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Hey here is a pic of someone else with scars around the same size as mine:
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php...topic=82722&hl=
Is fraxel the best choice?
Hey here is a pic of someone else with scars around the same size as mine:
http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php...topic=82722&hl=
Is fraxel the best choice?
Yes I think so.. but your unless you have scars that is like more than 0.5 - 0.7 mm deep. But I think if your skin llooks like his I don't see you have any problems.
For anyone on or recently on accutane that is interested in Fraxel treatments this is what the doctor that I am going to see in Carmel Indiana had to say when I emailed about getting the treatments shortly off of tane.
There is no set period that is best re:Fraxel after Accutane. Generally
people have advised waiting a minimum of 6 months after Accutane for
ablative resurfacing such as CO2 laser or dermabrasion, based upon a few case reports of hypertrophic scarring. Even that has little science. I
believe that given the technology of the Fraxel, it would most probably not make a difference whether you waited 6 months or 6 weeks. We would be happy to see you in consultation. We have the most experience with Fraxel in the state of Indiana; we had the 7th Fraxel laser in the United States Steve Shideler
Hey everyone-
Just wanted to tell everyone that I am having my first fraxel tomorrow, hopefully, if i dont stress it too much and chicken out. Well it is with a PA in the dermatologic surgeon's office, which i was worried about for a while, until i called Reliant, the company that makes fraxel, and they answered some questions for me. I asked if they train the Physicians on the Fraxel and how long it takes, and they said they train both the physician and their assistants at the same time and it takes one or two days. So this means that the PA's are just as trained on the Fraxel as the Doctor. Well anyway, im still nervous because its a big deal to spend 5000 dollars on something, but not if it helps your self esteem in the end because i think that is priceless. People can tell you as much as they want that your skin is not so bad and that you look like this or that, but youre still going to feel the way you feel, until you do something about it that makes YOU feel better about yourself. So i hope everything goes well.
$5,000 will seem like nothing if your skin looks great afterward. Yeah I have people telling me my skin doesnt look bad and that I am crazy for wanting to get fraxel or anything else done. My family did not even think I should ahve went on accutane at the time. They knew it had bad possible side effects and that it could cause hair thinning. Natali dont listen to anybody but u. I wish u the best of luck.
I will be calling the doctor in the above post and going for a consultation in the next couple of weeks. Its a 1 1/2 hr drive from my home or I would do it next week. Anyway good luck to all.
Hi guys,
I just got my first fraxel treatment today by Dr. Cameron Rokhsar (sp?) in NYC......I am really hoping i have good results from this and that I don't stay red for too long! But the before and after pics are so impressive with this treatment...Anyway here's how my skin reacted to the treatment:
-It definitely made me noticeably red like a bad sunburn and some swelling, but NOT beet red or blood red. Basically if you were on the beach at the moment after you got fraxel people would just think you forgot the sunscreen and got a bad pink sunburn.
There was another Doc sitting in to watch while Dr. Rokhsar (A really nice derm by the way, very straight forward and did the treatment in 20 minutes)did the treatment...and after the blue stuff was wiped off my face she said she expected me to be a lot more red and was surprised that it didn't look too bad (but i would not go to a party or do anything too social). I have very sensitive skin-even soap makes me blotchy so that's sayin' somethihn' if anyone is worried about how they'll react.
-As for pain, wasn't as bad as I'd expected, a few cringe inducing momentts but completely tolerable-it felt like a "fizzing" sensation like if you put soda on your skin because the laser was pricking so fast<---but that was only in a few spots along the hairline. He did two passes on my whole face but at differing strengths/depths. He was instructing the other doc that going in diff. directions on another pass is ideal so it's smoother/more uniform etc...I felt better having an observer there like he'd be even more on top of his game than usual! And now, just feel some mild burning.
-One of the nurses had had one fraxel at a lighter setting done before and I thought her skin looked really good, she was Asian and her skintone looked really even and nice.
I'll keep you all updated, I hope this finally makes me feel good about my skin (even though people give me compliments etc...it's important to feel good about yourself. Acne scars, even when they're not too bad, can have such a devastating impact on self esteem so I am all for spending whatever amount of $ on something that works and does not involve too much downtime or risk! Being happy, healthy, and confident is more important than any amount of money---you can find ways to make more money esp. if you feel good about yourself and can really pursue your dreams in life!
-Oh yeah, this cost me $1500 : P
For those of you trying to figure out how to pay for Fraxel, as was I, here was my solution...
Many companies now offer Flexcare spending accounts. If you work for a company that offers this, your company allows you to set aside your own money, pretax, for medical treatments that insurance doesn't cover. I called the company that handles our flexcare accounts, and they assured me Fraxel was covered as long as the doctor provided a note stating it was for acne scarring, and not for age related issues.
By setting this money aside pretax, you save almost 30% on the procedure. I had my company hold out the maximum allowed, $4000, and it is taken out of each paycheck through the year. I paid for my fraxel treatments up front, $3,400, with my flexcare spending account.
I still have $600 left in my account, I plan on using it to have two spot treatments done after my first 4 full-face treatments are complete. The spot treatments are $400 each, so I will have to cough up $200 out of pocket after I use up my Flexcare account.
If I am still not satisfied after the 6 treatments, then I will put more money in my flexcare account next year and do some more spot treatments.. I'm hoping I will be happy with the results after the first 6 treatments.
Sean..
For those of you trying to figure out how to pay for Fraxel, as was I, here was my solution...
Many companies now offer Flexcare spending accounts. If you work for a company that offers this, your company allows you to set aside your own money, pretax, for medical treatments that insurance doesn't cover. I called the company that handles our flexcare accounts, and they assured me Fraxel was covered as long as the doctor provided a note stating it was for acne scarring, and not for age related issues.
By setting this money aside pretax, you save almost 30% on the procedure. I had my company hold out the maximum allowed, $4000, and it is taken out of each paycheck through the year. I paid for my fraxel treatments up front, $3,400, with my flexcare spending account.
I still have $600 left in my account, I plan on using it to have two spot treatments done after my first 4 full-face treatments are complete. The spot treatments are $400 each, so I will have to cough up $200 out of pocket after I use up my Flexcare account.
If I am still not satisfied after the 6 treatments, then I will put more money in my flexcare account next year and do some more spot treatments.. I'm hoping I will be happy with the results after the first 6 treatments.
Sean..
That's a great idea !! My company does offer such flexible spending account ( I pay for my contact lenses th' that ). Thanks a lot for sharing it.
For folks living in Bay Area, California :
If you are interested in finding more about Fraxel or have specific dobts or questions, Dr. Morganroth ( with whom I am doing the treatment ) conducts monthly education seminar about latest consmetic techniques and procedures.
This month's topic is
"The Fraxel Laser, Sculptra, and An Update in the Evolution of Local Anesthesia Rejuvenation Surgery for Men and Women"
I have not attended it myself and don't know how good it is. But there is a Q/A session at the end of it and it's free 
Address is ;
Dr. Morganroth,
525 South Drive, Suite 115
Mountain View, CA 94040
Ph No. 650-969-5600
February 16th from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Pls. visit www.morganroth.com or www.menkesmorganroth.com for RSVP.
If you want the real improvement with fraxel .. then i believe you need to combine treatment with needling .. dermaroller 1.5mm or 2mm or having needling treatment done before this treatment at least ..
fraxel alone wont bring you a satisfactory results (unless if you have very very tiny shallow rolling scars) or if you only want the 20%-25% max improvement ..
trust me .. i have all kinds of scars shallow rolling , shallow box, ice pick and for last 5 years i ve done subcision , co2 laser , needling with tatoo machine, tca cross, ipl ... and most recently 7 FRAXELS !!
If you cant afford fraxel then forget about fraxel ..just do needling 4-5 times using dermaroller 1.5 mm or 2mm lenght ) it bascially the same princple.. needling and fraxel .. regrowth of collegen bla bla..
although If you can afford this treatment then .. just do the spot treatments where you scars are all gathered around .. from my experience i end up getting 3 small shallow scars.. area where i didnt had any scars before but bcoz of the burning effect on fraxel .. it gave me extra scars ..
so be very careful on this ..
and my opioion is to do the fraxel and needling at same time but if you cant do this way then .. do spot fraxel and then go on to needling 15 days after .. and you just continue this way 3 times .. (fraxel +needling x3 ) that way you will save a lot of money plus more results will be there ..
aw my english is faking shit but i m to help so please be nice ..
fraxel is a good treatment and an excellent improvement of scar treatment industry but not quite at the level of satsifaction .. imo ..
i hope you guys get great results on this ..
good luck
For those of you trying to figure out how to pay for Fraxel, as was I, here was my solution...
Many companies now offer Flexcare spending accounts. If you work for a company that offers this, your company allows you to set aside your own money, pretax, for medical treatments that insurance doesn't cover. I called the company that handles our flexcare accounts, and they assured me Fraxel was covered as long as the doctor provided a note stating it was for acne scarring, and not for age related issues.
By setting this money aside pretax, you save almost 30% on the procedure. I had my company hold out the maximum allowed, $4000, and it is taken out of each paycheck through the year. I paid for my fraxel treatments up front, $3,400, with my flexcare spending account.
I still have $600 left in my account, I plan on using it to have two spot treatments done after my first 4 full-face treatments are complete. The spot treatments are $400 each, so I will have to cough up $200 out of pocket after I use up my Flexcare account.
If I am still not satisfied after the 6 treatments, then I will put more money in my flexcare account next year and do some more spot treatments.. I'm hoping I will be happy with the results after the first 6 treatments.
Sean..
i had dermabrasion covered by my dads health insurance when i was in college b/c it was for acne scarring. i told them it was for psychological reasons, not purely aesthetics. its treated differently than when you do stuff for purely cosmetic reasons and rightly so.
If you cant afford fraxel then forget about fraxel ..just do needling 4-5 times using dermaroller 1.5 mm or 2mm lenght ) it bascially the same princple.. needling and fraxel .. regrowth of collegen bla bla..
what is "dermaroller"? is this something you can buy and do the needling yourself? thanks.
If you want the real improvement with fraxel .. then i believe you need to combine treatment with needling .. dermaroller 1.5mm or 2mm or having needling treatment done before this treatment at least ..
fraxel alone wont bring you a satisfactory results (unless if you have very very tiny shallow rolling scars) or if you only want the 20%-25% max improvement ..
trust me .. i have all kinds of scars shallow rolling , shallow box, ice pick and for last 5 years i ve done subcision , co2 laser , needling with tatoo machine, tca cross, ipl ... and most recently 7 FRAXELS !!
If you cant afford fraxel then forget about fraxel ..just do needling 4-5 times using dermaroller 1.5 mm or 2mm lenght ) it bascially the same princple.. needling and fraxel .. regrowth of collegen bla bla..
although If you can afford this treatment then .. just do the spot treatments where you scars are all gathered around .. from my experience i end up getting 3 small shallow scars.. area where i didnt had any scars before but bcoz of the burning effect on fraxel .. it gave me extra scars ..:(
so be very careful on this ..
and my opioion is to do the fraxel and needling at same time but if you cant do this way then .. do spot fraxel and then go on to needling 15 days after .. and you just continue this way 3 times .. (fraxel +needling x3 ) that way you will save a lot of money plus more results will be there ..
aw my english is faking shit but i m to help so please be nice .. 🙂
fraxel is a good treatment and an excellent improvement of scar treatment industry but not quite at the level of satsifaction .. imo ..
i hope you guys get great results on this ..
good luck
btw, since youve had so many procedures done, which was the best? i have mild-shallow rolling scars. and since you said you have those, which procedure did you notice helped them the most? thanks.
If you want the real improvement with fraxel .. then i believe you need to combine treatment with needling .. dermaroller 1.5mm or 2mm or having needling treatment done before this treatment at least ..
fraxel alone wont bring you a satisfactory results (unless if you have very very tiny shallow rolling scars) or if you only want the 20%-25% max improvement ..
trust me .. i have all kinds of scars shallow rolling , shallow box, ice pick and for last 5 years i ve done subcision , co2 laser , needling with tatoo machine, tca cross, ipl ... and most recently 7 FRAXELS !!
If you cant afford fraxel then forget about fraxel ..just do needling 4-5 times using dermaroller 1.5 mm or 2mm lenght ) it bascially the same princple.. needling and fraxel .. regrowth of collegen bla bla..
although If you can afford this treatment then .. just do the spot treatments where you scars are all gathered around .. from my experience i end up getting 3 small shallow scars.. area where i didnt had any scars before but bcoz of the burning effect on fraxel .. it gave me extra scars ..:(
so be very careful on this ..
and my opioion is to do the fraxel and needling at same time but if you cant do this way then .. do spot fraxel and then go on to needling 15 days after .. and you just continue this way 3 times .. (fraxel +needling x3 ) that way you will save a lot of money plus more results will be there ..
aw my english is faking shit but i m to help so please be nice .. 🙂
fraxel is a good treatment and an excellent improvement of scar treatment industry but not quite at the level of satsifaction .. imo ..
i hope you guys get great results on this ..
good luck
btw, since youve had so many procedures done, which was the best? i have mild-shallow rolling scars. and since you said you have those, which procedure did you notice helped them the most? thanks.
I have very shallow rolling scars as well and have researched fraxel to death. From what I've read fraxel appears to work best on the more shallow scars and that is why I am considering it. Most people appear to be reporting improvements of 50% or better on the shallow ones and less on the deeper ones. For deeper scars perhaps a full dermabrasion or some other procedure may work better than fraxel.
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:
For the person in Seattle just thought you would like to know that I've been getting Fraxel done in Vancouver, Canada and it is alot cheaper here. I f you don't mind the three hour car drive you should contact the Arbutus Laser Clinic and ask for an appointment with Dr Boey. I'd say you would save yourself at least half
Hi, This is my first time posting and first time on this site. I'm just learning about Fraxel and am in Seattle. Wantscarsaway- how are your treatments in Vancouver going? Are you happy with your results so far?? Has anybody out there had wonderful results with any drs in the Seattle area? Thanks so much for any replies!!
If you want the real improvement with fraxel .. then i believe you need to combine treatment with needling .. dermaroller 1.5mm or 2mm or having needling treatment done before this treatment at least ..
fraxel alone wont bring you a satisfactory results (unless if you have very very tiny shallow rolling scars) or if you only want the 20%-25% max improvement ..
trust me .. i have all kinds of scars shallow rolling , shallow box, ice pick and for last 5 years i ve done subcision , co2 laser , needling with tatoo machine, tca cross, ipl ... and most recently 7 FRAXELS !!
If you cant afford fraxel then forget about fraxel ..just do needling 4-5 times using dermaroller 1.5 mm or 2mm lenght ) it bascially the same princple.. needling and fraxel .. regrowth of collegen bla bla..
although If you can afford this treatment then .. just do the spot treatments where you scars are all gathered around .. from my experience i end up getting 3 small shallow scars.. area where i didnt had any scars before but bcoz of the burning effect on fraxel .. it gave me extra scars ..:(
so be very careful on this ..
and my opioion is to do the fraxel and needling at same time but if you cant do this way then .. do spot fraxel and then go on to needling 15 days after .. and you just continue this way 3 times .. (fraxel +needling x3 ) that way you will save a lot of money plus more results will be there ..
aw my english is faking shit but i m to help so please be nice .. 🙂
fraxel is a good treatment and an excellent improvement of scar treatment industry but not quite at the level of satsifaction .. imo ..
i hope you guys get great results on this ..
good luck
btw, since youve had so many procedures done, which was the best? i have mild-shallow rolling scars. and since you said you have those, which procedure did you notice helped them the most? thanks.
I would say
subcision 25% improvement
co2 laser 10%
tca cross on ice pick scars only = 30%-50%
fraxel = 20%-25%
needling = cant really say how much improvement i had.. coz i only tried once .. but i ll be doing more treatments done in april onwards..
good luck
For anyone on or recently on accutane that is interested in Fraxel treatments this is what the doctor that I am going to see in Carmel Indiana had to say when I emailed about getting the treatments shortly off of tane.
There is no set period that is best re:Fraxel after Accutane. Generally
people have advised waiting a minimum of 6 months after Accutane for
ablative resurfacing such as CO2 laser or dermabrasion, based upon a few case reports of hypertrophic scarring. Even that has little science. I
believe that given the technology of the Fraxel, it would most probably not make a difference whether you waited 6 months or 6 weeks. We would be happy to see you in consultation. We have the most experience with Fraxel in the state of Indiana; we had the 7th Fraxel laser in the United States Steve Shideler
Keith23: I am in Indiana and am considering Fraxel. Would love to hear how your consultation with Shideler goes. Would love to hear what the recommended treatment plan is, costs, etc. Also does Shideler do the procedure or a PA. Thanks in advance.
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:
For the person in Seattle just thought you would like to know that I've been getting Fraxel done in Vancouver, Canada and it is alot cheaper here. I f you don't mind the three hour car drive you should contact the Arbutus Laser Clinic and ask for an appointment with Dr Boey. I'd say you would save yourself at least half
Thanks I'll look them up.. Do they happen to do any scar revision there as well? Like subcision? Since my scars are far from shallow I know I'll need to do some sort of scar revision first to see the best results. I did find a place here that charges $1,000 per treatment with 10% off if you purchase 5 at a time, but I'm not sure if they have used Fraxel for acne scarring since they don't mention it on their website at all. I wonder if Fraxel is similar to other treatments where the skill of the person doing it makes a big difference? It seems that the procedure is pretty straight forward as long as they use the right strength each time.
Hi all,
Update on my first fraxel treatment which I got two and half days ago. i got it with dr. cameron rokhsar (who's one of the most experienced with fraxel, published articles on it, and conducted a study on fraxel and acne scars).
-48 hrs later most of the swelling has gone down and the redness has decreased A LOT..I went from "omigod" red to looks like I got irritated by some sun and walking in the cold blustery wind pink- on my camera phone,the pinkness barely registers although in real life you can see it.
I am also starting to flake. The best description of how my skin feel and looks in some areas is CHAPPED, it's feeling rough because the dead skin is getting ready to shed and you can see it. My skin has a light pink, mild bronzy tone, while some places are returning backt o my natural skin tone already. This aint a no downtime procedure that's for sure. Expect to look like shit for three days, mainly the first two.
-Supposedly 5 treatments yield an average of 50% improvement in scarring (although what kind of scarring i am not sure=my scars were not bad, Dr. Rokshar said he'd never have recommended CO2 or anthing really aggressive for my skin and my scars are like tiny dents in some areas while most of my skin doesn't have any scars. I have four or five pretty noticeable scars on one cheek, they are shallow but they make my skin look rougher in texture in one area-on digital cam close up pics my skin tends to lookreally clear and scar free but the scars really show up in overhead lighting and they were discolored. As for skin texture and pores, some people have reported 75% or more improvement after just one fraxel but who knows...
-i can't say how much my skin has improved yet, if at all, since I'm still in the healing/peeling stage but what I can say is this treatment seems superior to chemical peels for scars, i had chem peels 9 years ago and I got a few mild scars from those and some scabs (the doc had been crappy and atotal jerk that had done those so please pick the most experienced doc you can fine please for any procedure!!!) but with fraxel my skin in flaking so evenly and healing just like the reliant info booklet and the doc said it would.
-According to Rokshar, again he's one of the guys who'd tested fraxel so obviously he's going to be a big proponent of it, but he said in his opinion it's better than anything out there for scars and he said in fact it's BETTER for scars than it is for wrinkles but doesn't know why that is, just that from the studies scars improved more than wrinkles/melasma etc...
Anyway, I'll give more updates since I know first hand how acne scars can be a huge bummer and hopefully fraxel can give us hope thta some of the acrring can be removed.
For anyone on or recently on accutane that is interested in Fraxel treatments this is what the doctor that I am going to see in Carmel Indiana had to say when I emailed about getting the treatments shortly off of tane.
There is no set period that is best re:Fraxel after Accutane. Generally
people have advised waiting a minimum of 6 months after Accutane for
ablative resurfacing such as CO2 laser or dermabrasion, based upon a few case reports of hypertrophic scarring. Even that has little science. I
believe that given the technology of the Fraxel, it would most probably not make a difference whether you waited 6 months or 6 weeks. We would be happy to see you in consultation. We have the most experience with Fraxel in the state of Indiana; we had the 7th Fraxel laser in the United States Steve Shideler
Keith23: I am in Indiana and am considering Fraxel. Would love to hear how your consultation with Shideler goes. Would love to hear what the recommended treatment plan is, costs, etc. Also does Shideler do the procedure or a PA. Thanks in advance.
Yeah just check this post I'm calling to make the appoitnment on Tues. U can pm me too if u like. Another Hoosier, u poor bastard lol.
Thanks to everyone for your posts . . . I am reading daily!
Please be sure to include how fraxel is for pores, enlarged pores, and scarred pores.
I heard from Marcel that fraxel does nothing for these and even made pores worse! I'd like to hear more experiences with this--both good and bad.