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Tokyo girl- you started a thread for positive reviews of the laser. The responses didn't work out so great for a reason. I'm glad you had good results (apparently) but I stand by the thousands of other people and research that's its the worst for skin. People are finding that the long term results are not desirable.
I disagree but this thread is about Collegeboy's experience, not yours or mine. As he suggested, you could start your own thread on the negative impacts of laser.
Scarsbegonedamnit, we get it. You had an awful experience with lasers, along with hundreds of other patients. Lasers don't work for everyone. In fact, here in the US you are required to sign a waiver that demonstrates your understanding for potential risk with these lasers. Quite honestly, I am not here to sell to you or anyone else how awesome lasers are. I am merely here to share my personal experience with the treatments. Take it or leave it.
Every year you get hundreds of people who had unfortunate deaths due to improper airbag inflation. The family members of these victims then turn around and attempt to sue the manufacturer. Truth is airbags save more lives then they take. What does this mean in terms of cosmetic laser surgery? Absolutely nothing. I just like to confuse the hell out of people. [Edited image out]
P.S. I had my 1st laser treatment done over a year ago.
P.S.2. YAAAAA!!!!! Hit the 200 mark on posts! I am such a nerd.
ScarsBeGone, it is people like you that turn off people who can be helped by lasers. Your claims are ridiculus and unfounded - 98% failure rate, give me a break. You throw numbers around that come from under your tin foil hat. You sound like a woman who was on RealSelf and was totally opposed to Re:pair, and I finally squeezed it out of her that she had never done it. What color is the sky in your world? I have probably had more laser work than anybody here, beginning with the original CO2 full face laser, and culminating with 5 Fraxel Re:pairs. Re:Pair is the best thing I have ever found, of course you will dispell that as me being in the 1-2% successful patients.
You are so negative that I choose to ignore you from now on. People don't need relentless negative sarcasm. Yes, they saw me coming, and I am very happy they did!!
I wish there was an "ignore" option on this forum.
If someone has had a bad experience then by all means post it. It is important that everyone know the risks involved, and as far as I have seen there are no "real" treatments that are risk free. Even in my Laser thread I don't shy away from complications, and I reference the famous Christine case on RealSelf. Just recently I saw photos of a staph infection that looked remarkedly like Christine's case. If so, the doctor failed to diagnos her condition.
I wish there was an "ignore" option on this forum.
If someone has had a bad experience then by all means post it. It is important that everyone know the risks involved, and as far as I have seen there are no "real" treatments that are risk free. Even in my Laser thread I don't shy away from complications, and I reference the famous Christine case on RealSelf. Just recently I saw photos of a staph infection that looked remarkedly like Christine's case. If so, the doctor failed to diagnos her condition.
I agree with you 100%. I am just tired of her false claims, belittling comments, and negative attitude. At one point, I was terrified of laser treatment. In fact, I was shaking when I entered the room for my treatment. I am so glad I took the risk. It's the best decision I ever made in treating my scars. I've had bad experiences in my treatment journey as well. However, I believe those were my experiences. I would never slam the method or anyone who has had success from it because it didn't work for me.
With that said, I hope her comments don't discourage anyone from seeking help. Laser doesn't work for everyone. A small percentage have suffered from side-effects and complications. For me, I was willing to take a risk to improve my quality of life. It was absolutely worth it. There are many here who have done laser and have seen improvement as well.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I hate when I delete my huge post and have to start all over! Stupid touchpad laptop mouse!
Let me type this again...
So... it has been about 60 days since my initial treatment. My doctor had mentioned in about 2 months my skin will have healed to the point where I can have a second treatment done (4 months since last treatment). General rule of thumb is 6 months between treatments but my skin healed at such a quick rate with little to no complications and because she lasered me at such a low, conservative setting it will be safe to move forward with a second treatment. Which is great news because I was originally waiting until after New Years to have a second treatment done which would be quite challenging as it would leave only a few days for the swelling to fade as Spring Semester starts up January 7th.
Anyways, I go in for another consultation next month to talk in detail about what treatment I will have done exactly. Originally I was planning on having a second Repair done at a much more aggressive setting of 70 Joules and 60% coverage like Dudleydoright but I started to have second thoughts. MAYBE I will instead opt for a TotalFX and yes, there is a method to my madness. After looking carefully at my skin in the sun at that worst angle I have broke my skin problems down into two issues.
First, I have 5-6 medium-deepish scars still on my left cheek and 1-2 on my right which could be treated with the DeepFX. The second issue with my skin is just an irregular, slightly bumpy, odd, texture my skin has that can really only be seen under the harshest of lighting. This bad texture actually bothers me more then the remaining "deep scars." I believe this issue can be better resolved with a high coverage, ActiveFX as the ablation is shallow, and the ablation zone is thicker compared to the DeepFX/Repair, which would be great for shallow resurfacing. I may even opt for the MaxFX which is the ActiveFX @ 100% coverage, which has already been done once under my eyes. Whats your thoughts on that? I wonder how TotalFX price compares with Repairs half-cheek treatment.
100% Coverage sounds crazy to most as it is basically a old-school Co2 treatment but my skin now, 60 days out, the pinkness has actually faded more where they did the MaxFX vs the 50 Joules Repair. However, at 1 point my eye was actually more pink then the rest of my face, but I believe that was due more to the thin skin around the eyes then anything else.
I took a zoomed out photo of the entire face 60 days out to show the remaining pinkness. Not going to bother taking zoomed up photos of my scars as they are hard to detect on a image and I feel the improvement hasn't changed much since my day 45 photos.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I hate when I delete my huge post and have to start all over! Stupid touchpad laptop mouse!
Let me type this again...
So... it has been about 60 days since my initial treatment. My doctor had mentioned in about 2 months my skin will have healed to the point where I can have a second treatment done (4 months since last treatment). General rule of thumb is 6 months between treatments but my skin healed at such a quick rate with little to no complications and because she lasered me at such a low, conservative setting it will be safe to move forward with a second treatment. Which is great news because I was originally waiting until after New Years to have a second treatment done which would be quite challenging as it would leave only a few days for the swelling to fade as Spring Semester starts up January 7th.
Anyways, I go in for another consultation next month to talk in detail about what treatment I will have done exactly. Originally I was planning on having a second Repair done at a much more aggressive setting of 70 Joules and 60% coverage like Dudleydoright but I started to have second thoughts. MAYBE I will instead opt for a TotalFX and yes, there is a method to my madness. After looking carefully at my skin in the sun at that worst angle I have broke my skin problems down into two issues.
First, I have 5-6 medium-deepish scars still on my left cheek and 1-2 on my right which could be treated with the DeepFX. The second issue with my skin is just an irregular, slightly bumpy, odd, texture my skin has that can really only be seen under the harshest of lighting. This bad texture actually bothers me more then the remaining "deep scars." I believe this issue can be better resolved with a high coverage, ActiveFX as the ablation is shallow, and the ablation zone is thicker compared to the DeepFX/Repair, which would be great for shallow resurfacing. I may even opt for the MaxFX which is the ActiveFX @ 100% coverage, which has already been done once under my eyes. Whats your thoughts on that? I wonder how TotalFX price compares with Repairs half-cheek treatment.
100% Coverage sounds crazy to most as it is basically a old-school Co2 treatment but my skin now, 60 days out, the pinkness has actually faded more where they did the MaxFX vs the 50 Joules Repair. However, at 1 point my eye was actually more pink then the rest of my face, but I believe that was due more to the thin skin around the eyes then anything else.
I took a zoomed out photo of the entire face 60 days out to show the remaining pinkness. Not going to bother taking zoomed up photos of my scars as they are hard to detect on a image and I feel the improvement hasn't changed much since my day 45 photos.
How did your next consultation go? What have you decided to go through with in regards to to ultrapule/fraxel approach to treating your scars? Looking forward to hearing about your progress.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I hate when I delete my huge post and have to start all over! Stupid touchpad laptop mouse!
Let me type this again...
So... it has been about 60 days since my initial treatment. My doctor had mentioned in about 2 months my skin will have healed to the point where I can have a second treatment done (4 months since last treatment). General rule of thumb is 6 months between treatments but my skin healed at such a quick rate with little to no complications and because she lasered me at such a low, conservative setting it will be safe to move forward with a second treatment. Which is great news because I was originally waiting until after New Years to have a second treatment done which would be quite challenging as it would leave only a few days for the swelling to fade as Spring Semester starts up January 7th.
Anyways, I go in for another consultation next month to talk in detail about what treatment I will have done exactly. Originally I was planning on having a second Repair done at a much more aggressive setting of 70 Joules and 60% coverage like Dudleydoright but I started to have second thoughts. MAYBE I will instead opt for a TotalFX and yes, there is a method to my madness. After looking carefully at my skin in the sun at that worst angle I have broke my skin problems down into two issues.
First, I have 5-6 medium-deepish scars still on my left cheek and 1-2 on my right which could be treated with the DeepFX. The second issue with my skin is just an irregular, slightly bumpy, odd, texture my skin has that can really only be seen under the harshest of lighting. This bad texture actually bothers me more then the remaining "deep scars." I believe this issue can be better resolved with a high coverage, ActiveFX as the ablation is shallow, and the ablation zone is thicker compared to the DeepFX/Repair, which would be great for shallow resurfacing. I may even opt for the MaxFX which is the ActiveFX @ 100% coverage, which has already been done once under my eyes. Whats your thoughts on that? I wonder how TotalFX price compares with Repairs half-cheek treatment.
100% Coverage sounds crazy to most as it is basically a old-school Co2 treatment but my skin now, 60 days out, the pinkness has actually faded more where they did the MaxFX vs the 50 Joules Repair. However, at 1 point my eye was actually more pink then the rest of my face, but I believe that was due more to the thin skin around the eyes then anything else.
I took a zoomed out photo of the entire face 60 days out to show the remaining pinkness. Not going to bother taking zoomed up photos of my scars as they are hard to detect on a image and I feel the improvement hasn't changed much since my day 45 photos.
How did your next consultation go? What have you decided to go through with in regards to to ultrapule/fraxel approach to treating your scars? Looking forward to hearing about your progress.
Hey Alex. I actually go in for my consultation this upcoming Friday. I will probably push for TotalFX this time around as it is basically a Fraxel Repair with a ActiveFX done over it. I also don't like how the Repair uses a rolling system. I feel like the my doctor can be more accurate with the DeepFX using a target system as opposed to rolling over the scars. After the day 30 post-op checkup she mentioned she would probably use the Ultrapulse the second time around anyways so I feel we are on the same page.
I will keep posted on how the consultation goes.
Just had the consultation today. My doc seems to believe that I will have the best results with a 100% Ablative "MaxFX" on the half cheeks. She says my deepest scars are still around 300 microns or less and that such a shallow procedure should hit it all. She told me to wait 30 days to make my final decision as I went into the meeting leaning towards a more aggressive Fraxel repair at a higher coverage rate. What do you guys think? MaxFX at 100% coverage or a Repair at 50%?
Long story short, I will have a second treatment in about 60 days on half cheeks. Which treatment is up to me.
Edit: Been doing alot more research on the "MaxFX" and I am starting to think my doctor is right on this one. Seems that this will have a good impact on my type of texture/scars. Looking closer at what 1 MM is on a ruler I think my doc was also accurate to say my deepest scar is no more then 0.3 MM which is the depth of a MaxFX laser @ 100 coverage. My biggest concern with this laser is how slow the heal time is. I had this treatment done under the eyes and it is still pink, barely noticable but still some pinkness. Where as the discoloration from the Fraxel Repair only lasted a month max.
That's a hard decision. I would be scared. Can't she just try Active FX at 60-70% density or would that make much of a difference? I hope she's going to give you painkillers this time, and I'm not talking about numbing cream. I'm sure you've stated this before but what density did she use the first time with Repair?
That's a hard decision. I would be scared. Can't she just try Active FX at 60-70% density or would that make much of a difference? I hope she's going to give you painkillers this time, and I'm not talking about numbing cream. I'm sure you've stated this before but what density did she use the first time with Repair?
If I remember correctly she did 50 MJ @ 50% for the repair. I suppose they could do the Active FX @ 60-70% but I would probably opt for the Repair @ 60% if that was the case. I hope they give me pain killers too LOL. They gave me a bunch of pain killers along with numbing cream last time but the nurse did not put the cream all the way to my eyelashes... so that area closest to the eyeball was extremely painful ( I think I have a pretty high tolerance to pain medication to begin with). And to top it all off, I think that part of the skin next to the eye lashes is extremely thin and sensitive. Fortunately this time they will be working on just the half cheek.
I am not really concerned about any scarring from the MaxFX as my skin seemed to heal extremely quick with a nice smooth finish under the eyes. I am not even concerned if my face is pink with hyperpigmentation for 6 months as long as there is a rather significant improvement with my texture/scars. My only real concern would be some type of permanent hyperpigmentation. Under my eyes normal is skin color but...BUT... if irritated, rubbed, or even if I bend down to tie my shoe and blood rushes to my face, the area under the eyes become some what pinkish (for 10-20 seconds) as if it is still healing. So even though it looks normal to most people, I still feel like I am not 100% out of the woods yet with the MaxFX I had done previously. However my doctor says this is completely normal and will resolve itself over the course of the next 3 months.I hope she is right! And in all honesty, she told me the area under the eyes would take much longer to fully heal before I even had the 1st laser treatment.
Something that has always bugged me was how my face so easily blushes, and almost always remains pink (maybe even reddish during the summer time)... this is how my skin always behaved long before I ever even thought of laser treatments. Fortunately this quality about my skin makes it very easy to hide any laser treatments I may have had or any lingering hyperpigmentation.
Oh, One thing I'd like to add about the Repair that I do not like. I don't like how the handheld device is a rolling-type machine. The reason I dislike this is because a 60% coverage when rolling 3 inches per second is completely different then say... a 50% coverage rolling at 1 inches per second. It seems so inconsistent unless your doctor has an incredibly steady hand. This is part of the reason why I feel like I had such drastic improvements in even my deepest boxcar scars (that are completely gone now by the way) near the front part of my cheek... but near the lower jaw where she ended or tapered off her swipe with the roller the results are not nearly as great.
Just discovered this too. [Edited link out]
Has before and after pictures of the "MaxFX." Based off Lumenis's diagram, it actually appears that MaxFX is slightly deeper then the ActiveFX too.
Some of the before and after pics of the MaxFX is very impressive for wrinkles and scars.
That's interesting. Based on what I've read on this board, I was under the impression that Max FX was just Active FX at 100% density. I didn't think there was a difference in depth. I hate my scars but I don't think I would trust full ablation on my cheeks. If you do go for it, I think you're brave! I wish you the best of luck either way.
I agree with you on the roller method behind Fraxel Repair. Personally, I can't get my head around how it allows a doctor to make adjustments on a scar by scar basis. When I was treated with Deep FX, my doctor did make adjustments to density, energy & shape based on the type and depth of scar being treated. I just don't see how that's possible with the roller method.
Glad to hear you've seen such great improvement to some of your boxcar scars.
On 8/25/2012 at 12:11 PM, collegeboy84 said:Just discovered this too. [Edited link out]
Has before and after pictures of the "MaxFX." Based off Lumenis's diagram, it actually appears that MaxFX is slightly deeper then the ActiveFX too.
Some of the before and after pics of the MaxFX is very impressive for wrinkles and scars.
your photos show you with zero scars
Just had the consultation today. My doc seems to believe that I will have the best results with a 100% Ablative "MaxFX" on the half cheeks. She says my deepest scars are still around 300 microns or less and that such a shallow procedure should hit it all. She told me to wait 30 days to make my final decision as I went into the meeting leaning towards a more aggressive Fraxel repair at a higher coverage rate. What do you guys think? MaxFX at 100% coverage or a Repair at 50%?
Long story short, I will have a second treatment in about 60 days on half cheeks. Which treatment is up to me.
Edit: Been doing alot more research on the "MaxFX" and I am starting to think my doctor is right on this one. Seems that this will have a good impact on my type of texture/scars. Looking closer at what 1 MM is on a ruler I think my doc was also accurate to say my deepest scar is no more then 0.3 MM which is the depth of a MaxFX laser @ 100 coverage. My biggest concern with this laser is how slow the heal time is. I had this treatment done under the eyes and it is still pink, barely noticable but still some pinkness. Where as the discoloration from the Fraxel Repair only lasted a month max.
I think the MaxFX 100% ablation is definitely a good idea. From your result under your eyes, and it was able to smooth out the area that was treated, it would seem that the only way to smooth out your bad texture is to go down that route. But I have to stress that since your skin under your eyes are still pink, it would therefore be expected that should you treat your cheeks with MaxFX, then you likely might have the same colour issue with your cheeks. But if you weigh the pros and cons, I think that a slight discoloration would be far more ideal than textural irregularities. Since I'm sure that any pigmentary changes are temporary and can be treated with hydroquinone.
Good luck.
That is a good point about the Hydroquinone. I used Hydroquinone for about 2 weeks until my face was back to being a some-what normal color. But eventually I stopped using it because it was just so annoying having to apply Hydroquinone on top of my nightly regiment of Aczone and Differin with a 15 min of "dry time" between applications. It did not even cross my mind that if I continually applied the bleaching agent my skin color under the eyes may have been resolved a 100% by now.
your photos show you with zero scars
Ya those photos are a bit deceiving but you are right, they are pretty minimal at this point. I'd say they look at their worst when under the sun from certain angles.
Oh, One thing I'd like to add about the Repair that I do not like. I don't like how the handheld device is a rolling-type machine. The reason I dislike this is because a 60% coverage when rolling 3 inches per second is completely different then say... a 50% coverage rolling at 1 inches per second. It seems so inconsistent unless your doctor has an incredibly steady hand. This is part of the reason why I feel like I had such drastic improvements in even my deepest boxcar scars (that are completely gone now by the way) near the front part of my cheek... but near the lower jaw where she ended or tapered off her swipe with the roller the results are not nearly as great.
Collegeboy, I just want to be sure I understand what you mean. About a month ago you said you still had 6 or so deep scars. Did these completely go away over the course of this last month?
Oh, One thing I'd like to add about the Repair that I do not like. I don't like how the handheld device is a rolling-type machine. The reason I dislike this is because a 60% coverage when rolling 3 inches per second is completely different then say... a 50% coverage rolling at 1 inches per second. It seems so inconsistent unless your doctor has an incredibly steady hand. This is part of the reason why I feel like I had such drastic improvements in even my deepest boxcar scars (that are completely gone now by the way) near the front part of my cheek... but near the lower jaw where she ended or tapered off her swipe with the roller the results are not nearly as great.
Collegeboy, I just want to be sure I understand what you mean. About a month ago you said you still had 6 or so deep scars. Did these completely go away over the course of this last month?
Nope. Those 6 scars I was talking about a month ago are still there. Though really only 2 are "deep" when I say deep I mean deep compared to the rest of my scars. My doctor believes those 2 "deep" scars are at about 300 microns (which is apparently very shallow in the world of acne scars,they are pretty wide @ 2mm x 2mm) I have 4 others scars but I would not even classify them as deep at this point for a total of 6.
In my recent post when I mentioned the boxcar scars that had completely disappeared, I was referring to an icepick and 2 boxcar scars (one of which was pretty wide, maybe 2 MM by 2 MM) closer to the front of my cheek, about an inch to the left of my nose. Those scars are completely gone now. I have 2 very bothersome boxcar scars and a few mild icepick scars that remain.... more so.... just very ugly texture under certain lighting. I actually tried to take photos from the worst possible lighting to show my doctor what I see out in the sun but they do not come up well on my low quality cam-phone.
I know people think I am insane as my skin looks smooth in the photos I had posted but I can assure everyone that my texture is far from normal (for a man) on the upper half of my cheeks. Huge improvement though over the last 2 years though between the Ultrapulse, Repair, 6 Affirm Multiplex treatments and 2 TCA Crosses (done myself)
On 8/25/2012 at 1:39 PM, TokyoGirl said:That's interesting. Based on what I've read on this board, I was under the impression that Max FX was just Active FX at 100% density. I didn't think there was a difference in depth. I hate my scars but I don't think I would trust full ablation on my cheeks. If you do go for it, I think you're brave! I wish you the best of luck either way.
I think your right. it does take some bravery to undergo a 100%Ablation but... I think anybody who has to live with scars day in and day out for years are even more brave. I actually feel like I am taking the sissy way out by having my skin augmented. LOL.
Honestly? I think the MaxFX is way overblown as far as risks are concerned. I mean... much more permanent damage or scarring can be done with DeepFX or Repair as the treatments go up to 1.7mm~2.0mm deep. From what I understand, what seperates MaxFX from the old-school CO2 lasers is the amount of passes made. According to 1 site, you make 1 0.3MM pass with the Ultrapulse where as with the old fashion CO2 lasers, you make THREE 0.3MM passes which is very very deep at 100% coverage.
Come to think of it, I don't think I have read any horror stories in the U.S. when it comes to MaxFX. Sorry to all you Canadians out there but I am not sure I would ever trust a Canadian doctor with all the crazy stories I have heard. I am partially kidding but there are soooooo many regulations here in California I find it hard to believe any Certified doc here could botch such an important job. We leave the botch jobs to our politicians. [Edited image out]
I'm just wondering whether you also suffer from scarred pores, as these often result in a bad texture of the skin. If so, do you think that you're treatments were able to correct these in some way. I'm just asking as I've got quite a few of scarred pored from blackheads. These scarred pores are too small to TCA cross, according to my doctor, so I'm hoping that laser treatments may correct these. But also because, judging from your photos, my scarring and yours are almost identical, just different in the ways they have been scarred (yours through plucking hairs, thus damaging the pore, while mine by blackheads resulting in the pore scarring and not closing back to its natural state).