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Hello everyone. I am six days removed from my first fraxel laser. I have acne scaring just on my cheeks. I feel it is bad but doctors tell me it is subjective. THe first two days my cheecks were so red and bloody i wanted to cry but by 40 hours the bloody dots were all but gone. YOU MUST USE AQUAFOR OR VASALINE and keep face moistureized at all times during the first few days. Now six days later i am still red but i am able to resume my life. After day three i went out. THe first two days you can not go anywhere if the doctor is treating acne scarring. Wrinkles you can go out in 5 minutes. Finally although still red i can see the scars still but overall they def look better and skins appearace if smoother. I will go for next three at thousand a pop and predict that i will def get at least 50 percent improvement. Remember if you get 30-50 percent on your scars then although not perfect life will be way better. Overall i recomment this so far to everyone wanting to not suffer 5 months of rosy cheeks from lasers.. ALso i had acne for 8 years or so and it has been gone for last 3. Reatine Micro every night or every other night helps smooth out scars as well and rebuild collegen so please be smart and try different approaches i will keep you all posted GOOD LUCK
I had my second fraxel over a week ago and still don't see any improvement. I'm not surprised about this. My skin is still continuing to break-out after being acne free for many years. This is causing me a lot of mental stress because I want to continue with the treatments in hope of seeing some scar improvement, yet I don't want to keep breaking-out. I'm on dynacin and it's helped a bit, but not completely. Ugh.
Anybody have any ideas why fraxel would be causing me to break-out after I've been zit free for so long?
I have my 2nd fraxel coming up. Today I noticed that my skin was more blotchy and uneven, and appears very oily. I also think I see more breakouts, and I think my skin doesnt look as good. I dont know. Starting to feel more nervous and unsure about this, but will at least keep my appoinment to discuss my concerns. Kinda sucks because it is a 3 hour drive. I had very minor scarring on one cheek before the procedure, but at least as of today, my skin looked worse. Maybe it is still healing, and maybe my skin is different since I am asian. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.
I have my 2nd fraxel coming up. Today I noticed that my skin was more blotchy and uneven, and appears very oily. I also think I see more breakouts, and I think my skin doesnt look as good. I dont know. Starting to feel more nervous and unsure about this, but will at least keep my appoinment to discuss my concerns. Kinda sucks because it is a 3 hour drive. I had very minor scarring on one cheek before the procedure, but at least as of today, my skin looked worse. Maybe it is still healing, and maybe my skin is different since I am asian. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow.
I am asian too and am doing spot treatments. I have uneven and darkened tone in the treated areas. I started with low setting of 8 and it was not promient till I reached setting 12 ( my last treatment was at 15 ) I have also observed that color tends to get even after skin heals more ( in my case after 2.5 weeks ) but then it's almost time for my next treatment. I do treatments every 3/3.5 weeks.
Non-white skin can potentially hyper-pigment during healing after any invasive procedure. Melanocytes rush to the wounded area as part of the healing process and 'cause it already has more melanocytes, chances of hyper-pigmentation are much more.
I have always experienced temporary hyper-pigmentation after deep peels and dermabrasion and know that as skin heals, it gets better but many times, I need to use HQ based bleaching creams and it gets cleared in 6-8 weeks. So, am not freaking out so much.
You can use bleaching cream like Lustra if you can tolerate it along with Fraxel. It makes me too red, so am not using it but I will start once am done with the treatments.
There is also a prescription bleaching cream called Triluma that is very effective. But it has retino-A in it along with HQ so can not be used in parallel with the treatment.
It is difficult to find a good / safe trade off between results and side effects for our skin type. If settings are too low, there are less side effects but also less results and vice-versa.
If you are getting good results in texture, side effect of temporary hyper-pigmentation is not that serious and quite treatable in my opinion. Loss of pigment ( or hypopigmentation ) is more serious side effect, difficult to reverse and should not be ignored. This is just from my exprience but pls. discuss all your concerns in detail with your doctor.
Three weeks post my second treatment. The Assistant using the cooling machine told me that most of their patients see most improvement after the second treatment. (I was at 24, 8-10 passes) My husband sincerely says he sees 25% improvement. I agree there is SOME imporvement, but I guess I was hoping it would be more drastic.
The best thing I can say so far is that with Sephora's apricot photofinish primer, my scars are noticeably less apparent than they were when I used to apply it before treatment. But with a naked face it's harder to say. I'm still ruddy from my last treatment. I was supposed to have my third treatment tomorrow, but my schedule is so jam packed with stuff that can't be moved around, that I didn't schedule it for another two weeks.
I kind of feel like the scars are softer, but that my pores are larger, so there's a general rough texture to my face. But I could be staring too hard. I had gone a long time previous to this without looking in the mirror at all because it was so distressing to me to see my scars ( although I've been reassured that they are minor. They're not minor to me!) Now I look at my skin several times a day. SO who knows.
Three weeks post my second treatment. The Assistant using the cooling machine told me that most of their patients see most improvement after the second treatment. (I was at 24, 8-10 passes) My husband sincerely says he sees 25% improvement. I agree there is SOME imporvement, but I guess I was hoping it would be more drastic.
The best thing I can say so far is that with Sephora's apricot photofinish primer, my scars are noticeably less apparent than they were when I used to apply it before treatment. But with a naked face it's harder to say. I'm still ruddy from my last treatment. I was supposed to have my third treatment tomorrow, but my schedule is so jam packed with stuff that can't be moved around, that I didn't schedule it for another two weeks.
I kind of feel like the scars are softer, but that my pores are larger, so there's a general rough texture to my face. But I could be staring too hard. I had gone a long time previous to this without looking in the mirror at all because it was so distressing to me to see my scars ( although I've been reassured that they are minor. They're not minor to me!) Now I look at my skin several times a day. SO who knows.
Hi Chrissy, Congrats on being able to go so high on only your 2nd visit. Give the ruddiness another week. My face felt like that too last time, and I was at 24. It'll feel better real soon. I'm sure you'll see improvements with this one!
Chrissy, my understanding is that the improvement continues slowly for up to 6 months following your last procedure. I'm guessing you are headed for a great final result, giving your preliminary results. I can't speak from personal expereince because I go for my second next Monday. By the way, I don't ask my wife about my improvement, because she (and my daughters) think it is a waste of money to pursue my small imperfections, which she thinks I obsess about. It's good to have a spouse to give you some honest feedback. I can't really detect much change after 1 treatment. I think there is some, but it is so small it is hard to measure
I'm curious about your setting of 24. My first was at 15. I pushed for higher, but they said my scarring is shallow and they wanted to see how I tolerate it. It was a piece of cake and a quick recovery, so this time I really want to push for a setting of 20. How much increase in settings between your past treatments? Do you know the future plan? I assume they are using a low desnity, like 125, with such high energy? How long before you were presentable?
Best wishes
Billyboy - yes, improvement continues for six months after the last treatment. I think what she meant is that after the second treatment is when the improvement starts to become visible. For what it's worth, I'm only doing a round of three fraxels, a fourth if deemed necessary. Dr. Rapaport does higher energy but does keep the density a 125. I think he might bump up to 25 or so, but not too much higher. My first round was at 20 and I was presentable immediately, although "sunburnt". Second round I felt uncomfortable enough with my appearance that I cancelled some plans until day 4, but I stayed noticeably red past the one week mark.
I take my husband's comments very seriously, esp. since he teased me so mercilessly (but in a sweet and loving way) before I underwent my first fraxel. ("Wow! I already see a difference! Your skin looks great!) He, like your wife, thought I was obsessing and couldn't undertand why I felt like I needed this, but he's been supportive now that I'm doing it.
#1Cubsfan- so are you done?? That's six treatments for you, right? I think in hindsight that the rudiness may have been a reaction to the new sunscreen. I'm paranoid about sun exposure, but can't find a good sunscreen. I had been using a moisturizer with an spf in it, but was recently told that, "well, it's better than nothing, but not as good as a sunscreen or a sunblock". Does this mean I've accrued sun damage when I though I was being so careful?
I had my second treatment at level 25 with 8 passes and spot treatment at lvl 30- 5 days ago. Ironically the swelling for my 2nd treatment was far less than for my first which was level 20 with 6 passes. Too early to judge, but I had about 5-10% improvement from my first treatment, and if my current condition holds and isn't due to swelling I would say I had 20-30% improvement from the 2nd treatment. I feel it's too early to tell though.
I think there's a big difference in results once you go past 20mJ, and ideally 25-30 is the way to go for acne scars. Sure recovery time is longer and you are red longer, but the results seem more noticable. Anything less than 20mJ isn't worth it. I dare say with level 25-30 at 6-8 passes and 5 treatments one could expect 60-80% improvement, which is better than anything else out there.
I am considering level 30 with 6 passes for my next visit in 4 weeks+ time. The thing with level 25 and above, is the recovery time is generally longer. At least 4-5 weeks in this case. The first 2-3 days one is hardly presentable and I had to schedule my appts for Friday morning to be presentable on Monday morning.
I still believe Fraxel is the best treatment option for acne scars. If you are in Australia the partially covered by medicare which means for 5 treatments you only need to pay $1500.
Blaster.
Billyboy - yes, improvement continues for six months after the last treatment. I think what she meant is that after the second treatment is when the improvement starts to become visible. For what it's worth, I'm only doing a round of three fraxels, a fourth if deemed necessary. Dr. Rapaport does higher energy but does keep the density a 125. I think he might bump up to 25 or so, but not too much higher. My first round was at 20 and I was presentable immediately, although "sunburnt". Second round I felt uncomfortable enough with my appearance that I cancelled some plans until day 4, but I stayed noticeably red past the one week mark.
I take my husband's comments very seriously, esp. since he teased me so mercilessly (but in a sweet and loving way) before I underwent my first fraxel. ("Wow! I already see a difference! Your skin looks great!) He, like your wife, thought I was obsessing and couldn't undertand why I felt like I needed this, but he's been supportive now that I'm doing it.
#1Cubsfan- so are you done?? That's six treatments for you, right? I think in hindsight that the rudiness may have been a reaction to the new sunscreen. I'm paranoid about sun exposure, but can't find a good sunscreen. I had been using a moisturizer with an spf in it, but was recently told that, "well, it's better than nothing, but not as good as a sunscreen or a sunblock". Does this mean I've accrued sun damage when I though I was being so careful?
Billyboy - yes, improvement continues for six months after the last treatment. I think what she meant is that after the second treatment is when the improvement starts to become visible. For what it's worth, I'm only doing a round of three fraxels, a fourth if deemed necessary. Dr. Rapaport does higher energy but does keep the density a 125. I think he might bump up to 25 or so, but not too much higher. My first round was at 20 and I was presentable immediately, although "sunburnt". Second round I felt uncomfortable enough with my appearance that I cancelled some plans until day 4, but I stayed noticeably red past the one week mark.
I take my husband's comments very seriously, esp. since he teased me so mercilessly (but in a sweet and loving way) before I underwent my first fraxel. ("Wow! I already see a difference! Your skin looks great!) He, like your wife, thought I was obsessing and couldn't undertand why I felt like I needed this, but he's been supportive now that I'm doing it.
#1Cubsfan- so are you done?? That's six treatments for you, right? I think in hindsight that the rudiness may have been a reaction to the new sunscreen. I'm paranoid about sun exposure, but can't find a good sunscreen. I had been using a moisturizer with an spf in it, but was recently told that, "well, it's better than nothing, but not as good as a sunscreen or a sunblock". Does this mean I've accrued sun damage when I though I was being so careful?
Billyboy - yes, improvement continues for six months after the last treatment. I think what she meant is that after the second treatment is when the improvement starts to become visible. For what it's worth, I'm only doing a round of three fraxels, a fourth if deemed necessary. Dr. Rapaport does higher energy but does keep the density a 125. I think he might bump up to 25 or so, but not too much higher. My first round was at 20 and I was presentable immediately, although "sunburnt". Second round I felt uncomfortable enough with my appearance that I cancelled some plans until day 4, but I stayed noticeably red past the one week mark.
I take my husband's comments very seriously, esp. since he teased me so mercilessly (but in a sweet and loving way) before I underwent my first fraxel. ("Wow! I already see a difference! Your skin looks great!) He, like your wife, thought I was obsessing and couldn't undertand why I felt like I needed this, but he's been supportive now that I'm doing it.
#1Cubsfan- so are you done?? That's six treatments for you, right? I think in hindsight that the rudiness may have been a reaction to the new sunscreen. I'm paranoid about sun exposure, but can't find a good sunscreen. I had been using a moisturizer with an spf in it, but was recently told that, "well, it's better than nothing, but not as good as a sunscreen or a sunblock". Does this mean I've accrued sun damage when I though I was being so careful?
Yep, I'm done for now. I''m seeing my doc on Thursday, so I'm curious to see what the before pictures look like. I'm kind of kicking myself now. I wish that I would have had him go higher earlier. I think I would have had more improvement. Hindsight, ya know? I think we should be using at least a 30 sunscreen for quite awhile. I'm not happy with mine either. It has a tint in it, and my makeup doesn't go on well. Anybody have a good sunscreen out there, that looks o.k. with make up? I don't think you have sun damage yet. We're lucky it's not the middle of summer. Keep up informed on your progress, o.k.?
Hi Blaster,
What kind of scarring do you have? and are you having spot treatments or full face? Also where did u get it done?
Thanks
M
I had my second treatment at level 25 with 8 passes and spot treatment at lvl 30- 5 days ago. Ironically the swelling for my 2nd treatment was far less than for my first which was level 20 with 6 passes. Too early to judge, but I had about 5-10% improvement from my first treatment, and if my current condition holds and isn't due to swelling I would say I had 20-30% improvement from the 2nd treatment. I feel it's too early to tell though.
I think there's a big difference in results once you go past 20mJ, and ideally 25-30 is the way to go for acne scars. Sure recovery time is longer and you are red longer, but the results seem more noticable. Anything less than 20mJ isn't worth it. I dare say with level 25-30 at 6-8 passes and 5 treatments one could expect 60-80% improvement, which is better than anything else out there.
I am considering level 30 with 6 passes for my next visit in 4 weeks+ time. The thing with level 25 and above, is the recovery time is generally longer. At least 4-5 weeks in this case. The first 2-3 days one is hardly presentable and I had to schedule my appts for Friday morning to be presentable on Monday morning.
I still believe Fraxel is the best treatment option for acne scars. If you are in Australia the partially covered by medicare which means for 5 treatments you only need to pay $1500.
Blaster.
Billyboy - yes, improvement continues for six months after the last treatment. I think what she meant is that after the second treatment is when the improvement starts to become visible. For what it's worth, I'm only doing a round of three fraxels, a fourth if deemed necessary. Dr. Rapaport does higher energy but does keep the density a 125. I think he might bump up to 25 or so, but not too much higher. My first round was at 20 and I was presentable immediately, although "sunburnt". Second round I felt uncomfortable enough with my appearance that I cancelled some plans until day 4, but I stayed noticeably red past the one week mark.
I take my husband's comments very seriously, esp. since he teased me so mercilessly (but in a sweet and loving way) before I underwent my first fraxel. ("Wow! I already see a difference! Your skin looks great!) He, like your wife, thought I was obsessing and couldn't undertand why I felt like I needed this, but he's been supportive now that I'm doing it.
#1Cubsfan- so are you done?? That's six treatments for you, right? I think in hindsight that the rudiness may have been a reaction to the new sunscreen. I'm paranoid about sun exposure, but can't find a good sunscreen. I had been using a moisturizer with an spf in it, but was recently told that, "well, it's better than nothing, but not as good as a sunscreen or a sunblock". Does this mean I've accrued sun damage when I though I was being so careful?
Hi,
I have a combination of scars, few rolling, boxcar but mostly ice-pick scarring. I had level 30 for ice-pick scarring spot treatment with level 25 for overall full face. My scars are mostly on cheeks, forehead and some on nose. No scarring near jaw-line and hairline.
This is my second fraxel treatment. Treatment was at Dr Skin Clinic in Melbourne.
Blaster.
Hi Blaster,
What kind of scarring do you have? and are you having spot treatments or full face? Also where did u get it done?
Thanks
M
I had my second treatment at level 25 with 8 passes and spot treatment at lvl 30- 5 days ago. Ironically the swelling for my 2nd treatment was far less than for my first which was level 20 with 6 passes. Too early to judge, but I had about 5-10% improvement from my first treatment, and if my current condition holds and isn't due to swelling I would say I had 20-30% improvement from the 2nd treatment. I feel it's too early to tell though.
I think there's a big difference in results once you go past 20mJ, and ideally 25-30 is the way to go for acne scars. Sure recovery time is longer and you are red longer, but the results seem more noticable. Anything less than 20mJ isn't worth it. I dare say with level 25-30 at 6-8 passes and 5 treatments one could expect 60-80% improvement, which is better than anything else out there.
I am considering level 30 with 6 passes for my next visit in 4 weeks+ time. The thing with level 25 and above, is the recovery time is generally longer. At least 4-5 weeks in this case. The first 2-3 days one is hardly presentable and I had to schedule my appts for Friday morning to be presentable on Monday morning.
I still believe Fraxel is the best treatment option for acne scars. If you are in Australia the partially covered by medicare which means for 5 treatments you only need to pay $1500.
Blaster.
Hi TOPTEACH
what settings did you have it done at?
Thanks
M
Hello everyone. I am six days removed from my first fraxel laser. I have acne scaring just on my cheeks. I feel it is bad but doctors tell me it is subjective. THe first two days my cheecks were so red and bloody i wanted to cry but by 40 hours the bloody dots were all but gone. YOU MUST USE AQUAFOR OR VASALINE and keep face moistureized at all times during the first few days. Now six days later i am still red but i am able to resume my life. After day three i went out. THe first two days you can not go anywhere if the doctor is treating acne scarring. Wrinkles you can go out in 5 minutes. Finally although still red i can see the scars still but overall they def look better and skins appearace if smoother. I will go for next three at thousand a pop and predict that i will def get at least 50 percent improvement. Remember if you get 30-50 percent on your scars then although not perfect life will be way better. Overall i recomment this so far to everyone wanting to not suffer 5 months of rosy cheeks from lasers.. ALso i had acne for 8 years or so and it has been gone for last 3. Reatine Micro every night or every other night helps smooth out scars as well and rebuild collegen so please be smart and try different approaches i will keep you all posted GOOD LUCK
A couple of questions- For those of you who have experienced more visible pores as a result of the Fraxel, I was wondering if it could be a direct result of the pin prick size thermal zones or columns that the laser produces on the skin. This is taken from the Fraxel.com website "Fraxel Laser Treatment produces thousands of tiny but deep columns of treatment in your skin, known as microthermal treatment zones". Could it be possible that these "microthermal treatment zones" are showing up as pores during and after the procedure? I'm just curious and hopeful that these pores get resolved because I'm pretty sure it will happen to me since my pores are already large and abundant! I would love to hear any feedback.
Also, I understand that Fraxel can soften the edges of scars to make them appear less noticeable. Does it lift the scarred skin to make it more level with the unscarred skin?
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any feedback!
No, Blinny the MTZ are not visible to unaided normal vision so they cannot cause a problem as noticeable as an enlarged or scarred pore. The only things I can attribute to this is microswelling or removal of the skin surface which I why I say to pay attention to whether the pores look bigger immediately after the treatment (which would mean it's cause by microswelling and should be temporary) or after the skin flakes off (which would mean it's probably more of a permanent change).
No, Blinny the MTZ are not visible to unaided normal vision so they cannot cause a problem as noticeable as an enlarged or scarred pore. The only things I can attribute to this is microswelling or removal of the skin surface which I why I say to pay attention to whether the pores look bigger immediately after the treatment (which would mean it's cause by microswelling and should be temporary) or after the skin flakes off (which would mean it's probably more of a permanent change).
Thank, Pocket Aces, for the information. I keep watching everyone's progress to see if the increased visible pores have subsided with time but of course that would take time and I'm just getting impatient and anxious. I have a Fraxel consultation next week and keep wondering if it's the right treatment for me.
A couple of questions- For those of you who have experienced more visible pores as a result of the Fraxel, I was wondering if it could be a direct result of the pin prick size thermal zones or columns that the laser produces on the skin. This is taken from the Fraxel.com website "Fraxel Laser Treatment produces thousands of tiny but deep columns of treatment in your skin, known as microthermal treatment zones". Could it be possible that these "microthermal treatment zones" are showing up as pores during and after the procedure? I'm just curious and hopeful that these pores get resolved because I'm pretty sure it will happen to me since my pores are already large and abundant! I would love to hear any feedback.
Also, I understand that Fraxel can soften the edges of scars to make them appear less noticeable. Does it lift the scarred skin to make it more level with the unscarred skin?
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any feedback!
Hi Blinny,
I am also trying to improve some big pores. After 6 treatments, I have certainly seen pores shrinking. Not all of them but more than half. Some are reduced to a tiny spot and I can see them only in my X 5 mirror. I have not seen any worsening for the ones that did not / are slow to respond. Surprisingly, some of my shallow scars and indentations responded faster than pores. I have next treatment in a couple of days. If possible, I would try to take photos before, immediately after and 2 weeks after.
Am also curious to see Cameron's photos which I guess he will post 2-3 weeks from now.
A couple of questions- For those of you who have experienced more visible pores as a result of the Fraxel, I was wondering if it could be a direct result of the pin prick size thermal zones or columns that the laser produces on the skin. This is taken from the Fraxel.com website "Fraxel Laser Treatment produces thousands of tiny but deep columns of treatment in your skin, known as microthermal treatment zones". Could it be possible that these "microthermal treatment zones" are showing up as pores during and after the procedure? I'm just curious and hopeful that these pores get resolved because I'm pretty sure it will happen to me since my pores are already large and abundant! I would love to hear any feedback.
Also, I understand that Fraxel can soften the edges of scars to make them appear less noticeable. Does it lift the scarred skin to make it more level with the unscarred skin?
Thanks for reading and I appreciate any feedback!
Hi Blinny,
I am also trying to improve some big pores. After 6 treatments, I have certainly seen pores shrinking. Not all of them but more than half. Some are reduced to a tiny spot and I can see them only in my X 5 mirror. I have not seen any worsening for the ones that did not / are slow to respond. Surprisingly, some of my shallow scars and indentations responded faster than pores. I have next treatment in a couple of days. If possible, I would try to take photos before, immediately after and 2 weeks after.
Am also curious to see Cameron's photos which I guess he will post 2-3 weeks from now.
Okay I'm feeling encouraged again. Thank you! Even hope that something will work (even if it's a small percentage) is almost as good as seeing it working. When that hope gets down I get extremely discouraged and depressed. So now hope is up again, the sun is shining, life is good again.
Sometime back, I discussed with my doctor regarding density, coverage and its relation with no. of passes.
This is what I understood : Fraxel machine stores the grid or co-ordinates of the trageted area for each treatment depending on whatever doctor has set ( 125/250 ) and for successive treatments, it is slightly shifted so that coverage increases almost linearly with succesive treatment. With more passes coverage can slightly increases but that is used for kind of fine tuning.
Machine has internal safety mechanisms in such a way that "overtreatment" in a session is not allowed and coverage even with multiple passes is limited to some % ( close to 20 % ). That makes sense as otherwise it would defeat the basic principal of fractional resurfacing and has repurcussions on down time, healing, and recovery. So, Fraxel results are incremental and progressive.
Also, if Fraxel is no longer "Fractional", it can not be safely used on people of all skin types and colors.
Three comments on Tmthymllgn's math:
1. Area of circle is pi r sqaured, not dimater squared, so your math is off somehwat, but not huge.
2. I did not confimr the 100 micron diameter, otherwise match is correct, exept for surface area of sqaure vs.circle
3. I beleive Coolbreeze is right. Strangely enough, I believe the computer takes precise coordinates to enable the same day passes to hit the same exact spot. But, this is not like doubling the energy, because the skin has already cooled and started a healing response since the first pass. The next treatment remembers you and knows to lay the grid down adjacent to the prior grid.
In reference to the coverage area of the MTZs referenced in the above post, there are some math errors...
"There are 1000 microns to a millimeter; ten millimeters to a centimeter. That means that a linear centimeter is 10,000 microns wide. A square centimeter therefore has an area of 100,000 microns.
At a density of 150 MTZs per sq. cm., one pass of the fraxel laser would cover 15,000 microns/sq.cm or 15 percent of the skin. At a density of 250/sq. cm the coverage of one pass is 25,000 microns/sq.cm or 25 percent of the skin."
10,000 X 10,000 is 100,000,000 microns per cm/sq, not 100,000 microns. Also, the area covered by one MTZ would be 7,854 microns/sq (pi times radius squared). If you recalculate using these figures, then 1 pass at 150MTZs is 1,178,097 microns/sq which is equivalent to 1.1% of your skin (1,178,097 / 100,000,000). 8 passes would be equivalent to a coverage area of 9.4%.
With a setting of 125 MTZ/cm, it would take 13 passes to reach 15% coverage on your skin. I was kind of a math geek in HS.
Sean..
Good work Sean. Wow, I'm an idiot. I guess this must mean that they don't hit the exact same spot in the next pass, oherwise the coverage math would not conform to the literature. I was sure the nurse mentioned something about cooridinate mapping for the passes in the 1 procedure I had, but I must have misunderstood. Is it your understanding that the dots are random based on amanula starting point?
Well, I just got back from my 5th cheeks area treatment. Have been doing treatments about every 4 weeks. I have been taking pictures and had told a few I would send them to them, sorry for having not done that. I have decided to just wait until I am completely done so there can be some sort of a halfway accurate assessment and hopefully I can get the doctors photos since they are more clear.
I will say this about the photos though, sometimes I look at the photos and they look better, sometimes they look worst and sometimes it looks the same. Maybe it is the consistency of how I have been taking them, who knows.
Today I did get to see some of the photos the doctors office had taken pre-treatment and before my fourth treatment. The photo they had of my left cheek which was kind of scarred pores looking scars actually looked much better than I had thought it did, so I was pleased with that. They didnt have the one of my right cheek pre-treatment, so I couldnt make any comparison on that one with their photos and that is the cheek that bothers me the most. Those scars are kind of chicken pox looking, just a few in a cluster.
My scars are the result of years of digging out ingrown hairs mostly. Which I think I have finally come up with a regime to combat that, knock on wood.
They just printed out the photos, so I dont know how good they would look scanned in, I tried to get them to email them to me, but couldnt ever get a straight answer if they would. I also asked for the treatment settings for the last 3 times since I had the first 2 and couldnt really get a straight answer about that either, did get a smart ass comment from the nurse asking if I was getting my own machine.
I would say I went into this with mild scarring with realistic expectations and so far do I think I have seen 2k worth of results, 400 per treatment, probably not. But I still think this is the best out there for me, so I am not stopping and would recommend it.
I would say so far the best benefits have been improvement of overall texture and complexion. I did express my results concerned to the doctor and nurses and inturn they cranked it up, to what i dont know, but for the first time I experienced pinpoint bleeding and alot of yellow oozing for the first few hours.
I have to say I have healed up rather quickly every time and for me little pain, but I have thrown a lot at my face over the years so it is can take it, I think laser hair removal hurst much worst when I was doing that on my face.
I use a combo of emu/aloe/triceram for the first few days. I have always had the treatments on Thursday and have gone to work the next day just looking sunburn, then bronze the next day or two and by Monday look pretty much back to normal.
This time around they gave me some tubes of some Aveeno redness relief type moisturizer, which I have to say looks like it actually worked, because I look less red sooner than ever before.
I wont put a percentage on how much the improvement has been since I really dont know. The plan is to do one more full cheek area in 4 weeks and then he agreed to do some spot treatments at a reduced rate, not sure what that will be, but he wasnt willing to do that until I completed these rounds of full cheeks. I think to get it to where I want will still be a few more months of treatments, but if I can get some spots done for maybe 200-250 instead of 400 I will keep it up, just will go until the point of dimenisioning returns.
I guess to sum it up to date, still glad I did it, moderate improvement, helped with scarred pores, poc looking scars are probably improving even though tougher to tell, complexion and texture are clearer, downtime is minimal, pain is minimal and would do it all again.