So I have been lurking these boards for a while. Five years ago I used a glycolic acid peel which caused some scarring on the middle portions of my cheeks only. It's not severe anymore after 5 years of free laser treatments (at the time it was constantly bleeding and oozing). I would say I am 50 percent improved on one cheek and 70 to 80 percent on the other cheek. My skin colour and overall texture is fine as well (no redness) just some enlarged pores and mild pitted scarring but it's all scattered and spread out so lots of my skin is smooth and healthy skin and when I camouflage with makeup and my beloved Dermaflage (silicone makeup to fill in depressed scars) it's not too noticeable unless you keep staring up close and depending on what lighting I am in lol
I need some advice on what procedures I should get done first. I know there are two places I could go for needling in Vancouver (I'm in Canada) and I was curious about getting MixTo and subcision done by Dr. Rahimi in L.A.
I will most likely be trying multiple different things to help further improve the scars. My question is, should I go with needling and cheaper treatments first after a series of laser treatments or should I do MixTo and subcision twice spaced some months apart and then follow it up with needling?
What have people here found benefited them the most? I have very oily and thick skin by the way and when I stretch out my scars they become smooth so they are not bound down. Several dermatologists I met with feel laser is my best bet and anything else won't benefit me because of the way the scars are angled and how they happened and the fact that my skin does respond well to lasers and peels (my dermatologist however is too mild with treatments especially now when I need more aggressive treatments) I have some pitted scars, rolling scars and about three boxcar scars. In the past I have successfully used lactic acid peels to smooth out rolling scars and boxcar scars (took two years). Had I not been foolish enough to try glycolic, which didn't suit my skin, I would have had nearly smooth skin today.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated before I start spending my hard earned money on possibly useless procedures lol
Hello lovely!
Yay for Dermaflage! I have that too.
We all make mistakes in the beginning, so don't beat yourself up over it. For me my mistake was Fraxel. I rushed into it, didn't understand how it worked, didn't ask the right questions... no long term negative side effects from the treatments but also no improvement in my skin. That was over AU$8,000 down the drain! So just look at the mistakes as a learning curve. 
If your remaining scars are not bound down then you may not need the lasers. What about the eDermastamp or the Dermaroller (the genuine, German made original devices)? I can honestly say that both of these devices have given me my life back and I'm not afraid to shout it from the rooftops. Hehe! If you've never seen it I suggest you take a look at their website at www.dermaroller.de (.com is the US version I think) and www.edermastamp.de. Amazing treatments which have made me realise that lasers are not the gold standard for me. 
Also, if your scars stretch out when you pull your skin taut then you might be an excellent candidate for fillers! Apart from just your normal fillers like Restylane there is also an awesome device which delivers a filler to larger areas. It's called the Airgent/EnerJet (name change) and might be a viable option for you too. The company is called Perfaction so if you Google that then I'm sure you'll find their device. It's basically a short term and a long term treatment. The fillers are short term, the wound healing/collagen remodelling response is the long term. Cool device!
I'm sorta in the same boat as you at this point. I've had a large amount of improvement in my skin but I still have a little bit to go. I have two small rolling scars which annoy me the most. These don't stretch out very much so my attack plan is one more round of the eDermastamp, then subscision, then fillers for the end result. For my remaining shallow scars (mostly little boxcar) I'm thinking about just fillers and/or the EnerJet.
Don't give up! Research until the cows come home and you'll find the right path for your skin.
Hello friend sorry for the late reply! Didn't think anyone had responded lol I actually saw so many dermatologists even in other cities and they are all against me doing any kind of fillers. They are worried I will look like a puffed up balloon and they all seem confident that I don't need to go that route. I have decided to get needling done in Vancouver so I will update people on my results. I will also be going weekly to get professional treatments done by a dear friend who will be doing microneedling on me with Endymed 3deep (radiofrequency system) as well as mild peels. In between I might carry on with my laser treatments that I have been getting done, as well. It has been a long journey for me. I hope to one day at least have skin that looks 80 percent better
Hello friend sorry for the late reply! Didn't think anyone had responded lol I actually saw so many dermatologists even in other cities and they are all against me doing any kind of fillers. They are worried I will look like a puffed up balloon and they all seem confident that I don't need to go that route. I have decided to get needling done in Vancouver so I will update people on my results. I will also be going weekly to get professional treatments done by a dear friend who will be doing microneedling on me with Endymed 3deep (radiofrequency system) as well as mild peels. In between I might carry on with my laser treatments that I have been getting done, as well. It has been a long journey for me. I hope to one day at least have skin that looks 80 percent better 🙂
I hope you come back cause ive been waiting for a lot of people to report their results after promising us one.
I wish you luck on your journey my fellow sufferer 🙂
I promise if I get the results I want (I'm at 50 percent improvement right now and trying to get to 80 to 90 percent) I will give a very detailed account of what I did and didn't use. I just had the Laser Genesis a few days ago (it actually is good for tightening and scars and pores do look somewhat better just because of the tightening effect) and I will get my next round of Co2 next month with needling in December before taking a break to get another needling session next March. They will use dry needling on my deeper scars and a dermaroller on the pores and surrounding areas so I look forward to reporting back these results soon
In between I use tazorac sometimes and only on three or four major scars (not full face) but mostly I leave my skin alone a lot and only use moisturizer sometimes. I haven't broken out in five years since I started my laser treatments and my skin is definitely less oily so laser has some advantages.
