Here is my perspective. I tried ablative laser (Fraxel Repair) on another part of my body to treat stretch marks and it caused skin damage and noticeable loss of collagen. I know that the face tends to heal better than other parts of the body, but I'm scared to try Repair on my face. I'm thin skinned, but lucky enough to have good elasticity.

I had topical numbing cream AND injections before the subcision and laser. The subcision didn't hurt at all but the Fraxel Restore hurt, even with all that numbing cream slathered on my face and injected into the dermis. So I think it definitely penetrated more deeply than the needle used for the subcision, and it wasn't even at max setting.

Just like laser, you're creating a controlled wound with TCA cross and hoping that the body heals itself by building collagen. Any kind of damage can cause unpredictable side effects. TCA cross is (known for being) excellent for treating Asian skin types. There are people on this board who swear up and down that needling helped them, but needling made my ice pick scars worse. Everyone's skin type is different, everyone heals differently.

Just an update. It's been about six weeks since my treatment. I noticed that some of my scars reappeared a little. I figured it was worth noting since most people see a reappearance after about four weeks, even if I still believe I had great improvement. The ones that reappeared the most were my boxcar scar and, interestingly enough, the more shallow rolling scars on the right side of my face. I'm interested to see what will happen in the next month or so as collagen continues to build.

I usually use my car's rearview mirror to gauge my improvement. When I look in most mirrors, my scarring is much harder to detect.

I've had 4 subcisions now. I've noticed that subcision takes about a week for the swelling to subside and see how it turned out.

I've had 4 fraxel restores. As you mentioned, the restore takes about 4 weeks for the damage to the skin to completely resolve. It seems like it goes in phases. The swelling subsides at about a week, then your skin is in an intermediate state for weeks 1 to 3, where it's still rebuilding collagen. Then by the fourth week the healing seems to be completely finished.

I feel that you shouldn't make any assessment on the results until these time periods have elapsed, as it will likely falsely raise your hopes.

But I'm glad you're still satisfied with the results. So far, for me, subcision has provided the best results, but only about a 25-50% improvement max to select scars, even after 4 treatments, and some scars just don't respond at all.

Well, it's been six weeks since my treatments. So you're saying that you think this is the most progress I'll have? I thought that the scars reappear after a month, then collagen continues to build for another month or two more. That's why subcision is usually spaced out three to four months apart. The first time I ever had laser, I was initially disappointed, then had people commenting on my skin months down the line.

I've had three subcisions total. The subcision combined with laser had the best results. I was expecting more improvement, but I am much more comfortable with my skin. It's hard to gauge my results because I still think I had some fat loss caused by my first subcision, made worse after I started losing weight. I took pics before my smoothbeam laser treatment and third subcision and it looked like my scars hadn't been treated at all. It was pretty upsetting.

Still, there was a time when I could clearly see my deepest scars from a few feet away when I looked in the mirror. And in the bathroom at my job, the lighting made my skin look so bad, but now my face looks much better.

I've had 4 subcisions now. I've noticed that subcision takes about a week for the swelling to subside and see how it turned out.

I've had 4 fraxel restores. As you mentioned, the restore takes about 4 weeks for the damage to the skin to completely resolve. It seems like it goes in phases. The swelling subsides at about a week, then your skin is in an intermediate state for weeks 1 to 3, where it's still rebuilding collagen. Then by the fourth week the healing seems to be completely finished.

I feel that you shouldn't make any assessment on the results until these time periods have elapsed, as it will likely falsely raise your hopes.

But I'm glad you're still satisfied with the results. So far, for me, subcision has provided the best results, but only about a 25-50% improvement max to select scars, even after 4 treatments, and some scars just don't respond at all.

Do you think the fraxel restore sessions were worth it? What settings were they? I had positive results from smoothbeam and fraxel restore, enough that my friends noticed a difference and actually told me. So I think lasers will be my next choice.

I've had 4 subcisions now. I've noticed that subcision takes about a week for the swelling to subside and see how it turned out.

I've had 4 fraxel restores. As you mentioned, the restore takes about 4 weeks for the damage to the skin to completely resolve. It seems like it goes in phases. The swelling subsides at about a week, then your skin is in an intermediate state for weeks 1 to 3, where it's still rebuilding collagen. Then by the fourth week the healing seems to be completely finished.

I feel that you shouldn't make any assessment on the results until these time periods have elapsed, as it will likely falsely raise your hopes.

But I'm glad you're still satisfied with the results. So far, for me, subcision has provided the best results, but only about a 25-50% improvement max to select scars, even after 4 treatments, and some scars just don't respond at all.

Do you think the fraxel restore sessions were worth it? What settings were they? I had positive results from smoothbeam and fraxel restore, enough that my friends noticed a difference and actually told me. So I think lasers will be my next choice.

My doctor spaced out subcision treatments a month apart. I didn't notice results after about 1-2 weeks; most of the changes occurred in that timeframe. I'm sure everyone heals differently, though.

As for restore being worth it, that's up to you. Firstly, I think that restore absolutely has to be done on aggressive settings and you must do at least 3 to 4 treatments spaced 1 to 2 months apart, as it seemed to penetrate further each time. I say that because it hurt more each time, and I actually did notice slightly more improvement each time. That said, I still think that restore only has the capacity to improve minor defects and shallow scars. For me, it improved the texture of my skin minorly, but I have pretty bad scarring so I need something more aggressive.

In contrast, I had a fully ablative laser procedure done a year and a half ago (ultrapulse) and while that did actually improve deeper scars, it messed up my skin permanently. My skin has a weird texture, it is more pale (hypo), and it created new scars. My skin was also very red for a full 8 months!!! That's probably because the doctor I chose lied about her experience level or the side effects.

To treat the hypopigmentation I started using Latisse after my last restore treatment. I'm going to do one more restore using Latisse and see how that goes. I do see some more pigment now, so I'm getting hopeful.

I've had 4 subcisions now. I've noticed that subcision takes about a week for the swelling to subside and see how it turned out.

I've had 4 fraxel restores. As you mentioned, the restore takes about 4 weeks for the damage to the skin to completely resolve. It seems like it goes in phases. The swelling subsides at about a week, then your skin is in an intermediate state for weeks 1 to 3, where it's still rebuilding collagen. Then by the fourth week the healing seems to be completely finished.

I feel that you shouldn't make any assessment on the results until these time periods have elapsed, as it will likely falsely raise your hopes.

But I'm glad you're still satisfied with the results. So far, for me, subcision has provided the best results, but only about a 25-50% improvement max to select scars, even after 4 treatments, and some scars just don't respond at all.

Do you think the fraxel restore sessions were worth it? What settings were they? I had positive results from smoothbeam and fraxel restore, enough that my friends noticed a difference and actually told me. So I think lasers will be my next choice.

My doctor spaced out subcision treatments a month apart. I didn't notice results after about 1-2 weeks; most of the changes occurred in that timeframe. I'm sure everyone heals differently, though.

As for restore being worth it, that's up to you. Firstly, I think that restore absolutely has to be done on aggressive settings and you must do at least 3 to 4 treatments spaced 1 to 2 months apart, as it seemed to penetrate further each time. I say that because it hurt more each time, and I actually did notice slightly more improvement each time. That said, I still think that restore only has the capacity to improve minor defects and shallow scars. For me, it improved the texture of my skin minorly, but I have pretty bad scarring so I need something more aggressive.

In contrast, I had a fully ablative laser procedure done a year and a half ago (ultrapulse) and while that did actually improve deeper scars, it messed up my skin permanently. My skin has a weird texture, it is more pale (hypo), and it created new scars. My skin was also very red for a full 8 months!!! That's probably because the doctor I chose lied about her experience level or the side effects.

I do agree that Restore has to be administered aggressively for it to be effective. Only thing is that I have noticed a significant difference from the Smoothbeam and Restore treatments I had. Maybe the improvement has just been different than subcision. Have you tried more ablative lasers? I've thought about doing Mixto but I'm scared to try it cause I'm thin and sensitive skinned. I did fraxel repair for stretch marks and it caused damage to my skin.

I've had 4 subcisions now. I've noticed that subcision takes about a week for the swelling to subside and see how it turned out.

I've had 4 fraxel restores. As you mentioned, the restore takes about 4 weeks for the damage to the skin to completely resolve. It seems like it goes in phases. The swelling subsides at about a week, then your skin is in an intermediate state for weeks 1 to 3, where it's still rebuilding collagen. Then by the fourth week the healing seems to be completely finished.

I feel that you shouldn't make any assessment on the results until these time periods have elapsed, as it will likely falsely raise your hopes.

But I'm glad you're still satisfied with the results. So far, for me, subcision has provided the best results, but only about a 25-50% improvement max to select scars, even after 4 treatments, and some scars just don't respond at all.

Do you think the fraxel restore sessions were worth it? What settings were they? I had positive results from smoothbeam and fraxel restore, enough that my friends noticed a difference and actually told me. So I think lasers will be my next choice.

My doctor spaced out subcision treatments a month apart. I didn't notice results after about 1-2 weeks; most of the changes occurred in that timeframe. I'm sure everyone heals differently, though.

As for restore being worth it, that's up to you. Firstly, I think that restore absolutely has to be done on aggressive settings and you must do at least 3 to 4 treatments spaced 1 to 2 months apart, as it seemed to penetrate further each time. I say that because it hurt more each time, and I actually did notice slightly more improvement each time. That said, I still think that restore only has the capacity to improve minor defects and shallow scars. For me, it improved the texture of my skin minorly, but I have pretty bad scarring so I need something more aggressive.

In contrast, I had a fully ablative laser procedure done a year and a half ago (ultrapulse) and while that did actually improve deeper scars, it messed up my skin permanently. My skin has a weird texture, it is more pale (hypo), and it created new scars. My skin was also very red for a full 8 months!!! That's probably because the doctor I chose lied about her experience level or the side effects.

I do agree that Restore has to be administered aggressively for it to be effective. Only thing is that I have noticed a significant difference from the Smoothbeam and Restore treatments I had. Maybe the improvement has just been different than subcision. Have you tried more ablative lasers? I've thought about doing Mixto but I'm scared to try it cause I'm thin and sensitive skinned. I did fraxel repair for stretch marks and it caused damage to my skin.

Yes, I did a very aggressive ablative laser. Read above.

For me, subcision provided better results, but that could just be the difference in the depth of our scars. I don't see how you could get very good results from restore on deep scars, it just doesn't penetrate far enough at all.

Yes, I did a very aggressive ablative laser. Read above.

For me, subcision provided better results, but that could just be the difference in the depth of our scars. I don't see how you could get very good results from restore on deep scars, it just doesn't penetrate far enough at all.

I guess the overall texture improved. I noticed immediate improvement in my skin following the first two subcisions, then months down the line saw how bad my scarring still was. I think this was also due to fat loss in my face and weight loss in general.

The texture still just doesn't look right. I had bad acne for years and years so I don't have just a handful of scars. Maybe that's part of the reason I really see the improvement. My skin does look smoother, even if the scars are still there.