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Well, I had 4 Fraxels so far.
Sad to say I have seen little to no results. My skin may be softer and look a little more red and tanned but i still have a ton of scarred pores and a lot more pores are now visible after having these treatments. I just had a bunch of them before, now it's my entire cheeks. $6000 for this. I kind of regret doing this right now. I'll give it a little more time and see what happens but all I see Fraxel doing is just burning off a layer of skin, it's like a really bad sunburn then you go back to normal. I have one shallow rolling scar and a ton of scarred pores/icepick scars everywhere.. and they are all pigmented red. I may have a tiny bit of improvement with the icepicks and now i have more exposed pores. No improvement in the rolling scar. I have very oily skin type, the pore thing is my worst problem which I'm trying to fix and Fraxel has kind of worsened it..
Don't let yourself feel down yet.
I just went for a consult for Fraxel and the Doctor told me I would need a minimum of six to see improvement. I have minimal shallow scarring on my cheek. He charges $1500.00 a session which I can't afford right now, so I am going to wait. I have been reading some comments on the new Plasma skin regenuration. It seems positive so far.
Well, I had 4 Fraxels so far.
Sad to say I have seen little to no results. My skin may be softer and look a little more red and tanned but i still have a ton of scarred pores and a lot more pores are now visible after having these treatments. I just had a bunch of them before, now it's my entire cheeks. $6000 for this. I kind of regret doing this right now. I'll give it a little more time and see what happens but all I see Fraxel doing is just burning off a layer of skin, it's like a really bad sunburn then you go back to normal. I have one shallow rolling scar and a ton of scarred pores/icepick scars everywhere.. and they are all pigmented red. I may have a tiny bit of improvement with the icepicks and now i have more exposed pores. No improvement in the rolling scar. I have very oily skin type, the pore thing is my worst problem which I'm trying to fix and Fraxel has kind of worsened it..
Don't let yourself feel down yet.
I just went for a consult for Fraxel and the Doctor told me I would need a minimum of six to see improvement. I have minimal shallow scarring on my cheek. He charges $1500.00 a session which I can't afford right now, so I am going to wait. I have been reading some comments on the new Plasma skin regenuration. It seems positive so far.
Take a trip to my doctor in Dallas. Shes very good and aggressive and she charges 1/3'rd that price! She uses the cool touch machine as well which is an added plus.
Even if you have to buy a plane ticket for 300$, youd still save about 600$ total. My doc charges 675$
for those of you who fall under the category of skin type 3 -4, there are precautions to consider. there is a high percentage you will develop Erythema(redness) and hyperpigmentation that can last for several months. so when they advertise that there is virtually no downtime with this laser, buyer beware.
ThisSucks
how long has it been since your last treatment?
and also what skin type, because im asian with light skin, wondering if your asian as well, and yea i got oily skin too.
It has been 2 weeks. I did them at 2 week intervals and once I had one done after a month wait. For those of you who just did their Fraxel and are reporting significant gains, give it another week or two until you cure.. your skin may look really smooth and tight right now but it will go back to normal very soon.
I don't know how to tell my skin type?
I'm a white male, my skin is really oily and i have large pores everywhere.. now even more so than before.. fraxel filed down multiple layers of skin, and pores are wider under their opening, so after the top layer came off gradually, the opening is more exposed and visible. My skin is now also really pink/reddish..
I have 1 more fraxel to go, we'll see what happens.. then i'll let it sit for a while.. Fraxel is a really harsh laser and i think it will work somewhat for those with dry skin, or normal skin.. but not for oily skin types like myself.. we need something that tightens skin and helps with redness, pigmentation and such..
btw,
Antibiotics are fine with Fraxel.. infact my doc prescribed me some to keep me from breaking out while my skin heals as this happens to people apparently.
ThisSucks
how long has it been since your last treatment?
and also what skin type, because im asian with light skin, wondering if your asian as well, and yea i got oily skin too.
It has been 2 weeks. I did them at 2 week intervals and once I had one done after a month wait. For those of you who just did their Fraxel and are reporting significant gains, give it another week or two until you cure.. your skin may look really smooth and tight right now but it will go back to normal very soon.
I don't know how to tell my skin type?
I'm a white male, my skin is really oily and i have large pores everywhere.. now even more so than before.. fraxel filed down multiple layers of skin, and pores are wider under their opening, so after the top layer came off gradually, the opening is more exposed and visible. My skin is now also really pink/reddish..
I have 1 more fraxel to go, we'll see what happens.. then i'll let it sit for a while.. Fraxel is a really harsh laser and i think it will work somewhat for those with dry skin, or normal skin.. but not for oily skin types like myself.. we need something that tightens skin and helps with redness, pigmentation and such..
btw,
Antibiotics are fine with Fraxel.. infact my doc prescribed me some to keep me from breaking out while my skin heals as this happens to people apparently.
i agree; people should assess their improvements once all swelling has gone down--typically by week 4. improvements may look astonishing at first, but as time goes by, your skin reverts to normal and you can then realistically assess how much improvement you attained. just last week i would have said i saw a 20-25% improvement, but now it seems like a 10 -15 % improvement overall (week 4).
yes, you can have fraxel done while on oral antibiotics.
It has been almost a week now and my skin is looking pretty good - only a few patches of flakey skin left and everything appears pretty smooth. I think I'm going to be happy once its all over.
Did you have fraxel while on antibiotics? Don't they increase risk of hypopigmentation? I know they told me that when I did laser hair removal so I had to be off it for a week prior.
I'm taking doxycycline while doing Fraxel, and I haven't had any pigmentation problems so far.
Here's a question. Has anyone had any scars completely disappear and stayed away at least 6 weeks past Fraxel?
I'll let you know. I'm having my last one on April 10. They better stay away after all this.
That is just too much money for small amount of improvements. Don't you guys think so? But I am going for Microdermabrasion for my scars. I had my first treatment last week. I went to the same derm as Magneticxboy did. It is a long drive but I hope it is worth it. I am waiting for the scab to come off. The derm is real nice, she told me that my scars are not bad. I might try IPL too for red marks and large pores after that. I would have to talk to her about it, and maybe have her do it on a higher setting. I've read in this forum that it might benefit scars. I might do TCA peels in between, because my skin texture is so bad. The derm only focus on individual scars but overall my skin is rough. I hope I could have a success story from all this. But if nothing works, I might consider trying FRAXEL. But I just think the doctors charge too much for it.
It's been 1 week since my 3rd fraxel, and I'm not happy with the results. The treatments were at 16mJ, 16mJ, and 20mJ, each spaced 1 week apart. I have before and after pictures here:
http://home.comcast.net/~cameron567/scarring/
The best way to look at them is to scroll down the left frame and click on the two links in the "Post-Fraxel #3" section. You can link to a comparable Before picture using the "09/19/2005 - Semi-Harsh Lighting" link just above the Post-Fraxel #3 section.
I know this is going to be another one of those 10%-15% max improvement procedures, which really means NO WORTHWHILE IMPROVEMENT. I don't know if I should get a 4th at $700/treatment.
For those of you without pictures who are reporting big improvements, are you sure??
It's been 1 week since my 3rd fraxel, and I'm not happy with the results. The treatments were at 16mJ, 16mJ, and 20mJ, each spaced 1 week apart. I have before and after pictures here:
http://home.comcast.net/~cameron567/scarring/
The best way to look at them is to scroll down the left frame and click on the two links in the "Post-Fraxel #3" section. You can link to a comparable Before picture using the "09/19/2005 - Semi-Harsh Lighting" link just above the Post-Fraxel #3 section.
I know this is going to be another one of those 10%-15% max improvement procedures, which really means NO WORTHWHILE IMPROVEMENT. I don't know if I should get a 4th at $700/treatment.
For those of you without pictures who are reporting big improvements, are you sure??
youve gone through so many procedures... i think that your scarring became very shallow and after fraxel it looks like a more wavy tone, which i think may even out as collagen grows for the next few months. fraxel softens scars and thats what it looks like its doing to yours.
Cameron,
I don't doubt you have little to no improvement but is cramming all these treatments together weekly advisable? I know you have been through alot of treatments and I too am quite leary of many things but burning your skin off every week for 3 weeks probably isn't going to produce much results since it hasn't had time to recuperate.
What I am surprised about is that you aren't seeing swelling with the frequency of this treatment which should be camouflaging/hiding your scarring like it seems others are experiencing.
Good luck man.
I know the reliant web site recommends 2 - 4 weeks apart, but I know many doctors are doing 1 week apart. If you do a search on Google for fraxel "weeks apart", you see a lot of hits saying 1 week apart is OK. I don't know where they get this information though, maybe in fraxel seminars. Either way, my face is pretty much healed after 1 week. The swelling looks to be completely gone after about 5 days. I think if something is going to work, this little stuff shouldn't matter. After all, if your skin is still healing deep down for months after a treatment, couldn't you also consider two week spacing to be "cramming" the treatments together?
Anyway, I moved my 4th treatment to April 12, which is 19 days spacing. This way, I can allow some more time for healing, and I'll better be able to decide whether to get a 4th or to complain to my doctor that it's not working and demand a discount.
You know, I think we all ought to remember that fraxel is a relatively new procedure and there hasn't been much good, solid research conducted yet (or at least published) regarding it. The fraxel website cites a list of research publications, and I've read the majority of what *has* been published. As someone who works in research myself, I found that most of these publications weren't very informative at all, and that was very surprising to me. Based on the different experiences people are having and discussing on the fraxel threads, it seems there are a lot of procedural differences amongst different doctors. I think that as more time goes by and as research procedures and results are published/solidified, then more doctors will all be following the same protocol.
cubsfan,
Have you had any indented scars completely dissappear and stay gone at 4 weeks out?
I don't believe so, but I have noticed on a lot of them that collagen has filled in a lot of it, and it looks much shallower now. I wish I could say they have disappeared, but they haven't.
I'm starting to get discouraged. I know I've only had one treatment, but reading some of the posts from people that aren't happy with fraxel is making me wonder if I'll be joining their ranks. 
I guess I'll just have to wait and see. I've been looking at my scars so much, that I can't even tell what I'm looking at anymore. Caught my reflection in the car mirror this afternoon and saw skin texture issues that I had never noticed before (Of course, I had never seen myself in that mirror before) OMG I am obsessing!
OK, so here are my before and after pics... It is 4 1/2 weeks since my 4th treatment. I had 4 full face treatments, levels 16, 18, 18 and 18. Doc said I had 12 passes on each treatment, but I only counted 8, kind of confusing.. Anyways, they calculated it out to about 1100 MTZ/cm2 after all was said and done, and that's all that matters..
I'm not sure of the EXACT amount of improvement, but I'm saying it's atleast 30% at this point, and I expect I will see some more improvement over the next 3 to 4 months. I hope this helps those of you undergoing treatment now and those of you considering it.. Pic on the left is before any treatments, pic on the right is 4 1/2 weeks after my 4th treatment.
I'm going to do 4 or 5 rounds of needling on the deeper scars to help raise them up more, and then I'm going to do 2 more rounds of fraxel in the fall to finish things off..
[attachmentid=3904][attachmentid=3905]
Sean..
thanks so much for sharing your pictures! I agree everyone should take their own pics around the same time of day in the same lighting/ place...it really helps judge the process. I would say that your improvement is at least 30% if not more! Looking good!
JP
