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Generally how far in advance do you guys book your appointment with Dr. Rahimi? I'm thinking about going for a consultation and was wondering how busy he is. If he's really busy, then I would make sure to go for a consultation far in advance as my window for a procedure is very small.
Also, are you guys able to drive home on your own after the Mixto session?
For a consultation, you can probably get an appointment the same day or next day. If you were going to consult him for a possible mixto, it really is only a 15 minute meeting. But yes, he is probably busy, he has gotten a lot of fame over this site, but everytime i do go see him for a visit, there are people waiting to see him. To be honest, he is a good doctor, yes he is running a business so he needs customers, but I do believe he genuinely does care for his patients and them the best, and isnt just money driven. At least, that is from my experience. If you are to go through with a mixto with him, he will provide you his cell and email. I have been chatting with him through email numerous times, he responds quickly to your emails. But yes overall, im glad I found him, hes a good doctor. Although I havent gotten the results I wanted with the mixto, Im probably going to do 2-3 more treatments again (I already did one), before I truly judge the mixto laser and its real results (on me at least). It seems that Dragz has gotten great results, which I am truly hoping for as well.
and for your second question, it REALLY depends, He sedates your pretty heavily. I WOULD *NOT* have been able to drive home, my parents drove my home. I would truly recommend you to find a friend/relative to drive you back home after the procedure, because you will be sedated pretty heavily. To be honest, I do not remember anything from my procedure, the only thing I remember is the first zap, and the last zap, and the subscicions that he did right after the last zap of the laser. Therefore, if you truly cant find anyone to take you back home, then you need to schedule an mixto surgery early, and then after the surgery, they have a "resting" room where you can probably rest until you feel ready you can drive back home.
He CAN do it without sedation, and he often does for certain patients. However, it'll probably be VERY painful, since he's not going to compromise the efficacy of the procedure.
For instance, I have extremely good metabolism, so he gives me one and half of those...pills, I forget what they're called, plus a shot, plus numbing cream, plus numbing injections in the face, and I STILL feel a good amount of pain. I can't imagine what it would've been like without all those.
Yes, Dragz, we are all waiting for your pics after your third session. I think Dr. R is really talented with the Mixto laser. I think you'd mentioned before that he runs the laser once all over your face and then goes into the more stubborn areas with a more chisel like setting to go deeper. I think his understanding of the laser and how it actually changes the skin surface is crucial to his success. I am leaning more and more towards getting this procedure done by him, hopefully in the next month or so.
Reconsider...lol.... We definitely want to see how your skin looks after your third laser. I'm probably going to do a second session with focal treatment on just the cheeks in January.
Will this strictly be a laser session or also with subcision?
I'll post pictures before I head back to school, sure. But immediate post-op pictures, I felt, were unnecessary. It looks exactly the same as before except not all around my whole face because he only treated the scarred areas this time.
Oh, and an interesting tidbit:
I used to get mad PIH after these procedures, and even hydrocortisone for a few days after peeling didn't help. So I told Rahimi this and he said "did you use cream or ointment?" Turns out, ointment hydrocortisone is wayyyyyy better than the cream version because the ointment, despite being oily, sits on your skin aaaaall day until you wash it off, so it's constantly doing work. The cream version, on the other hand, just sits there for a few hours before being fully absorbed.
So, this time, I did the ointment version, and man. 2 days into the ointment, and the redness is already half gone. It's pretty great, I'm not gonna lie.
DRaGz, have you got any kind of laser resurfacing done prior to Mixto? I had Fraxel done 5-6 years ago and I generally took about a week for all the dry, flakey skin to peel off. I would still be red but I could pass it off as a sunburn. I'm curious if Mixto recovery time is roughly the same as Fraxel.
Also, does Dr. Rahami also do excision?
I haven't asked him about excision, so I don't know.
I did not have ablative laser resurfacing prior to Mixto (I had Lux 1540 instead, which is an erbium non-ablative fractional laser). I am sure that peeling will be a factor that varies greatly from person to person, though. For instance, I am a fast healer, so I tend to recover from most surgeries or medical procedures very quickly.
Just had Mixto here. The procedure went flawlessly. Next time I will do it without the pill and arm injection, and just stick to the numbing cream and injections on the face for the procedure. She told me I had to wait a few before I could drive myself home (I couldn't get anyone to drive me in the middle of the week). But I guess I am very tolerant because I barely felt the downtime of drowsiness. I honestly felt fine to drive home right afterward...but anyway we'll see how it goes from here with the healing. Not sure how aggressive the settings were, but it almost (but not quite) felt like I was getting a tattoo on my face (I have a few here and there on my body). Next time I will ask for a more aggressive treatment if the first results are decent enough.
PS: Any update would be appreciated DRaGZ!! 
My first Mixto was on Jan 23 with Dr. Rahimi. It took about two weeks to fully recover, but everything went well. He said the laser was pretty aggressive on my face and neck, but I couldn't tell due to all the numbing cream. pain killers (pill), and arm injection. After about a month and half, I knew how my scars would look in another month, so I decided to get another round done exactly 8 weeks later from my first session.
So on 20 March I went in for my second round with Mixto, this time he was even more aggressive and gave me a little more pain meds to suppress the pain. Didn't feel much and afterward I took an hour nap and drove home just fine. I healed MUCH faster this time around (in 5 days), even though it was more aggressive than the first. After a few days I knew that this second treatment would give me more of what I wanted; less acne scarring, more normal-looking skin (though I'm still far from it). I'm happier but will probably need, realistically, about three more procedures with him. Dr. Rahimi knows what he's doing and I'm very comfortable putting my face in him hands, so to speak.
Since you initially pay $3k for the Mixto and a free followup procedure, anything after will cost you $500 per treatment...which isn't bad considering how pricey MOST other offices charge. Even though I am broke as a joke, this is well worth it considering all the wasted years spent with anguish and useless (but pricey) products and less effective treatments.
Any % improvement estimate Ozay? Did he just do laser, or did he combine it with subcision?
At this point I'd say it is within a 35-45% improvement. I just did the laser and nothing else, but if he were to have done subcision along with Mixto, it would have been an all-nighter considering the amount of coverage he would have had to cover.
Hey Ozay, congrats on the improvement! Thank you so much for keeping us updated;it's really thoughtful of you.
Would you mind telling us what types of scars you have, their severity, and your Fitz skin type?
Thanks so much! Look forward to hearing more from you. Dr. Rahimi seems great! I'm really tempted to go visit this summer.
Hi, I am considering doing the mixto laser and honestly I am terrified but at the same time hopeful and somewhat excited when I see results like yours I just get super excited. But I wanted to ask did you experience any PIH and if so how long did it last? Honestly the only thing hindering my decision at this point is PIH because I'm terrified of it. Your results are so awesome an.d I want to get resurfacing myself but my fear is getting in the way
PIH can be significant depending your your skin type. If you are Asian / Hispanic or darker, I think hyperpigmentation is almost guaranteed after c02 fractional lasers. That's just something you have to accept if you are going to go that route. That said, hyperpigmentation almost always resolves, although it can be VERY stubborn and hang around for MONTHS. With me, my dermatologist told me he went pretty aggressive with several passes.
PIH can be significant depending your your skin type. If you are Asian / Hispanic or darker, I think hyperpigmentation is almost guaranteed after c02 fractional lasers. That's just something you have to accept if you are going to go that route. That said, hyperpigmentation almost always resolves, although it can be VERY stubborn and hang around for MONTHS. With me, my dermatologist told me he went pretty aggressive with several passes.
But did you experience a lot of PIH and if so did it resolve quickly for you? Because in your pictures it looks like all went well and your skin looks fantastic!
Carl, I'm not the guy the guy that started the thread. I just also happen to be Asian and had c02 fractional lasers to my cheeks. And yes, in my case the PIH did hang around for a long time, though I will say that I was a little careless on a few occasions with being exposed to sun and not being consistent with hydroquinone and retin a post procedure.
