4 hours ago, ShockingTendency said:

Hi ya'll - I'm looking for top laser specialist recommendationsin CA, NY or FL. (who're skilled at ethnic skin types)

Over the last 2.5 years, I've seen Dr. Rullan + Dr. Weiner:

1. Dr. Rullan - 3X Subcision, 3X Phenol Cross, 2x Sculptra, little bit of HA for deep pits
2. Dr. Weiner - 2X Subcision, 2X RF Microneedling (Genius)

I've had massive improvements so far using the protocol above (which many others have also had success with).I highly recommend Rullan for aggressive subcision and cross; he's extremely thorough. I also recommend Dr. Weiner for RF and overall assessment of acne scars.

On my last visits with both Dr. Rullan and Dr. Weiner, they recommended few rounds of lasers as the next step for a lot of my textural / persistent box scars. This is because I'm mostly untethered, have mostly filled in ice picks, re-built significant volume in cheeks / temples from sculptra.

Dr. Rullan recommended doing full face erbium (he uses Pixel). And Dr. Weiner recommended many passes with Tixel (weak laser). Neither are experts in lasers, so I decided to try Dr. Goldman in San Diego since obiwan / BA considered him a laser expert.

My first treatment visit with Dr. Goldman was pretty underwhelming. We did ResurFX (non-ablative, fractional) for like 15 mins max where he targeted specific scars in a sniper fashion. There was no downtime and likely no results. Next visit, I will ask Goldman for a more aggressive protocol (ablative).

In the mean time, have ya'll had any success with any laser experts in the US who're skilled with ethnic skin types? (preferably CA, NY or FL areas)

Non-ablative to me means that you'll need 500 treatments for deep scars to see moderate improvement and that the doctor will get paid for performing a treatment with very little risk. When I talk about lasers on this forum, it's always ablative CO2 with risks. Maybe some people here have gotten non-ablative and seen results. I haven't.

If you're willing to accept the risks which includes hyperpigmentation and erythema (you WILL get this for weeks to months) andnew scarring (I mean it), then sign up for fractional CO2. I've gotten benefits and suffered side effects from it. Was it worth it? Yes. But it is not for everybody.

20 hours ago, Amanda Hall said:

Non-ablative to me means that you'll need 500 treatments for deep scars to see moderate improvement and that the doctor will get paid for performing a treatment with very little risk. When I talk about lasers on this forum, it's always ablative CO2 with risks. Maybe some people here have gotten non-ablative and seen results. I haven't.

If you're willing to accept the risks which includes hyperpigmentation and erythema (you WILL get this for weeks to months) andnew scarring (I mean it), then sign up for fractional CO2. I've gotten benefits and suffered side effects from it. Was it worth it? Yes. But it is not for everybody.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. No risk = no effects. @Amanda Hall

1) Have you tried fractional erbium? In theory, seems to have less side effects than CO2 especially for ethnic skin types

2) Who did you see for your CO2?

2 hours ago, ShockingTendency said:

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too. No risk = no effects. @Amanda Hall

1) Have you tried fractional erbium? In theory, seems to have less side effects than CO2 especially for ethnic skin types

2) Who did you see for your CO2?

Yeah, did Erbium twice and got no results. Erbium isn't as powerful as CO2 but it's definitely safer as it took only days for the scabbing to come off. I've seen Dr. Lim perform Erbium and he got deep but I don't think many doctors use the laser that way. I wouldn't get them on my deep scars but if I had very superficial textural issuesor wrinkles in the future, I'd consider it. But I could also just do TCA peels...