A few days ago I had a skype consultation with Dr. Maini from the Zenith Cosmetic Clinics in the UK (I live in the states). I wanted to share the information with community and get some feedback on some of the issues that came up.

First a little background. I'm a 30 years old guy with a very fair complexion (type 1), I had some acne scarring from high school but a lot of it came in college. I have mostly boxcar/rolling scars with a few ice picks. Over the last year I've tried having subcision done as well as one treatment with a Mixto laser. I've also tried some home needling and a zillion topical creams. Overall I think I got some improvement from Mixto, but I have so many acne scars that I think even if the scars do fill in I will still have very bad texture. I'm still very self-conscious of side lighting, and there are certain mirrors are the house that will zap my confidence anytime I think I see improvement. I do have some before and after pictures from the mixto that I'm going to post in a different thread. Due to the texture issue I was drawn to dermabrasion. I've also read some positive accounts of recell treatment on this board and it sounds like it can speed up healing and hopefully help reduce the scarring.

During the consultation Dr. Maini suggested the following treatment. First he would perform and deep fraction type CO2 laser to create some damage in the dermis. Then he would do light CO2 treatment over the whole face, including the neck area (which is too sensitive for dermabrasion). Then he would perform the dermabrasion, followed an application of the Recell. I would probably need to stay in Nottingham for about 2 weeks for healing.

One issue I wanted to get the communitys opinion on was the dermabarsion. He said he can perform it with the diamond tip but that he prefers to a sort of sanding tool (dermascanding). He said that this creates an overall smoother surface and it yields better results.

Another point that he brought up was the prospect of hypopigmentation. Im at a lower risk of this because of my fair complexion. He said he had recently used a similar treatment plan on a few darker skinned patients. He advises them to start getting some direct sun exposure pretty quickly after the procedure to encourage the repigmentation. I thought that was interesting, because I was advised to avoid the sun like the plague after my Mixto treatment. I know there are some people who have posted horror stories of hypopigmentation and demarcation lines after dermabrasion.

Im interested to hear peoples opinions of the procedure. Overall it would be pretty expensive with travel, hotel, and the actual medical costs. I imagine Ill end up spending close to 10K (ouch). The hope would be that my scars would be improved to the point that I wont feel self-conscious about them and be socially limited.