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I just had a consultation with a doctor here in Seattle about Fraxel. He recomended 10 Fraxel treatments along with a thermage treatment that would help tighten the skin and help stimulate the colagen growth. Of course the Fraxel is $1,250 per treatment and the Thermage is $2,500. For a grand total of $15,000! And I would see between a 40% to 60% improvement. There's no way I can afford that! But my scarring covers both my cheeks and one of my temples, so I would be very happy with that kind of improvement but I didn't even make that much money all last year! 
I just had a consultation with a doctor here in Seattle about Fraxel. He recomended 10 Fraxel treatments along with a thermage treatment that would help tighten the skin and help stimulate the colagen growth. Of course the Fraxel is $1,250 per treatment and the Thermage is $2,500. For a grand total of $15,000! And I would see between a 40% to 60% improvement. There's no way I can afford that! But my scarring covers both my cheeks and one of my temples, so I would be very happy with that kind of improvement but I didn't even make that much money all last year! :doh:
I think that Doctor is insane. :crazy2: 😀
First of all, I am very leery of Doctors still offering Thermage. :ninja: Take a look around on other beauty message boards. There are several stories online from patients, with not so happy endings, who did Thermage. So that's Strike ONE. Strike TWO is convincing you , you need both right off the bat. Strike THREE, would be recommending 10 F#@$%# treatments, instead of the standard 4 to 5 recommended. You don't even see significant results until at least way after the 3rd treatment. That's so dishonest. He gets a FOUL ball for charging $1250, although that might be the standard in that area - so no strike. Either way he should be banned from baseball and cosmetic surgery.
Keep looking around and do your research. That Doc sounds like bad news. 🙁 I don't even know, if they still do it or how bad your scarring but have you considered CO2 laser? It's much stronger and less expensive than the whole lot you mentioned. Anyway - good luck! :wavey:
So I just had my 3rd treatment Friday... My Doc started at level 20 on my forehead this time, but I started getting a few spots with pinpoint bleeding, or little red spots. We backed it down to level 18 for the rest of my face. Total energy was around 9 Kj and it came out to about 1160 MTZ after all the passes..
Wow, I was a lot more red this time; the swelling still wasn't that bad, it was mostly gone within 24 hours. The redness is almost gone now, but you can still kind of see stripes on my face from the passes of the laser.
I have my 4th treatment in 2 weeks..
Sean...
I went ahead and scheduled my treatments for March 6th. I am getting 4 of them for 2500$. The PA who does the fraxel had nothing but good things too say aboutthe procedure. She said that they have seen remarkable results on everyone who has undergone the procedure. She said she sees over 30% in wrinkle reduction as well as vastly improved skin tone in all her patients.
She said it takes about 30 minutes for a full face, does this sound about right??
Annie/kooky good luck. I had 5 fraxels and the biggest improvement was to my skin tone. It has been 6 months since my last fraxel and i can say I still have all my improvements and also have had very few break outs (My active acne is much less active now LOL) I would rate my acne scar improvements to be atleast 30% to my worst scars and even better to my moderate scars. Annie and I are using the same doctor in west palm and she does a great job. I am now 4 weeks post my first sculptra treatment and so far now real improvement but I understand it can be 8 weeks before you begin to notice anything and I am estimating I will need atleast 3 treatments to get the level of skin plumping up that will lift up my sunken cheek and chin areas.
Kooky I assume since you have had A B/A before fraxel that it is OK to have fraxel even if you have B/A in your face? Did you find that B/A helped reshape or plump up large areas like cheek and chin or did you just try to fill the acne scars?
Thanks Floridaguy...that's good to hear that your improvements are holding from 6 months ago. As far as I know, it is OK to have Fraxel after BA. I haven't had any problems so far. I think the BA temporarily expands during the first couple of days (at the higher settings) but eventually settles back down to its original level within a week or so. I had BA injected for acne scars only but it's really meant for large volume deficits. It would work for sunken cheek and chin areas but I heard Sculptra is great for that too. I'd be patient and stick with the sculptra since it's FDA approved and BA is not. I heard clinic estetica no longer offers BA for acne scars. They now use Precise which is basically artefill using a saline carrier solution.
So I just had my 3rd treatment Friday... My Doc started at level 20 on my forehead this time, but I started getting a few spots with pinpoint bleeding, or little red spots. We backed it down to level 18 for the rest of my face. Total energy was around 9 Kj and it came out to about 1160 MTZ after all the passes..
Wow, I was a lot more red this time; the swelling still wasn't that bad, it was mostly gone within 24 hours. The redness is almost gone now, but you can still kind of see stripes on my face from the passes of the laser.
I have my 4th treatment in 2 weeks..
Sean...
Thanks for the update Sean. JMHO, but I think pinpoint bleeding from the fraxel laser is good for your scarring and may give you more improvement.
You could get a free FRAXEL consultation from Dr. Rapaport in NJ. Keep in mind that he is expensive but he is very good. His site is http://www.cosmeticskin.com/skin-fraxel.shtml and his phone number is (201) 227-1555. Look for before and after pics.
Regards,
Mike
Do you work for Dr. Rappaport? Sadly, I don't think the people in those before and after pics are his actual patients. I've seen those same photos on other dermatologist web sites who offer fraxel.
ATTN: Most Fraxel before/after photos are taken directly from www.fraxel.com and are not your doctors actual patients.
I know for sure the ones on Rappaport are from the fraxel slideshow since I've viewed both several times.
Ask your doctor for actual photos of his/her patients. Although the treatment is new, if a doctor is truly dedicated to using Fraxel they should have at least a few photos from actual patients.
ATTN: There is free fraxel in NYC if you qualify.
I just called but unfortunately I took minocycline for a few days after my laser hair treatment in January. It must be at least a few months since you took anything from the -mycin antibiotic family or used topical retanoids.
Call 212-686-7306 and ask for Lynda Suarez ext (608). Website is www.laserskinsurgery.com
Thanks "Headsup"!
Hellzyah! I got in!!!!!! I am very excited. I live in Raleigh but will be flying up there next week!!!!! I hope I get in, but if not, it was worth it just to go to NYC for the weekend!
Hey guys, i have a problem right now. I am scheduled for my first fraxel o the 10th of this month with dr nestor in aventura. Today I was in my boyfriends dermatologist office bc my bf had an appointment for ringworm, and i mentioned fraxel to the derm and asked if he knew about it and if he reccommended anyone, and he said that a young 21 year old with mild to moderate scarring like me should do chemical peels and retin a before jumping into something like that. He said that it was a lot of money for somethign that may not work, and that the PA's doing it sounded bad to him (The doctor does not do the fraxel, his PA's do). He wants me to make an appt with him to discuss it but now i am all confused. I have heard that fraxel is the best thing out there for scarring, and that chemical peels dont do much. If anyone has any advice or info, please let me know!
Natalie I know what you are going through!
Just today I did some in depth research before committing to Fraxel. I found a lot of threads here talking about how wonderful chemical peels work for superficial scarring.
There is one guy named Reilly who posted pics and his skin went from moderatre scarring to perfect (and his pictures are actually in consistent lightinng)!
My scars are the most superficial kind--I refer to them as scarred pores--so it would seem to me one or two chemical peels would be all I need. However the down time with these peels is long (8-12 days) and the skin does scab.
I think fraxel definately won't hurt you and will probably give similar results to a peel given you complete 4 treatments. (Each treatment covers about 17 percent of the face.) There is perhaps 1-2 days down time with fraxel.
I guess it's a choice between money and down time, as well as finding a doctor that knows what they're doing. There are lots of stories about chemical peels gone wrong, but I haven't heard of fraxel making scars worse.
Most negative posts about fraxel have more to do with dissappointment than harm or lack of improvement. Pretty much everyone has had at least 25 percent improvement and others much more depending on the scar type.
Lastly, there are both positive and negative posts regarding the efficacy of fraxel on superficial scars. I read one post that said pores were reduced and superficial scars completely erased. However I read many others that said it had no effect on superficial scars and worked better for moderate scars.
Has anyone had good results on scarred pores with fraxel? It would seem such small scars like these could be completely erased. I mean mine are nothing like those shown on the fraxel website . . . I look even better than most of the after photos now.
Natalie I know what you are going through!
Just today I did some in depth research before committing to Fraxel. I found a lot of threads here talking about how wonderful chemical peels work for superficial scarring.
There is one guy named Reilly who posted pics and his skin went from moderatre scarring to perfect (and his pictures are actually in consistent lightinng)!
My scars are the most superficial kind--I refer to them as scarred pores--so it would seem to me one or two chemical peels would be all I need. However the down time with these peels is long (8-12 days) and the skin does scab.
I think fraxel definately won't hurt you and will probably give similar results to a peel given you complete 4 treatments. (Each treatment covers about 17 percent of the face.) There is perhaps 1-2 days down time with fraxel.
I guess it's a choice between money and down time, as well as finding a doctor that knows what they're doing. There are lots of stories about chemical peels gone wrong, but I haven't heard of fraxel making scars worse.
Most negative posts about fraxel have more to do with dissappointment than harm or lack of improvement. Pretty much everyone has had at least 25 percent improvement and others much more depending on the scar type.
Lastly, there are both positive and negative posts regarding the efficacy of fraxel on superficial scars. I read one post that said pores were reduced and superficial scars completely erased. However I read many others that said it had no effect on superficial scars and worked better for moderate scars.
Has anyone had good results on scarred pores with fraxel? It would seem such small scars like these could be completely erased. I mean mine are nothing like those shown on the fraxel website . . . I look even better than most of the after photos now.
my acne scarring is rolling mostly and mild to moderate in depth. My problem is that i have been on accutane twice which left my skin so sensitive that it does not have as much ability to heal as normal skin. I would imagine if my skin is so sensitive to scarring, then chemical peels and anything that makes me peel will scar me or at least give me superficial lines. It is tough spending 5000 dollars on something like this but it is worth it to me not to scar again and to improve, although i must say, i would like to improve at least 35 or 40%. It is something i have been saving for for years and its just really messing with my head with all these different doctors saying different things. It is also bugging me that the PA will be doing it although i have heard they are very trained and do it all day long. I know that the busy places that have been doing it alot have their PA's do it because its a simple procedure and the doctors have to do the invasive surgeries. Well i hope someone can help me out with my dilemma, so anyone's advice would help.
my acne scarring is rolling mostly and mild to moderate in depth. My problem is that i have been on accutane twice which left my skin so sensitive that it does not have as much ability to heal as normal skin. I would imagine if my skin is so sensitive to scarring, then chemical peels and anything that makes me peel will scar me or at least give me superficial lines. It is tough spending 5000 dollars on something like this but it is worth it to me not to scar again and to improve, although i must say, i would like to improve at least 35 or 40%. It is something i have been saving for for years and its just really messing with my head with all these different doctors saying different things. It is also bugging me that the PA will be doing it although i have heard they are very trained and do it all day long. I know that the busy places that have been doing it alot have their PA's do it because its a simple procedure and the doctors have to do the invasive surgeries. Well i hope someone can help me out with my dilemma, so anyone's advice would help.
Natalie,
The rate you mentioned ( 1500 $ per treatment ) sounds on a high side.
Is he the only doctor that does Fraxel in your area ? Pls. check with other doctors.
This is just a suggestion.....if you are skeptical about results, you can choose to treat only cheeks and chin ( or where ever scarring is concentrated ) and see if they give a better deal for that. I know, it's nice to treat everything at once but that way, even if you don't get "expected" results, you won't regret spending lot of money. If you get results, you can always do it on the other areas ( even though doing it in stages can be longer process and hassel ). But it's just a trade off.
my acne scarring is rolling mostly and mild to moderate in depth. My problem is that i have been on accutane twice which left my skin so sensitive that it does not have as much ability to heal as normal skin. I would imagine if my skin is so sensitive to scarring, then chemical peels and anything that makes me peel will scar me or at least give me superficial lines. It is tough spending 5000 dollars on something like this but it is worth it to me not to scar again and to improve, although i must say, i would like to improve at least 35 or 40%. It is something i have been saving for for years and its just really messing with my head with all these different doctors saying different things. It is also bugging me that the PA will be doing it although i have heard they are very trained and do it all day long. I know that the busy places that have been doing it alot have their PA's do it because its a simple procedure and the doctors have to do the invasive surgeries. Well i hope someone can help me out with my dilemma, so anyone's advice would help.
Natalie,
The rate you mentioned ( 1500 $ per treatment ) sounds on a high side.
Is he the only doctor that does Fraxel in your area ? Pls. check with other doctors.
This is just a suggestion.....if you are skeptical about results, you can choose to treat only cheeks and chin ( or where ever scarring is concentrated ) and see if they give a better deal for that. I know, it's nice to treat everything at once but that way, even if you don't get "expected" results, you won't regret spending lot of money. If you get results, you can always do it on the other areas ( even though doing it in stages can be longer process and hassel ). But it's just a trade off.
Theyre actually 5 treatments for 5000, so its 1000 per treatment which is average. The PA also mentioned that if the results are not very satisfactory and i need an extra treatment, the doctor may give me a discount on a 6th or maybe a free one. I understand what you are saying with the separate areas, but like you said its a longer more tedious process. I know there are about 6 docs in this area who do Fraxel, but i dont want to confuse myself even more by going to all of them, i have already gone to two.
If anyone has had good results with this, let me know. The PA said they had a lady with pretty severe scarring who got 60% improvement after 5 treatments. She said she has heard that you can get 80% improvement with Fraxel, but i havent heard that from many people so i dont know.
my acne scarring is rolling mostly and mild to moderate in depth. My problem is that i have been on accutane twice which left my skin so sensitive that it does not have as much ability to heal as normal skin. I would imagine if my skin is so sensitive to scarring, then chemical peels and anything that makes me peel will scar me or at least give me superficial lines. It is tough spending 5000 dollars on something like this but it is worth it to me not to scar again and to improve, although i must say, i would like to improve at least 35 or 40%. It is something i have been saving for for years and its just really messing with my head with all these different doctors saying different things. It is also bugging me that the PA will be doing it although i have heard they are very trained and do it all day long. I know that the busy places that have been doing it alot have their PA's do it because its a simple procedure and the doctors have to do the invasive surgeries. Well i hope someone can help me out with my dilemma, so anyone's advice would help.
Natalie,
The rate you mentioned ( 1500 $ per treatment ) sounds on a high side.
Is he the only doctor that does Fraxel in your area ? Pls. check with other doctors.
This is just a suggestion.....if you are skeptical about results, you can choose to treat only cheeks and chin ( or where ever scarring is concentrated ) and see if they give a better deal for that. I know, it's nice to treat everything at once but that way, even if you don't get "expected" results, you won't regret spending lot of money. If you get results, you can always do it on the other areas ( even though doing it in stages can be longer process and hassel ). But it's just a trade off.
Theyre actually 5 treatments for 5000, so its 1000 per treatment which is average. The PA also mentioned that if the results are not very satisfactory and i need an extra treatment, the doctor may give me a discount on a 6th or maybe a free one. I understand what you are saying with the separate areas, but like you said its a longer more tedious process. I know there are about 6 docs in this area who do Fraxel, but i dont want to confuse myself even more by going to all of them, i have already gone to two.
If anyone has had good results with this, let me know. The PA said they had a lady with pretty severe scarring who got 60% improvement after 5 treatments. She said she has heard that you can get 80% improvement with Fraxel, but i havent heard that from many people so i dont know.
yeah, 5000 for 5 is not that bad. I didn't mean to confuse you more.
I wish you good luck in your treatments and hope, you see nice results.
BTW, I just had my 3rd treatment 6 days back. And I think, I saw more improvement than the last 2 but I would like to wait for some more days to publish more details about it.
I am 10 days post my second Fraxel with Dr. Fitzpatrick I'm going to have four spaced 1 month apart. My results have been good to excellent. I had small icepicks and some scarred pores a few boxcars, the usual on cheeks, temples and chin. Just used Emu oil post-op red for about 3-4days swelling for 1-2days. Texture and scars have improved 20-25%. I didn't ask Dr. Fitzpatrick what settings or anything like that, he knows what to do. He is expensive but he is the best. I think the benefit being he knows the subtle details of the laser that makes all the difference.
i thought i' would share some of my experiences with the fraxel thus far. i have had 2 done already, and improvements are showing, most noteably, the edges of my scars have started to soften. i've waited a couple weeks in order for any residual swelling that may llinger to go down before i make any judgements on the progress. from the way things are going, i am hopeful to see further improvement with subsequent treatments. from what my physician stated, you can realistically expect anywhwere from 20 -50% improvement with a series of 4 - 5 treatments of fraxel.
Hey Natali how long ago did u go off of Accutane? Maybe the derm that your guy went to see likes to do chemical peels and doesnt have a fraxel machine? I think the treatments are relatively simple to do on people, thats why lasers are so popular with doctors these days and why the doctors would let a nurse do them.
I just want to say I so excited about going to the trial interview next week in NYC, that I just peed my pants. Please say a little prayer for me that they pick me for the clinical study. I am flying from Raleigh to there and if it all works out, I have an apartment that I will rent out for the 2 months I am there.(Again I work from home, so anywhere can be my "office") 
Maybe I won't be so embarassed of people seeing me if I get picked!!! Has anyone heard of http://www.laserskinsurgery.com/ Laser and Skin Surgery of New York? I saw that Dr. Roy Geronemus works there and he was the moderator for the roundtable discussion pdf they had on the fraxel/reliant-tech site. I just was hoping someone else might have some more feedback. Thanks!!!
Hey Natali how long ago did u go off of Accutane? Maybe the derm that your guy went to see likes to do chemical peels and doesnt have a fraxel machine? I think the treatments are relatively simple to do on people, thats why lasers are so popular with doctors these days and why the doctors would let a nurse do them.
i have been off my second round of accutane for a year and three months. My bf's dermatologist said he does some laser himself, but i know that he doesnt do fraxel. I am still most likely going through with the fraxel, but am so nervous if im making the right choice as to the procedure , and the place i picked to do the procedure. I have mostly rolling scars and a few box scars. Do you think fraxel is the way to go? Many people say its alot of money for something that may not work, plus i think i have to sign papers saying i understand this may not give me results.
Whats going on everyone?
I have read through this entire thread and I am glad to see so many people with a lot of different experiences with this laser.
I am a 25 year old male who has slight acne scars, sun damage and a unique scar on my right cheek. I was on accutane when I was 18 and got into a snowboarding accident. Well, the scar healed wrong because of it and the scar is now of a lighter skin color than the rest of my face. It isn't "horrible" but I've always wanted to do something about it.
I noticed a picture under the "pigmentation" section of the Fraxel website and it showed what I assume was a woman getting pigment back in her face after using Fraxel. Is this the case? When Fraxel remodels the skin does it remodel the melancytes as well?
I'm going to see Dr. Fitzpatrick in 2 weeks but if anyone has any experience with this I would appreciate it.
Regards.
I just want to say I so excited about going to the trial interview next week in NYC, that I just peed my pants. Please say a little prayer for me that they pick me for the clinical study. I am flying from Raleigh to there and if it all works out, I have an apartment that I will rent out for the 2 months I am there.(Again I work from home, so anywhere can be my "office") 😀 Maybe I won't be so embarassed of people seeing me if I get picked!!! Has anyone heard of http://www.laserskinsurgery.com/ Laser and Skin Surgery of New York? I saw that Dr. Roy Geronemus works there and he was the moderator for the roundtable discussion pdf they had on the fraxel/reliant-tech site. I just was hoping someone else might have some more feedback. Thanks!!!
I did go there November last year for the same study. Unfortunately i didn't qualify cauz i m dark skinned, they were looking for fair skinned individuals. Looked like a pretty legit place, they were very apologetic of not informing me this earlier since i drove all the way from virginia. I am planning on payin for my own fraxels now, if i come up with enough dough gonna start off by selling my kidney (anyone ineterested).
Good luck to you.
Seattle, who is the doctor you saw? And how severe are you scars?
The doctor was Dr. Michaelak. There is only one other place that I found in the area that offers Fraxel, so I'm going for a consultation next week. I looked into CO2 laser but the downtime was much more appealing with Fraxel but it would be about 1/2 the $ so I might have to do that.
hellzangel said this free fraxel trial was offered before. . . was that in November of 2005 or 2004? I was DQ'ed because of minocycline. They said there was only one spot left in the trial anyway. I hope the trial in NYC is offered again since I live here.
My scarred pores are so small: about the size of the very very tip of a ballpoint pen! I think fraxel would definately work for these. I think I also could just get spot treatments on my upper cheeks since that is the only area I have them?.
