282 replies to this topic

[andersoj]

This is the place. Third review claims success, hopefully someone on here will try it.

[mwd]

This is really something. Is there anywhere in the midwest that does this? Anyone had good results with it? This whole procedure really makes sense when you think about it.

Edited by mwd, 25 June 2011 - 04:33 PM.

[mwd]

This is really something. Is there anywhere in the midwest that does this? Anyone had good results with it? This whole procedure really makes sense when you think about it.

By the way, I called the number out of curiosity and it was not in service. This thread needs an update!

[chunkylard]

This sounds...really painful.

Not to mention extreme and unnecessary.

[julyseven]

Expert: High-Dose PDT May Offer Acne ‘Cure’


http://www.medconnec...e-/Default.aspx

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=WuW5pICgjKE

They target the sebaceous glands and kill it. Anyone done this before?

[wishing2Bclear]

I'm not sure if anyones mentioned this or not because honestly I only read the first two pages of this thread, but wouldn't removing Sebaceous Glands cause major dryness? Think about it, peoples lip's don't have Sebaceous Glands, peoples lips are generaly the only part about them that gets very dry and chapped. So by removing one's Sebaceous Glands, wouldn't we be settiing one up to get "Chapped Face" or something?

[Daphnis]

wishing2Bclear, good point! If you look at julyseven's video on PDT, Dr. Ron Anderson says that PDT will not destroy all sebaceous glands so there will be some active, normal sebaceous glands on our skin. Luckily, if we were to undergo PDT, we'll still have our sebaceous glands.

After reading this, I'm seriously considering PDT.

[meows]

Hello. I am completely new to this site and I am here to say
i just started the kobayashi treatment before I came to this thread.
Last week was my consultation with the doctor at Lotus Beverly Skin Care
in Beverly Hills, Calif.
I stumbled on this thread just to do some research to find out if it's painful or not because i have ZERO tolerance
when it comes to pain. I'm starting the kobyashi treatment on tuesday of this week.
Prior to this, I went in for a few appointments where they injected like 10 shots into my face
to treat my inflamed acne, had a 30% glycolic acid peel, and did extractions on my acne.
(not gonna lie...it hurt like a bitch) but like i said, i have no pain tolerance. Before i start my kobayashi treatment, the doctor
told me to take 2 tylenol or advil pills to ease the pain but they are going to use topical anesthetic
to numb the pain.
to people who are curious of the cost here is the breakdown of what the doctor said
it was going to come out to be:
The Kobyashi + extraction= $1600
IPC $120 x5 = $600
Blue Light Laser $199 x 2=$398
Diamond Peeling: free! as a service.
SGF= $100 x 2= $200

total $2798.
The prices might be different for others but my acne is pretty severe and the doctor informed me
that i will have to go in twice a week for all these treatments to treat my acne.
as for the kobayashi treatment I would have to do it 3 times total.
I'm a little excited and scared to do this. Anyone else who is interested
i will try my best to keep you guys posted on how the results are coming out.

[cantstopwontstop]

Hey hows it going guys? New here to this forum. I actually went to this place today and got my first treatment. It isn't called G laser or whatever anymore. Its called Lotus Beverly Skin Center. Yelp link here. http://www.yelp.com/...r-beverly-hills Anyways, it is a Korean based company and so most of the staff are Korean. There was one white worker there but I don't know what she does; apparently it was her first day there. But I am Korean as well and my mom heard of them on the Korean radio channel. They were talking about how in 3 treatments, you will be acne free, so she took me. I tried to do some research last night and found this thread. Thought that maybe I can give some imput to help fellow sufferers.

I arrived to the place, horrible parking. There is a valet guy, but he told us we can't park there today because there are too much cars. Well, apparently he didn't want to do his job and move cars as needed. So we parked on the streets. We walk in and the place looks great, we fill out a piece of paper, and then have the consultation. After giving her some history, she lets us know what treatments I need. There are THREE levels of the Kobayashi. Apparently, my acne is severe enough to need the highest level. If I can remember correctly, there is a special for this MONTH only! So if you are interested, act fast or pay more later. Level 1 = about $1500? Level 2 = about $1800? Level 3 = about $2100? Those prices are for the full three treatments + extraction. They also added something else that added up to a grand total of $2600. I wasn't really listening because my mother was doing most of the talking.

So after all that, we begin. They have me wash my face with their soap/cleanser twice. Then their nurse put on some face numbing cream on my face. Since my acne is severe and sensitive, she gave me the 23% lidocaine cream. After 10 minutes of letting it settle in, we begin. I really wish she let it sit longer, because Kobayashi is painful. She first started off on my forehead, where I don't really have any acne but a couple blackheads she wanted to extract. Not so sensitive there, so I didn't feel much pain and I thought this treatment was going to be cake. Then she started to move in to the sensitive areas. Not only were they sensitive areas, but also inflamed and acne would hurt to the touch. Pretty much, the machine has this little needle where she sticks into your pores, presses a button, and the machine sends an electric shock. The thing is, it doesn't ALWAYS hurt, so there is always that anticipation of pain that I hated. I would be clenching a towel that I asked for and my hands got tired. The more inflamed pimples hurt more than the non-inflamed. You can actually feel/hear the buzzing and feel your skin contract on the bigger pimples. When it doesn't hurt, the pain on a scale of 0-10 is between 0-2. But when it does hurt, its anywhere from a 4-8. After I was done with all that hell, she injected my big inflamed ones with a steroid to help with the inflammation. That stung a bit. After all that, an assistant took me to another room and put some cream/mask on me. I fell asleep because I did not have much sleep the night before. Then all done! ALSO, if you are going to do this, I'd suggest wearing cool clothing, because I was sweating from all the tenseness and pain.

They told me to come back in on Friday for a simple extraction and facial mask. Kobayashi is done once a month so my next treatment wont be till next month. I can already see some difference, but they did let me know that in the next three days, I will have a breakout and not to be alarmed. They also instructed not to pick at it, which will be hard for me.

Anyways that is about it and I'll try to let you guys know my progress. Let me know if you have any questions. If I don't know the answers, I'll try to remember and ask them when I go. OH, and they also did take pictures of my face before the lidocaine. I can't wait to see the before and after comparisons. AND, also ask for Nurse Christine. She is a registered nurse from Korea and has only been in this country for 5 years, but her english is pretty impressive for her short time here. I am a nursing student so we had lots to talk about.

Good luck to anyone trying to do the Kobayashi. Its no walk in the park, thats forsure.

Hello. I am completely new to this site and I am here to say
i just started the kobayashi treatment before I came to this thread.
Last week was my consultation with the doctor at Lotus Beverly Skin Care
in Beverly Hills, Calif.
I stumbled on this thread just to do some research to find out if it's painful or not because i have ZERO tolerance
when it comes to pain. I'm starting the kobyashi treatment on tuesday of this week.
Prior to this, I went in for a few appointments where they injected like 10 shots into my face
to treat my inflamed acne, had a 30% glycolic acid peel, and did extractions on my acne.
(not gonna lie...it hurt like a bitch) but like i said, i have no pain tolerance. Before i start my kobayashi treatment, the doctor
told me to take 2 tylenol or advil pills to ease the pain but they are going to use topical anesthetic
to numb the pain.
to people who are curious of the cost here is the breakdown of what the doctor said
it was going to come out to be:
The Kobyashi + extraction= $1600
IPC $120 x5 = $600
Blue Light Laser $199 x 2=$398
Diamond Peeling: free! as a service.
SGF= $100 x 2= $200

total $2798.
The prices might be different for others but my acne is pretty severe and the doctor informed me
that i will have to go in twice a week for all these treatments to treat my acne.
as for the kobayashi treatment I would have to do it 3 times total.
I'm a little excited and scared to do this. Anyone else who is interested
i will try my best to keep you guys posted on how the results are coming out.

How did your treatment go? If you thought the acne shots hurt, I can't imagine what you thought about the Kobayashi.

[mariposita]

FWIW there's another medspa group w Korean roots, w locations around the greater LA area, called Dr. Midas Medical Group (www.doctormidas.com) - I went there today thanks to a great Groupon deal & they recommended Kobayashi - they quoted $499 for a smaller area, & indicated probably just 1 treatment needed. I immediately started the Google "research" journey about Kobayashi & it led here.

Perhaps Google Translator could help shed more light on this topic & its loooong-term results via reviews from countries where this approach has been around longer...? Does anyone have links to forums w reviews in other languages (Korean, Japanese, etc.)?

Cantstopwontstop and Meows, how have your after-experiences thus far compared to those mentioned in the links posted by julyseven? *Thank you* for what you have shared thus far!! (and thank you, julyseven!)

Re: Dr. Midas, they used radio frequency to do extractions today, which I haven't heard of before, but it was painless. I'm intrigued to see what else they offer that isn't standard in the US. Their prices seem to be very competitive, & like most medspas, they have an orientation toward the upsell. They offer acupuncture, & have licensed acupuncturists, but I'm not sure yet about MDs; it almost seems that "Dr Midas" might be a mascot rather than an actual doctor...? (which is a bit disturbing in a setting where medical procedures are offered...?) Anywho, parking was great & the office was very clean. The person who did the extractions didn't speak much English, which made me nervous, but she did a very good job in the end.

Edited by mariposita, 02 February 2012 - 01:32 AM.

[cantstopwontstop]

FWIW there's another medspa group w Korean roots, w locations around the greater LA area, called Dr. Midas Medical Group (www.doctormidas.com) - I went there today thanks to a great Groupon deal & they recommended Kobayashi - they quoted $499 for a smaller area, & indicated probably just 1 treatment needed. I immediately started the Google "research" journey about Kobayashi & it led here.

Perhaps Google Translator could help shed more light on this topic & its loooong-term results via reviews from countries where this approach has been around longer...? Does anyone have links to forums w reviews in other languages (Korean, Japanese, etc.)?

Cantstopwontstop and Meows, how have your after-experiences thus far compared to those mentioned in the links posted by julyseven? *Thank you* for what you have shared thus far!! (and thank you, julyseven!)

Re: Dr. Midas, they used radio frequency to do extractions today, which I haven't heard of before, but it was painless. I'm intrigued to see what else they offer that isn't standard in the US. Their prices seem to be very competitive, & like most medspas, they have an orientation toward the upsell. They offer acupuncture, & have licensed acupuncturists, but I'm not sure yet about MDs; it almost seems that "Dr Midas" might be a mascot rather than an actual doctor...? (which is a bit disturbing in a setting where medical procedures are offered...?) Anywho, parking was great & the office was very clean. The person who did the extractions didn't speak much English, which made me nervous, but she did a very good job in the end.

After my first kobayashi treatment, three days after I got a simple extraction and cold pack on my face. The following week, I got an "IPC". Basically chemical peel + extraction + cold pack. Third week, the same, IPC. This wednesday, I go in for my 2nd kobayashi treatment, and to be honest, I see a big difference in my skin. During the second week, I didn't see much improvement and I was doubting this method. Now going into my 4th week, I have almost no cystic breakouts. Just a few small ones here and there, versus my 20-30 large pimples before the treatment. I'm really interested in how my face will look after the second month. To be honest, I am not looking forward to my kobayashi treatments. They hurt like hell. Good luck with you and your journey with kobayashi, mariposita! Let us know how that goes!

[sqall lionheart]

bump

http://www.acneskintreatment.com.au/

personal experiences with SGA, Kobayashi method are welcome

[dwainpipe]

bump

http://www.acneskintreatment.com.au/

personal experiences with SGA, Kobayashi method are welcome

Further to the above post, this place in Australia is offering Sebaceous Gland Ablation (SGA)

http://www.clearskin..._treatments.php

Edited by dwainpipe, 06 April 2012 - 08:42 AM.

[sqall lionheart]

tkx dwainpipe! very interesting


http://translate.goo...g/hishisen.html

this is the site of a japanese clinic, with prices and before/after photos

[TheSavyBanana]

If this would get rid of my EXTREMELY large pores, I would so do it. My face looks like the moon... with all its ginormous craters.

[Toro]

bump

http://www.acneskintreatment.com.au/

personal experiences with SGA, Kobayashi method are welcome

Further to the above post, this place in Australia is offering Sebaceous Gland Ablation (SGA)

http://www.clearskin..._treatments.php

I've actually been to this place in Australia and enquired about this treatment. They call it SGA but it's essentially the same as Kobayashi.

Essentially they confirmed what has been discussed earlier in this thread - the needles can only destroy the sebaceous glands in infected pores. It can take several treatments to destory one gland but when destroyed, it should not cause problems again once the infection inside it disappears. Trouble is, there are so many glands in the face - about 1200 per square centimetre! Any one of those other glands could potentially end up causing you problems in the long run. So, it is by no means a truly ultimate solution, but I'm sure it can be very effective in targeting and eliminating the most problematic glands in the face.

I was in fact hopeful that it could eliminate blackheads on the nose, as the only areas on the nose that seem to get blocked by a blackhead are the visible pores, the ones with tiny hairs in them. These are fewer in number - perhaps about 100 if you count the minor ones - so I was hoping they could all be targeted pretty easily, as I had read that the treament could be used on blackheads. Unfortunately, I was told that the needles they use are only big enough to work on particularly large blackheads, not on relatively minor ones, so couldn't be used on the nose in my case.

Having looked into PDT recently, I am very encouraged - when it comes to destroying sebaceous glands, it seems a more logical route to go down than the Kobayashi method. Because it uses light, it can target ALL the sebaceous glands in the face at once - all 1200-per-square-centimetre of them! And the result seems to be just as permanent.

[jetaime]

^ I agree!

[Trevor Gehman]

I'm very curious about this treatment...

Could you just buy an electrolysis machine on Ebay and do this yourself?

Something like this one: http://www.ebay.com/...a#ht_500wt_1304

[Toro]

I'm very curious about this treatment...

Could you just buy an electrolysis machine on Ebay and do this yourself?

Something like this one: http://www.ebay.com/...a#ht_500wt_1304

Interesting question... the general purpose of electrolysis (permanent hair removal) differs from Kobayashi treatment, but they work in a similar way.

For hair removal, many professional electrologists consider the destruction of the sebaceous gland as an important part of the process, and will aim to destroy it along with the hair follicle. There are three different types of electrolysis - galvanic, thermolysis and blend - apparently blend is the most effective for destroying the glands.

And electrolysis can potentially be used on all types of hair, even the ultra-fine vellus hair (aka "peach fuzz"). This would require use of a needle far smaller than is used with Kobayashi. In theory, over the course of however many hair cycles are needed (people only have a certain percentage of their hair at any one time), every single hair follicle on the face could be targeted via this method, removing both the hair and the gland that went with it.

But... whether these small needles would actually be effective at permanently destroying the gland is less clear. I think it's likely that the electrolysis needles are less powerful than anything used for Kobayashi, and this may be why the Kobayashi needles are bigger - you probably need more power and a larger needle to completely destroy a gland than a hair (and even then, most places offering Kobayashi advise you to have multiple treatments on the same gland to make sure it is properly destroyed). Electrolysis is primarily designed for hair removal and, even if the needles are designed to damage the glands as well, they might not be powerful enough to remove them permanently (and sebaceous glands often have the unfortunate ability to repair themselves if they’re not sufficiently damaged). Without talking to a professional electrologist I'm not sure, but it seems logical - otherwise, surely the Kobayashi method would be using these smaller needles?

Furthermore, even if you spent ages with this method and removed all the tiny hairs on your face, and did manage to permanently destroy all of the glands inside the hair follicles, this would still only constitute a small percentage of your total sebaceous glands. There are about 1200 per square centimetre on your face, which is far higher than the number of hairs. The majority aren't located in hair follicles. It's true that for some parts of the face, it only tends to be the hair-follicle-based glands that cause problems (e.g. blocked pores on the nose) - but in most other instances, it can be any sebaceous gland that causes problems.

It is for this reason, not to mention the time and effort considerations, that I think PDT is a far better proposition.

Edited by Toro, 08 May 2012 - 07:35 AM.

[sqall lionheart]

bump
this is very important