oldguy

I got Vbeam for some broken capillaries on my nose. (single treatment) The doc said that I would definitely bruise, since we both agreed that she should be kind of aggressive with the laser, but I didn’t bruise at all. *beams with pride* I did have some nasty reddish/purple spots though, but they were almost totally gone within 7 days. The broken capillaries are almost totally gone as well now, so my laser research has really paid off. I guess this post is off topic, but I did want to let people know that this is a highly effective laser, at least for getting rid of broken capillaries.

Poll Question: If you had a dermabrasion done more than 2 years ago, would you say that the results were permanent?


I think that if many people respond to this, the results may be surprising to those who consider skin resurfacing to be a permanent fix.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6376872/

I saw an interesting TV show the other day about face transplants. There were docs in England, France, and Kentucky (what?) working on it though. Of course it's nothing for people with acne scars, but it may be of interest all the same.

There is an interesting show on right now on the Discovery Health channel that shows an operation that uses the technique for keeping fat alive, and transfering it from the abdomen to the face. The episode is called Life Lift, and will be replayed a few times this week. You could find it at
http://www.tvguide.c...d after&x=4&y=8

Disclaimer: 100% TCA, or Trichloroacetic Acid, is incredibly dangerous! Don’t try this at home, ever.
10-04-04


Day 2: 22 hours after procedure


10-10-04
2 more spots - connect the dots.

Disclaimer: 100% TCA, or Trichloroacetic Acid, is incredibly dangerous! Don’t try this at home, ever.

Day 1. Ouch.
Day 2. White frosted look gone. Redness totally gone. Keeping Neosporin on the spots.
Day 5. Oops I lost 3 days! I "Crossed" 1 rolling scar and 2 spots near the previous 2.
Day 6. Healing is going well - uploaded more pics.

What the heck is this? This is a procedure for acne scars called TCA Cross. There is a medical study about it called
Focal Treatment of Acne Scars With Trichloroacetic Acid: Chemical Reconstruction of Skin Scars Method. I have Restylane in my worst rolling scars right now, so I'm just trying this on some... I would call them mild to moderate rolling boxcars, for lack of a better term.

Here are the precise steps I took:
I prepared the 100% TCA, Neosporin + Pain Relief http://www.neosporin...5#NeosporinPlus ,
toothpicks, Bactine, neutralizer. (You don’t need neutralizer for TCA, it was just a precaution)
I put on gloves.
I wiped the area with Bactine to disinfect it. I put on reading glasses and practiced on each of the 3 spots I had selected using a dry toothpick and a 3x mirror.
I took a deep breath and dipped the toothpick into the acid.
I stuck it in the scars.
I neutralized the 3 spots, for no apparent reason.
I applied Neosporin.

The procedure was simple, and was just a matter of stretching the skin with one hand, and pressing the toothpick into the scars. Pressing hard is important, and is mentioned a lot in the study. I also twirled it a bit – I don’t know why. I probably should not have twirled the toothpick, in hindsight. The redness you see in the pic only lasted a few minutes. I will keep applying Neosporin until the scab comes and eventually falls off.

One more thing. My hand slid while doing the last one of the 3 spots that was next to my ear. It was a bit clunky holding a mirror and stretching the skin while also pressing the toothpick in. If I wasn’t prepared with a tissue full of neutralizer it would have resulted in the side of my face being gouged. My super oldguy powers of preparation prevailed… this time.

Disclaimer: 100% TCA, or Trichloroacetic Acid, is incredibly dangerous! Don’t try this at home, ever.


11-13-04 2nd treatment - 1 month later
Of the 4 scars that I'm working on in these pictures, I just did the 2nd round on 3 of them. The other one at the bottom right has filled in a lot, but is raw looking, so I decided to leave it be. I also did 2 very small scars; 1 on each cheek, but they didn't show up well in the pics I took. There was a small rolling scar on the other side of my face that filled in nicely and all redness is gone, so I’m calling that one a done deal! The largest one in the middle of this pic is there because I held the toothpick down for 10 "quick" seconds that I counted. (With TCA-induced stress it was probably more like 5) I used the big end of the toothpick and only pressed (hard) into the indented area. As you can see, quite a bit absorbed into surrounding skin. I can't predict what the result of that might be.



update - (12-10-04)
It's getting to be about time for another cross, however, I am going to wait a bit longer, since a couple of spots I was more aggressive with have not yet filled in at all. 1 month may be too soon for an oldie like myself.
http://www.scifilm.o...aphics/miri.jpg
Bonk, Bonk!


1-4-05 (the month is first in that btw)
I did my 3rd full round of TCA Cross on a total of 7 spots. 2 of these were very small and right next to previous scars, for anyone that is going batty trying to keep score. I sharpened my toothpicks this time with a knife. I can't believe I didn't do that before, since the study said "pointed" sticks. It works much better with sharp sticks! Much more precise and controllable. I still use a regular unsharpened toothpick to make a sort of practice guide hole first, though.

My main couple of crossed scars have noticeably filled in lately, so I was actually torn about doing any more to these at all. I can see how people would bail on cross when their scars improved somewhat because they wouldn’t want to jeopardize that new collagen. I reckon I am in for the long haul though. I want perfectly smooth skin and I won’t be done until I have it, dammit. [/endscene] I was planning on trying a 2 month interval for TCA Cross also, but I had Vbeam done today for some broken capillaries. I have big red and purple spots on my nose anyway, so what the hell.


2-6-05
I think I am ready to wrap up my TCA Cross experiment. Of the shallow boxcars that I did 3 treatments on, 2 have filled in somewhat, say about 40%, and the others have only filled in to their original size.*!* In other words, I got 0 improvement on some of them, 40% on others. Let's put the grand total at 20% improvement overall. Sorry if that is somewhat confusing.

I really have mostly rolling scars though, and of the 4 of them I have been doing this on, 1 of them almost completely filled in with only 1 single treatment, but the other 3 have not filled in at all and are only back to their original levels. (they tend to get sunken in after the swelling goes down a few days after the tx)*!*

The TCA study mentioned that the procedure works on not just icepick and boxcars, but also on rolling scars. I now believe (and have proven on my own face) that is false information. I actually predicted that though, before I even tried this... rather I had learned from others who mentioned in this forum that it didn't work well for rolling scars. I am not disappointed by this whatsoever, because I had no expectations in the first place. I do feel rather lucky that I didn’t make things worse with a slip or spill.

Let me reinforce and summarize: TCA Cross can be very effective for boxcars and icepick scars for some people but...
TCA CROSS DOES NOT WORK FOR ROLLING SCARS.

Que sara