Hey everyone,

I am a 21 year old male 5'11 165 lbs. I started Accutane (40mg) on December 23, 2013, almost near the 4th month now. My experience with accutane is okay so far, and since I'm near the end of my course I don't expect any new side effects to surface. Typical side effects I have on accutane are the dry lips and dry skin on the face, lip balm and moisteruzer takes good care of the dryness, and honestly the dryness is a non-issue for me. While on the subject on accutane I like to note that before starting treatment I had oily skin and a lot of blackheads around my nose area. I also had plenty of acne scars, new and old, and recurring cystic area primarily right smack in the middle of my nose (ugh) and occasionally on other regions of the T zone. Accutane has been phenomenal in ridding my skin of acne and blackheads, but the scars are still there and I'm thinking about going in for scar treatment at the moment.

I went to my dermatologist last week for my monthly checkup and while there I brought up the topic of acne scar treatment. He showed me a pamphlet and recommended the Intense Pulse Light therapy package ($1500 for 6 treatments). I'm a college student, so $1500 is a lot of money, and yes I asked him if I could do pay as I go, but he said if I opted for that it would cost $375/treatment. sigh. BTW anyone in the NYC area know where I can get a cheaper deal, hook a brother up! Anyway he told me that I could start the IPL immediately and I would notice good results reducing the appearance of redness, new scars, and might help fade old scars. I was practically sold, there is something to be said about the vulnerability that comes from sitting in your derm's office and listening to him tell you how he could clear your god damn face. I asked him whether or not that is a good idea since I'm currently still on accutane and if I should wait a little longer after my course to even consider any type of cosmetic treatment. Well, he pretty much said no and I told him I'll think about it and let him know my answer the next time I come back.

Now, I had pretty bad experience of putting chemicals on my face. Backtrack 2 years ago I had bought proactiv for my acne and it literally made my face more red than ever before. After tossing proactiv into the dumpster I started to notice I was becoming more sensitive to certain chemicals around the household, just didnt know what yet at time. I had somehow gotten tons of small blister like bubbles on and along my fingers, what I later found out to be dyshidrosis. Soon it wasnt just my fingers, my face contacted a serious skin allergy and certain areas became swollen, "brown-looking"and infected. Holy cow was it infected, constantly patting my face with tissues because of the discharge that was coming out. I remember being so helpless at the time, scouring the internet to diagnosis my condition; Eczema, Candida, Psoriasis, Roascea, just to name a few. To this day I still don't know what the heck it was, despite my constant nagging to give it a name my derm just said it was "hypersensitivity of the skin" verbatim.Gonna be honest guys, that period of my life was the most debilitating I had ever felt. At that time I couldn't help but think I rather have a face full of scars than to deal with what I had, boy did I gain some perspective. Oh man, the irony right?

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate. Turns out it was this chemical that was upsetting my face. It was in all my shampoos and surprisingly in my facial cleanser. Its weird, I had a patch test done a few weeks prior and the results showed the only allergen I was mildly allergic to was epoxy resin. the stuff used in adhesives. Ever since I came upon this revelation, I had been avoiding SLS like the plague. After a few weeks being SLS-free the infection cleared,the leaky discharge stopped, and the blisters were finally gone. The swelling and the brown spots on my face remained though. Still had acne throughout the entire scare period too, and it was around this time I decided to start accutane. A pretty damn good decision in retrospect.

I've read some reviews from patients on their IPL experience and there are mixed responses. I'm starting to question the efficacy of IPL for acne scars, but admittedly that's not my main concern. My derm said its okay to start IPL with accutane, but most websites, and common sense really, don't recommend it as it is likely to cause the appearance of scars to worsen. I like my derm he's a pretty cool guy, I don't want to believe he just wants my money ( I'm on medicare) and not have my best interest at heart. He's a fairly young guy, probably in his early 30s and maybe he had successful experience with other patients in the same scenario? Idk. I just know that if I had the option to clear my scars rather than later, I'd take it. Otherwise I could be looking at 6- months maybe even longer after my course to start IPL...which is less than ideal.

So....what do you guys think? Should I start? not start? Switch to another dermatology office? Also, if anyone here as taken IPL I be appreciative if you could tell me your experiences with the treatment and what results you saw, whether if it was immediate or after a few more treatments. Thanks guys! I'll try to respond to every single comment and I hope to be able to share my experiences with everyone. Thanks for reading, guys.