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I was wondering about lasers and other ablative procedures and their purpose. Is it to just smooth everything over once the deep scars have been fixed? Or can they improve actual deep scars?
Personally, I have a bad experience with skin resurfacing procedures (although I have never done lasers, just peels and dermabrasion). They have never given me any results whatsoever. I heal fine, but my skin afterwards is exactly the same as it used to be. Not even the most surface level scars have been remotely changed. The only thing that ever made any difference is surgery, namely punch elevations.
Has anyone had any real success treating deep scars (or any kind of scars, for that matter) with just lasers/dermabrasion?
Lasers are good to fix texture issues after other treatments for scars. I know because I've tried and after the swelling goes down 2-3 weeks later they all appear again. If you have ice pick, boxcar, or rolling scars look into subcision, CROSS, fillers, and microneedling. If you're not sure about your scars see a dermatologist. If the doctor wants to do laser, seek someone else.
By themselves they don't do much of anything. Lasers only help soften the sharp edges of scarring, but do not lift the skin. That's one of those lies that the laser companies keep trying to perpetuate but never actually is documented clearly. You have to do other things like subcision and fillers to lift up the individual scars and then possibly use resurfacing techniques like lasers / peels / dermabrasion to efface the edges.
That's why patients should avoid being pushed directly to lasers first. It is the last step, if necessary at all, in treating scars. If someone is trying to push you into lasers, it's because they're trying to recoup their costs on their $100K lasers.
