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So I decided to buck up and go for my 5th Fraxel (wow how time flies). I talked to my nurses about my feelings and they told me they can see a difference but they understand how I feel since I'm the one who see's myself everyday. One nurse even said we will talk to the doctor about it and lets see what he wants to do for your next move. I felt like saying, I'm done after this. Another nurse came in to add some more numbing cream to my face 10 mins before the doctor came in and she asked me why I was doing Fraxel that my skin looked great ( i wonder if they told her to compliment me, who knows maybe I'm being paranoid lol) The doctor came in to look at me before they put the blue dye on and he seems to think I look so much better. He left to go look at the pictures they took before they put the numbing cream on because I told him the numbing cream makes my face puffy (he handed me a mirror and asked if I thought my face was swollen just from all of the numbing creams and I said yes) when he came back he brought my whole file with me so I could look at the before pics up until the ones they took before my 4th fraxel on Jan 3rd and I have to admit it does look better. He even showed me my pictures from 4 years ago before I did the Smoothbeam, VBeam and Yag lasers and WOW my skin looked HORRIBLE then but honestly the camera they used back then isn't nearly as well set up as what they have now. The lighting was different, the photos looked more yellow. Now they have a really nice set up, a whole room with the walls covered in black stuff. They have a trolly type machine that the super fancy camera rests on with a little dolly type thing so they can take pictures from every angle. So I will admit I have come a long way with these lasers in the past 4 years. So that made me feel a lot better. 
So enough about me feeling a bit better about things I have news on the Fraxle front.
There is a new tip coming out soon so they won't even have to use the blue dye anymore....NO MORE BLUE DYE 
I also asked about Fraxel coming up with the Fraxel 3 and he said yes, he has heard about it. It will be more ablative but he's not sure if people will want to deal with the down time so I don't think he will be investing in it as of yet.
Now for even more news my settings:
I discussed my concerns with him and the KJ settings and he seemed to understand and was willing to work with me. He still thinks higher levels are best and what is needed for acne scarring like mine. He also told me there are 2 higher settings then what he has done on me. 
He said he has a prototype machine and he asked if I wanted to go up another level on my scarred areas and remain at Level 10 40 MJs. He also said he would go over my scarred areas that I was concerned about a few more times.
We did Energy 40,
Treatment Level R1 something I wasn't aware of or have heard of anyone doing
Density 600
Passes 10 and additional passes on my cheeck and heavliy scarred areas around my mouth (marrionette lines with moderate scarring)
KJ 3.74
He said I will be more swollen and the recovery will be longer.
I am very swollen right now and extremely red. This usually doesn't happen until the day after treatment. I can only imagine what I am going to look like tomorrow when I wake up. 
I just hope I am ok to go to work Sunday evening. I can't take anymore time off.
I'm going back in a month for him to take a look at me . The nurse said, perhaps he will want to do another treatment but I'm not so sure I can afford it so maybe he will work with me on that area. He's done it before.
They are going to email me or mail me my pictures too so hopefully that will help me to see even more the improvment people in the office see. Hopefully they will email them to me so I can share them here.
I also briefly talked to him about fillers and currently he's using Juvaderm. He said he used it on his sister the other day and he didn't even have to numb her. He said there are a lot of new fillers coming out soon.
Troubled, what do you think about my KJ settings now? This seems to be much better. I know for a fact he covered more areas this time and went back over the whole cheeck area 2 to 4 times and then an additional 2 times on the areas that bother me.
I'm feeling a little better about this whole thing today. I think I have just spent to much time, energy and money on it at this point I am ready to be done with it and move on.
how is subcission and excission different?also its been awhile since i posted. my last treatment was at 24mjs, fraxel 1. my next and 4th fraxel treatment will be in about 3 weeks or so, and i plan to go 30mjs on scarred areas with extra passes and doing 24mjs on full face, let me know if anyone has any experienced opinions and thoughts....
oh yea, i have very light white skin and fraxel seems to make it whiter, lol, cept i'm still pinkish and reddish at some part.
Simply,
Subcision is a technique where a needle is used underneath the skin to break up connective tissue under the scar and build collagen. It differs from excision in that there is no cutting of skin tissue involved. Often times subcision can be equally if not more effective then excision providing the scar is amenable to the procedure. Hope this helps. How have your Fraxel results been coming along so far?
HEY troubled,
its always great to hear from you. my fraxel treatment so far is doing good, i think this is the right treatment for me, i felt that being aggressive along with a strict diet is crucial. so far so good, i am very happy with my results so far. some whiteheads wit reddish form on my face right now that is kinda getting me down, oh well, i asked for it bytriggering a higher testosterone effect based upon vivid pictures, lol, thats an intellectual way of saying i saw some nudie pixs, lmao.
i have a question for you troubled! what is the highest mjs you have ever done with fraxel and what is the total number of treatment have you done so far? you probably stated this somewhere int he past but i rather just ask you again for i am considering going to 24mjs full face and 30mjs on bad areas with lots of multiple passes since it will be my 4th one until 6 more months then i will regroup n decide on what to do. yea sorry my typing is a lil bad with slang and spelling, yada yada, lol.
next does anybody know of or recomend a great moisturizer?? i was thinking of creme de la mer today but its somewhat really expensive, apparently $100 for a 1oz jar...uhh, and it claims to be a miracle cream..lol.. i dont know, just tryna stay positive, i sure hope everyone else is doing good!
oh yea, and as far as subcission is, i am considering doing it after my 6 month post 4th treatment of fraxel is done and then going in for another round of fraxel perhaps, i mean my scars are not deep at all, its just the spots that they are located bugs me the most, front right cheek.. my scars are mostly atrophic and hypertrophic acne scars according to my doc's notes. ok thats it for now. hth
Simply,
I have experimented with the original Fraxel 15-25 mj 1500-2000mtz but discontinued and changed doctors early in favor of seeing a friend who practices plastic surgery in Chicago as he is in the process of upgrading to Fraxel 2. The upgrade is expected to be finished in early February so I have been patiently waiting until then.
Regarding settings, I would recommend following Billyboy's treatment protocol since he has gone about as aggressive as can safely be done with the original Fraxel short of going for 3 rounds of treatments.
I am curious, how have your hypertrophic scars responded to Fraxel? Any changes?
T_S
I guess there are good days s for me, my skin looks amazing in the morning, and sometimes perfect at night, but i try not to think about it or look in the mirror too much and just hope for the best, sad to say my appointment for the next fraxel in feb 16th has been canceled, i'm not sure if my boss can let me take some time off earlier to do this, and i dont wanna go to work right after the fraxel...hrms...
how is subcission and excission different?also its been awhile since i posted. my last treatment was at 24mjs, fraxel 1. my next and 4th fraxel treatment will be in about 3 weeks or so, and i plan to go 30mjs on scarred areas with extra passes and doing 24mjs on full face, let me know if anyone has any experienced opinions and thoughts....
oh yea, i have very light white skin and fraxel seems to make it whiter, lol, cept i'm still pinkish and reddish at some part.
Simply,
Subcision is a technique where a needle is used underneath the skin to break up connective tissue under the scar and build collagen. It differs from excision in that there is no cutting of skin tissue involved. Often times subcision can be equally if not more effective then excision providing the scar is amenable to the procedure. Hope this helps. How have your Fraxel results been coming along so far?
HEY troubled,
its always great to hear from you. my fraxel treatment so far is doing good, i think this is the right treatment for me, i felt that being aggressive along with a strict diet is crucial. so far so good, i am very happy with my results so far. some whiteheads wit reddish form on my face right now that is kinda getting me down, oh well, i asked for it bytriggering a higher testosterone effect based upon vivid pictures, lol, thats an intellectual way of saying i saw some nudie pixs, lmao.
i have a question for you troubled! what is the highest mjs you have ever done with fraxel and what is the total number of treatment have you done so far? you probably stated this somewhere int he past but i rather just ask you again for i am considering going to 24mjs full face and 30mjs on bad areas with lots of multiple passes since it will be my 4th one until 6 more months then i will regroup n decide on what to do. yea sorry my typing is a lil bad with slang and spelling, yada yada, lol.
next does anybody know of or recomend a great moisturizer?? i was thinking of creme de la mer today but its somewhat really expensive, apparently $100 for a 1oz jar...uhh, and it claims to be a miracle cream..lol.. i dont know, just tryna stay positive, i sure hope everyone else is doing good!
oh yea, and as far as subcission is, i am considering doing it after my 6 month post 4th treatment of fraxel is done and then going in for another round of fraxel perhaps, i mean my scars are not deep at all, its just the spots that they are located bugs me the most, front right cheek.. my scars are mostly atrophic and hypertrophic acne scars according to my doc's notes. ok thats it for now. hth
Hi Simply Me, Congrats on your improvement. I'm very happy for you. I had never used a moisturizer before because I have oily skin, so I thought I didn't need one. Someone recommended md formulations moisture defense antioxidant hydrating gel(a long name, huh?) and I love it. It's actually for oily and problem prone skin. I don't know if you're dealing with that or not, but it feels wonderful on my skin. It's not too cheap. The cheapest I've found is $44.00, but it lasts quite awhile. Good luck on your future Fraxel!
where can i buy this moisturizer?? i've considered creme la mer but its too expensive, i might try and get a sample though. anyone else recomend a good moisturizer?
how is subcission and excission different?also its been awhile since i posted. my last treatment was at 24mjs, fraxel 1. my next and 4th fraxel treatment will be in about 3 weeks or so, and i plan to go 30mjs on scarred areas with extra passes and doing 24mjs on full face, let me know if anyone has any experienced opinions and thoughts....
oh yea, i have very light white skin and fraxel seems to make it whiter, lol, cept i'm still pinkish and reddish at some part.
Simply,
Subcision is a technique where a needle is used underneath the skin to break up connective tissue under the scar and build collagen. It differs from excision in that there is no cutting of skin tissue involved. Often times subcision can be equally if not more effective then excision providing the scar is amenable to the procedure. Hope this helps. How have your Fraxel results been coming along so far?
HEY troubled,
its always great to hear from you. my fraxel treatment so far is doing good, i think this is the right treatment for me, i felt that being aggressive along with a strict diet is crucial. so far so good, i am very happy with my results so far. some whiteheads wit reddish form on my face right now that is kinda getting me down, oh well, i asked for it bytriggering a higher testosterone effect based upon vivid pictures, lol, thats an intellectual way of saying i saw some nudie pixs, lmao.
i have a question for you troubled! what is the highest mjs you have ever done with fraxel and what is the total number of treatment have you done so far? you probably stated this somewhere int he past but i rather just ask you again for i am considering going to 24mjs full face and 30mjs on bad areas with lots of multiple passes since it will be my 4th one until 6 more months then i will regroup n decide on what to do. yea sorry my typing is a lil bad with slang and spelling, yada yada, lol.
next does anybody know of or recomend a great moisturizer?? i was thinking of creme de la mer today but its somewhat really expensive, apparently $100 for a 1oz jar...uhh, and it claims to be a miracle cream..lol.. i dont know, just tryna stay positive, i sure hope everyone else is doing good!
oh yea, and as far as subcission is, i am considering doing it after my 6 month post 4th treatment of fraxel is done and then going in for another round of fraxel perhaps, i mean my scars are not deep at all, its just the spots that they are located bugs me the most, front right cheek.. my scars are mostly atrophic and hypertrophic acne scars according to my doc's notes. ok thats it for now. hth
Hi Simply Me, Congrats on your improvement. I'm very happy for you. I had never used a moisturizer before because I have oily skin, so I thought I didn't need one. Someone recommended md formulations moisture defense antioxidant hydrating gel(a long name, huh?) and I love it. It's actually for oily and problem prone skin. I don't know if you're dealing with that or not, but it feels wonderful on my skin. It's not too cheap. The cheapest I've found is $44.00, but it lasts quite awhile. Good luck on your future Fraxel!
where can i buy this moisturizer?? i've considered creme la mer but its too expensive, i might try and get a sample though. anyone else recomend a good moisturizer?
I either buy it at Ulta, or you can order it online at skinstore.com
I'm home from 5th treatment today. I'm finished w/ treatments. My doc. didn't have a printer set up so I couldn't view those photos. I will take a 6 month break and continue w/ Obagi. Has anyone tried DUAC? My doc. prescribe that to me for acne (spot treat). I'm breaking out on my forehead.
JJP: I really think you should see results based on your settings n all. Looking forward to hear your next update.
jjp007,
Glad to hear about your positive results. Thank you for the updates on your photo reviews and noticable progress. I think many of us tend to study ourselves too much and it is very difficult to see the changes as they occur. It is nice for all of us to hear that you were able to see proof yourself~
Annde
So I decided to buck up and go for my 5th Fraxel (wow how time flies). I talked to my nurses about my feelings and they told me they can see a difference but they understand how I feel since I'm the one who see's myself everyday. One nurse even said we will talk to the doctor about it and lets see what he wants to do for your next move. I felt like saying, I'm done after this. Another nurse came in to add some more numbing cream to my face 10 mins before the doctor came in and she asked me why I was doing Fraxel that my skin looked great ( i wonder if they told her to compliment me, who knows maybe I'm being paranoid lol) The doctor came in to look at me before they put the blue dye on and he seems to think I look so much better. He left to go look at the pictures they took before they put the numbing cream on because I told him the numbing cream makes my face puffy (he handed me a mirror and asked if I thought my face was swollen just from all of the numbing creams and I said yes) when he came back he brought my whole file with me so I could look at the before pics up until the ones they took before my 4th fraxel on Jan 3rd and I have to admit it does look better. He even showed me my pictures from 4 years ago before I did the Smoothbeam, VBeam and Yag lasers and WOW my skin looked HORRIBLE then but honestly the camera they used back then isn't nearly as well set up as what they have now. The lighting was different, the photos looked more yellow. Now they have a really nice set up, a whole room with the walls covered in black stuff. They have a trolly type machine that the super fancy camera rests on with a little dolly type thing so they can take pictures from every angle. So I will admit I have come a long way with these lasers in the past 4 years. So that made me feel a lot better. :dance: So enough about me feeling a bit better about things I have news on the Fraxle front.There is a new tip coming out soon so they won't even have to use the blue dye anymore....NO MORE BLUE DYE :clap: I also asked about Fraxel coming up with the Fraxel 3 and he said yes, he has heard about it. It will be more ablative but he's not sure if people will want to deal with the down time so I don't think he will be investing in it as of yet.
Now for even more news my settings:
I discussed my concerns with him and the KJ settings and he seemed to understand and was willing to work with me. He still thinks higher levels are best and what is needed for acne scarring like mine. He also told me there are 2 higher settings then what he has done on me. 😯
He said he has a prototype machine and he asked if I wanted to go up another level on my scarred areas and remain at Level 10 40 MJs. He also said he would go over my scarred areas that I was concerned about a few more times.
We did Energy 40,
Treatment Level R1 something I wasn't aware of or have heard of anyone doing
Density 600
Passes 10 and additional passes on my cheeck and heavliy scarred areas around my mouth (marrionette lines with moderate scarring)
KJ 3.74
He said I will be more swollen and the recovery will be longer.
I am very swollen right now and extremely red. This usually doesn't happen until the day after treatment. I can only imagine what I am going to look like tomorrow when I wake up. :sick: I just hope I am ok to go to work Sunday evening. I can't take anymore time off.
I'm going back in a month for him to take a look at me . The nurse said, perhaps he will want to do another treatment but I'm not so sure I can afford it so maybe he will work with me on that area. He's done it before.
They are going to email me or mail me my pictures too so hopefully that will help me to see even more the improvment people in the office see. Hopefully they will email them to me so I can share them here.
I also briefly talked to him about fillers and currently he's using Juvaderm. He said he used it on his sister the other day and he didn't even have to numb her. He said there are a lot of new fillers coming out soon.
Troubled, what do you think about my KJ settings now? This seems to be much better. I know for a fact he covered more areas this time and went back over the whole cheeck area 2 to 4 times and then an additional 2 times on the areas that bother me.
I'm feeling a little better about this whole thing today. I think I have just spent to much time, energy and money on it at this point I am ready to be done with it and move on.
JJP,
It sounds like your doctor is willing to work with you and I think you are making the right decision to go as aggressive with your treatments as your doctor allows. If you decide to pursue Fraxel further you might consider asking him to continue increasing kJ with each subsequent treatment until you are satisfied with the results. I am glad to hear your scars are improving compared to your pretreatment photos. Fraxel works so slowly that it is easy to lose sight of results day to day.
I tried to use the print option for this topic, however it only shows the 1st 15 pages of the topic.Does anyone know how to print this entire thread out in a printer friendly format?
You might try referring to the help section or e-mailing a moderator if that proves unsuccessful.
JJP,It sounds like your doctor is willing to work with you and I think you are making the right decision to go as aggressive with your treatments as your doctor allows. If you decide to pursue Fraxel further you might consider asking him to continue increasing kJ with each subsequent treatment until you are satisfied with the results. I am glad to hear your scars are improving compared to your pretreatment photos. Fraxel works so slowly that it is easy to lose sight of results day to day.
Yes, I was expecting the doctor to tell me he knows what he is doing and not listen to me but it seems he was willing to try something a little different and he showed me my pictures and asked me to show him what areas really trouble me and he would go back and do mulitple passes in addition to the 10. My scars and texture have very much improved since I started all of these laser treatments almost 4 years ago so that was good to see. Hopefully I will only continue to improve. I am going back in a month and if he thinks I should I will do another Fraxel, if I can afford it which right now isn't looking like the best time finacially.......he said there is still one level higher I can go but I could barely tolerate this one and the doctor had to lower it a few times for me to be comfortable. I know he went up and down with the settings a few times depending on what area he was treating he also would let one area cool off and then return to it with the higher settings. This time I had a couple tears running down my face from my eyes watering. Man, it's painful!
I'm starting to flake today and the swelling has started to get better a little bit.
I actually can't wait to get back to my normal skin care system as starting and stopping during treatments isn't the best for my skin. The nurse gave me a few more samples of Klaron which seems to help with the post fraxel breakouts.
Hello everyone,
This will be my last and final post, I have emailed back Troubled_Skin as to why I am leaving. The reason is that stress does not contribute to the healing process and also I have learned about the Laws of Attraction and decided to pursue it fully. Also i am now a positive energy which will only attract positive energy instead of a lot of negative energies here, no pun intended. I will be back, I promise to return in 7 months from now, maybe 8 months, and report back my status as of the final results. I wish everyone the best of luck and I will be abandoning this site until then. Take cares and listen to your heart, believe in yourself, and nothing is impossible, the universe is your catalog so start ordering from it. Picture yourself scar free and "perfect" and i promise you that in time, you will be, it might be in 30 days, it might be in months but remember this, no matter how bad it looks at the moment, reality always changes. I am happy to have met such wonderful people here and I owe it to them to come back to this site in 7 months to help. I also decided that in the future, I will become a Dermatologist to help other people. Last but not least, remember this all...
"WHETHER YOU THINK YOU CAN OR CAN'T. YOU ARE RIGHT" HENRY FORD
"THE ONLY TIME YOU LOSE IS WHEN YOU GIVE UP" CESAR CHAVEZ
YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK THEREFORE IF YOU ASK, AND ANSWER, IT WILL MANIFEST AND BECOME REALITY AS THE UNIVERSE ATTRACTS TO YOU.
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, IF YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, HARVEST YOUR POWER, AND WE ARE ALL BODIES OF ENERGIES IN A SEA OF MOVING ENERGIES.
THE BODY STOPS HEALING WHEN YOU ARE STRESSED.
THE BODY RECREATES ITSELF SO THAT IN TIME, NO PART OF YOUR BODY IS THE SAME ORGANS THAT IT WAS A CERTAIN TIME AGO.
DIET IS CRUCIAL, AND THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE MIND, BODY, AND SPIRIT.
WE WALK ON EARTH BUT WE LIVE IN OUR MIND.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
EVERYBODY WILL BE SCAR FREE ONE DAY, KNOW THAT CAUSE I KNOW ITS TRUE, AND YOU SHOULD TOO...GOOD BYE AND I LOVE YOU ALL.
JJP,It sounds like your doctor is willing to work with you and I think you are making the right decision to go as aggressive with your treatments as your doctor allows. If you decide to pursue Fraxel further you might consider asking him to continue increasing kJ with each subsequent treatment until you are satisfied with the results. I am glad to hear your scars are improving compared to your pretreatment photos. Fraxel works so slowly that it is easy to lose sight of results day to day.
Yes, I was expecting the doctor to tell me he knows what he is doing and not listen to me but it seems he was willing to try something a little different and he showed me my pictures and asked me to show him what areas really trouble me and he would go back and do mulitple passes in addition to the 10. My scars and texture have very much improved since I started all of these laser treatments almost 4 years ago so that was good to see. Hopefully I will only continue to improve. I am going back in a month and if he thinks I should I will do another Fraxel, if I can afford it which right now isn't looking like the best time finacially.......he said there is still one level higher I can go but I could barely tolerate this one and the doctor had to lower it a few times for me to be comfortable. I know he went up and down with the settings a few times depending on what area he was treating he also would let one area cool off and then return to it with the higher settings. This time I had a couple tears running down my face from my eyes watering. Man, it's painful!
I'm starting to flake today and the swelling has started to get better a little bit.
I actually can't wait to get back to my normal skin care system as starting and stopping during treatments isn't the best for my skin. The nurse gave me a few more samples of Klaron which seems to help with the post fraxel breakouts.
Hi jjp, I'm so happy your doctor is working with you on this. I've been where your at with wondering if it'll ever get better. When I look back at pictures of myself a few years ago, I just cringe. I'm still not satisfied with the way I look, and even though it is much better, I still would like to have perfection! I'm sure most people don't realize how much physical pain we all go through trying to look better. I really think you're going to see some good results this time, and this will all be worth it. Best of luck to you!
Hi everybody out there!
I am new here, coming from Vienna, (Austria - Europe), really interessted in your thread, spend 2 days reading all 171 pages (puh!) and am rather confused now. does it help or not? Fraxel is not that popular in Austria yet than in the USA. But I am open minded to all new possibilities fighting my damn acne scars, specially laser methods. I had a CO2 full face Oct 2004 and it improved my acne scars, I guess 50%. I often thought about doing it a second time, but the procedure/healing time was awful, therefore I am now interessted in Fraxel. I have an appointment for my 1st treatment on Feb 14. My doc said it will help my scars (she won‚´t use that blue die thing, is it therefore the new Fraxel 2?). I do not have ice picks, do not know how to describe my scars, I got a lot of them all over my face, mostly cheeks. I‚´ve seen some examples here in this thread and don‚´t find them bad at all. So I think I have got the deeper kind of... I‚´m also confused about the different downtimes.... Because the main reason why I don‚´t want a CO2 again is the long downtime, I could not go in public for 3 weeks! But some of you have a downtime of 5-7 days which is long,too, because my doc told me I can cover my skin with make up immediately after treatment. Cannot believe that! Also I am very concerned about the break outs. I am still suffering from little acne sometimes (before periode, yep I‚´m female) and hate it, can‚´t imagine to have worse break outs after each treatment, that would depress me very, very much.
I appreciate this thread, it is very interesting. Thanks to all who keep posting their experiences. 
)
I think the downtime, even at aggressive settings, is more like 3 days depending how sensitive you are about having a red face. Several posters have commented about not seeing improvement when in fact there is some. I completely agree with this. We tend to forget how we looked before and we are very critical. That said, I am of the opinion that you have to have a major improvment to notice much change in harshly lit close ups of deeper scars. The analogy I draw is a hole in the ground. From a distance it is not noticeable but may become more so with shadows created by strong angled lighting. If you fill the hole 50%, it will still be just as noticealbe in those conditions, unless it is a very shallo hole. In which case, filling a shallow scar by 50% may get it close to imperceptable. A deeper scar may take 90% correction to get to this same state. As long as it is perecetible, we don't notice much change.
I have been a littled disapointed by fraxel efficacy for scarring and I think it is because of the above factors. Most people have had problems with CO2 or minimal improvement. In your case, I might be inclined to accept the larger downtime and go with CO2 because you know what to expect and had a great result last time. I would want to have the same Doc, etc to improve my chances of getting another good result. That said, just make sure it is ok to have 2 CO2s in a short duration. Clearly, I am not in posotion to give good advice, but I think there is merit in sticking with a procedure you know and had success with. I personally would not use CO2 for myself, but it might be appropriate for you given past success.
Billyboy, thanks for sharing your point of view. You are right. CO2 helped my scars, but not the tone of my skin. I also suffered a long time from redness and milia after CO2 (2 months or so..) I do not have really deep holes. But they are stronger than some others here. But I do not have ice picks. Maybe I have got those rolling scars. But cannot translate that in German therefore I am not sure. I wanna try Fraxel also to improve the complexion of my skin. I want it to look smoother and more even. i also know that I cannot erase scars. I am blonde, green eyed, have got a pale face. Never had problems with hyperpigmentation after CO2, so I do not have to expect one with Fraxel, do I? Sorry for bothering, but there are so many thoughts and worries going round my head right now....
checked it out, I definately have got rolling scars on my cheeks, and a few boxcar scars on my temples, which did not improve quite good with the CO2. But mostly I am concerned about my cheeks.... Fraxel should help pigment and the risk of a pigment problem is way, way lower than with CO2. I got a nice improvement in pigment and tone from fraxel. Skin looks younger, but still have lots of scars. Fortunately, they are shallow and small, but I make up for that with quantity.
Hi all. I have never posted before, but have been reading your messages for weeks now on Fraxel. Today was my first treatment for acne scars. I asked the Dr to be aggressive and boy, what she aggressive..ouch!! 
It really hurt, but if it helps, then it's worth it. I signed up for 3 treatments for $2400.00. It's Fraxel 1 and she did 8 passes over the heavily scared areas on my cheeks. She started on level 10 and went up. She gave me 6 shots to numb the middle part of my face and then used the numbing cream. It still was pretty painful on the outer part of my face and around my eyes.
It's almost 3 hours later and I am very swollen and have some blisters forming. I have been icing my face and putting on the lotion they prescribed me. I will sleep upright tonight and hopefully be able to see in the morning.
Anyway, good luck to everyone and thanks for all your posts regarding your experiences.
I just had my third Pixel (works the same as Fraxel) Laser done on Friday, January 26, 2007. I have hypertrophic acne scars on my chest and shoulders and this is what my dermatologist recommends for treatment of same.
I have not noticed a difference in the reduction of my scars, however, through research and discussion with my dermatologist, it may take six or more treatments. I have noticed that my scars are not as shiny as they were, which is something good.
In my limited experience so far, the post treatment can be painful, akin to a very bad sunburn. And yes, I had to sleep sitting up the first night and could not stand anything laying against my skin. The only thing that I was allowed to apply to the skin was a mineral water gel that cools down the skin instantly. The product line is Eau Thermale Avene. It's also wonderful to use post chemical peels. Right now the skin is still tender and raw in spots, but is starting to peel. Tylenol (extra strength) is good to take for the pain and ice packs are also helpful.
Another thing: the dermatologist takes pictures each time before a treatment. He just invested in a digital camera/computer program that can take the photos and "merge" them for comparison. I don't know if I'm explaining that correctly, since I still use a regular 35mm camera, LOL, but maybe the more computer literate will understand.
I wish you all good luck in your quest for better looking skin. I have had these scars for 39 years and it would be great to see some improvement.
I just had my third Pixel (works the same as Fraxel) Laser done on Friday, January 26, 2007. I have hypertrophic acne scars on my chest and shoulders and this is what my dermatologist recommends for treatment of same.I have not noticed a difference in the reduction of my scars, however, through research and discussion with my dermatologist, it may take six or more treatments. I have noticed that my scars are not as shiny as they were, which is something good.
In my limited experience so far, the post treatment can be painful, akin to a very bad sunburn. And yes, I had to sleep sitting up the first night and could not stand anything laying against my skin. The only thing that I was allowed to apply to the skin was a mineral water gel that cools down the skin instantly. The product line is Eau Thermale Avene. It's also wonderful to use post chemical peels. Right now the skin is still tender and raw in spots, but is starting to peel. Tylenol (extra strength) is good to take for the pain and ice packs are also helpful.
Another thing: the dermatologist takes pictures each time before a treatment. He just invested in a digital camera/computer program that can take the photos and "merge" them for comparison. I don't know if I'm explaining that correctly, since I still use a regular 35mm camera, LOL, but maybe the more computer literate will understand.
I wish you all good luck in your quest for better looking skin. I have had these scars for 39 years and it would be great to see some improvement.
According to my doctor, Pixel is not as powerful as Fraxel. It's not exactly the same thing.