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Hey everyone Im back and trying to get treatment soon. Im in the USA permanently now but have no money lol and I am in the process of getting a green card and a job and as soon as I can I will be setting up an appointment with a scar revision specialist asap. Maybe in the next six months.
Followed your story for several years. Thanks for sharing it and I hope you can get continued improvement or stabilization. Your photo from 2022 shows staggering improvement imo.
I'm in a difficult spot. Every procedure I've tried or tested since 2009 has failed or made my grade 1 or 2 worse. After 20 years the absolute only thing that helped over 60% was deep old school dermabrasion that went deep to where full cheek scabs pushed bandages off and took 13-15 months to fully fade pigment pink, and the skin and scar tissue faded and leveled. It did create some linear damage (I think) in the dermis, killed some melanocytes (my left cheek pigment is partially transparent in angle/light), and my beard doesn't grow in every spot. My guess is it was just a aggressive gamble.
I try to advise people and I wish there were more procedures that are one and dones for +60%, that weren't just lucky aggressive gambles frankly. I mean there are pictures all over of incredible improvements, including Lim, but it may just be personal situation, technique, or a less likely outcome for most, not sure. There are plenty of things that improve, but it seems like it's tough to spot those huge improvements or avoid things that might make it worse when you get steady improvement.
Best of luck with the revision specialist, and everything here in the US.
which doctor did you go to for the dermabrasion? also what skin tone are you? white asian black?
I'm white skin, I think fitzpatrick 2 if I remember properly and I did it at age 23. The dermabrasion doc retired many years ago but he was local, nothing special. He went extremely deep that was probably the reason it worked well, but also created some issues. Also, while it did blend the scars really well initially, over time they've sort of gotten murky and the texture is poor. But it was very effective. Put simply it I think it's the only thing to me that worked but it was not perfect. And over time it's bleh. But yeah it was the only thing I saw effective at the time.
THank you for replying. Could you please elaborate what you mean by the "results got murky over time"? Im assuming that the boxscars have improved by 60% but the texture and pigmentation have gotten worse over time?
Well the skin was always delicate. Initially I judged I got 75-90% "cosmetic improvement" in depth and blending. Over time collagen loss might have exposed some more scarring to an extent that it's kind of like wrinkles up close or prone to wrinkling more. Yeah in general the texture was always tenuous or delicate and the skin felt like scar tissue. I think he went really deep so it caused texture issues and probably if I had to guess even nerve sensitivities/damage. But cosmetically yes it did improve tremendously. I guess you can say is it did the best it could and was great cosmetically but texture and delicateness was also always an issue. Over time it just felt like it unraveled a bit with collagen loss or other failed minor stuff.
Either way, acne scar damage is also going to cause damage and irregularities and texture issues too. So we are going to have it either way most likely even with more procedures. But procedures can make it more delicate. I guess the way to summarize what I got, it improved it 85% initially going that deep, but was flawed like texture is messy, created more delicacy especially over time, kind of fell to 50-60% with age or delicacy. In the end of course I'd take it over the alternative mostly for the cosmetic outcome, but it's not perfect, nothing is imo.
The biggest anger I have is the lack of a sustainable treatment and the risk to side effects. It's hard to find a very effective treatment that you're not totally gambling at making it worse or better or just wasting money nowadays. Some people respond well, others poorly. Many times you get a worse outcome. I know I tried a laser test and it made things worse just from a test. Probably in part from the delicate or texture nature of my skin. Many get lasers and respond quite well though, it's just very case specific and person specific too, and even then it's partially gambling.
Idk, maybe deeper dermabrasion is riskier but if it's done right it's more effective. I just don't see lasers doing the job on more troubling scars. Then again, dermabrasion only works if scars aren't too deep and can heal up properly probably. I had many icepicks but they weren't super deep either. That probably helped.