on now since the peeling phase is over. It's not a severe breakout so I expect it to be under control in a few days. I didn't do a full face treatment. I only had it done on my cheeks and chin. Photos of my first week of healing are in my gallery.

The following is an excerpt from my personal journal about what happened during my treatment. A lot of the explanatory content is probably stuff you already know. I was just explaining it to the people who read my journal.

The first pass was "DeepFX". The doctor would not use the "max" setting of 20mj. She said she usually does 12.5mj to 15mj. I said that in that case I wanted 15mj. So that was 15mj at density 3 (pulse 1). I hadn't heard anything about the pulse setting before so I couldn't comment on that. Anyway, this laser is the one that penetrates deep into the skin to stimulate collagen production. It was used on my scars on my cheeks. She also did a little on my chin.

The second pass was "ActiveFX". This is a more superficial laser that works to tighten pores and create the appearance of a more even skin tone and texture. It was used on the larger expanse of my cheeks. 100mj at density 3. Then she used 100mj at density 1 around the edges to make a more gradual transition from the treated skin to the non-treated skin. You might think that this second pass, seeing as it's not as deep, would be less painful. Not really. It was a slightly different kind of stinging, but I can't say it was any less painful. Fortunately, an assistant was blowing cold air from a machine tube on my face the whole time. It really helped to ameliorate the burning, throbbing sensation.

These two treatments - DeepFX and ActiveFX - together is called TotalFX. Afterward, I laid there holding the cold air tube toward my face. I'd been clenching my teeth the whole time and some water leaked out of my eyes, too. After a while, the throbbing sensation lessened enough that I could tolerate giving up the cold air and having a cold compress of gauze soaked in ice water. They left me alone mostly, only coming in every once in a while to change the gauze. It lost its cool pretty fast on my poor hot face. I don't really know how long I laid there waiting for the throbbing to subside. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an hour or more.