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I've had some really good results with fraxel. I've had about 5 treatments so far and have one more to go. My scarring wasn't too bad, mainly superficial, some really tiny icepick scars, and one deeper crater like scar left from a cyst. It's improved the crater a lot...however I'm a perfectionist and it still does bother me some. Overall it has smoothed out my skin a lot though. This is the first scarring procedure I've ever had and I'm really happy with the results thus far. I was told this is pretty much the best laser out there for acne scarring right now. I payed $600 because I only needed to have my cheeks done, otherwise it would've been $1,000 per treatment. It's pretty painless, I was red for a couple days and flaked/peeled (which actually evened out some hyperpigmentation). It's expensive, but well worth the money.
only 600? was this 1 treatment only? so 5 treatments combine is 3,000 total?? and this is the best acne scar laser available?
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i was wondering how would you rate your scars, like as in ice picks, boxcars, and wrinkles and fine lines, we just want a starting description so we can help you further your finalization state. best wishes sweety!!
All of the above. Worse areas are under my cheek bones towards my cheeks and then down towards my chin closer to my mouth. Plus some rolling or dented areas. I think I have some scarred pores also. I am asking the Fraxel to do alot!! 😀
keep us posted, you lift our spirits on up. scars are meant to keep us in the ground instead of on the moon. also if you could post some before and after pictures, just start taking pictures to keep track of your progress, its good too for youself and all of us not rich people that wants to try laser and what technology has best to offer now.
Hi Roxie555,
Congratulations on ur good results. U give the rest of us a lot of hope. Just wondering what settings did you use?
Thanks
M
I've had some really good results with fraxel. I've had about 5 treatments so far and have one more to go. My scarring wasn't too bad, mainly superficial, some really tiny icepick scars, and one deeper crater like scar left from a cyst. It's improved the crater a lot...however I'm a perfectionist and it still does bother me some. Overall it has smoothed out my skin a lot though. This is the first scarring procedure I've ever had and I'm really happy with the results thus far. I was told this is pretty much the best laser out there for acne scarring right now. I payed $600 because I only needed to have my cheeks done, otherwise it would've been $1,000 per treatment. It's pretty painless, I was red for a couple days and flaked/peeled (which actually evened out some hyperpigmentation). It's expensive, but well worth the money.
Honestly I have no idea what settings were used. When I go for my last one I'll ask. All I know is that each treatment I had, we went up in the strength of the laser because my skin seems to tolerate it pretty well. It's different for every person I think based off what you can handle. If you decide to get fraxel I'm sure they'll be conservative at first with how intense the settings are. They want to make sure your skin can handle it and not do anything weird like blister.
I would say I noticed improvement probably after the 3rd treatment...it's usually hard to see anything after the first one. Good luck!! 
Hi Roxie555,
Congratulations on ur good results. U give the rest of us a lot of hope. Just wondering what settings did you use?
Thanks
M
Thus far I have the following observations about my treatment -
I have had two treatments, level 20 for first one, and level 25 for second treatment. 6-8 passes.
Since my fraxel I have barely if at all experienced any breakouts. I have generally experienced 5% improvement after my first treatment and 10% after the second. With a spacing of 5 weeks apart between treatments I feel fraxel has had positive results on my scarring.
Looking forward to another 3 treatments at level 25 and above. Hoping to get level 30 at 8 passes for next treatment. I feel with this level of improvement I can aim for 60% improvement after 5 treatments.
Just a quick question, is there any proof or reason why fraxel will reduce or stop cystic acne. If not are the effects I am seeing temporary? I.e no acne since fraxel treatment.
Blaster
Thus far I have the following observations about my treatment -
I have had two treatments, level 20 for first one, and level 25 for second treatment. 6-8 passes.
Since my fraxel I have barely if at all experienced any breakouts. I have generally experienced 5% improvement after my first treatment and 10% after the second. With a spacing of 5 weeks apart between treatments I feel fraxel has had positive results on my scarring.
Looking forward to another 3 treatments at level 25 and above. Hoping to get level 30 at 8 passes for next treatment. I feel with this level of improvement I can aim for 60% improvement after 5 treatments.
Just a quick question, is there any proof or reason why fraxel will reduce or stop cystic acne. If not are the effects I am seeing temporary? I.e no acne since fraxel treatment.
Blaster
Was wondering what kind of scars you have? I suffered from severe cystic acne which was treated with accutane. I now have some icepicks and some small boxscars and some other wierd looking scars not sure what they are. For the most part they exist on my cheeks and side of my face and did not ever seem that prominent until I hit my thirties and then I started to notice them more in different kinds of light which had never happened. Hmmm Any way... was maybe looking towards fraxel. I do peels and use retin-A but mostly for skin maintenance. I made an appointment for a Fraxel consult on June 2. I have read that the higher settings are what are now being recommended to treat scarring. How was the pain?
Hi,
I found the pain manageable, it's not mild, but it's not that bad either. They gave me numbing creme plus pain killers which does give you a bit of a buzz and make you just slightly 'high'.
Anyhow pain is not that much of an issue. It's much easier after the first treatment, because then you know what to expect.
I have a range of scars, ice-pick, box-scar, rolling etc on forehead, cheeks and nose. Jawlines and hairlines are clear. I think fraxel may have inadvertently stopped my acne. Hope it is a permanent effect.
Most of the literature on fraxel; do a google on the latest boston conference on laser treatments for acne scarring, clearly showed that level 25 and above were the new standard for treating acne-scars.
I am 30 now, and find my scars are more noticable compared to when I was in my 20s. Might have to do with reduced collagen levels in skin with aging.
Blaster
Thus far I have the following observations about my treatment -
I have had two treatments, level 20 for first one, and level 25 for second treatment. 6-8 passes.
Since my fraxel I have barely if at all experienced any breakouts. I have generally experienced 5% improvement after my first treatment and 10% after the second. With a spacing of 5 weeks apart between treatments I feel fraxel has had positive results on my scarring.
Looking forward to another 3 treatments at level 25 and above. Hoping to get level 30 at 8 passes for next treatment. I feel with this level of improvement I can aim for 60% improvement after 5 treatments.
Just a quick question, is there any proof or reason why fraxel will reduce or stop cystic acne. If not are the effects I am seeing temporary? I.e no acne since fraxel treatment.
Blaster
Was wondering what kind of scars you have? I suffered from severe cystic acne which was treated with accutane. I now have some icepicks and some small boxscars and some other wierd looking scars not sure what they are. For the most part they exist on my cheeks and side of my face and did not ever seem that prominent until I hit my thirties and then I started to notice them more in different kinds of light which had never happened. Hmmm Any way... was maybe looking towards fraxel. I do peels and use retin-A but mostly for skin maintenance. I made an appointment for a Fraxel consult on June 2. I have read that the higher settings are what are now being recommended to treat scarring. How was the pain?
Hi,
I found the pain manageable, it's not mild, but it's not that bad either. They gave me numbing creme plus pain killers which does give you a bit of a buzz and make you just slightly 'high'.
Anyhow pain is not that much of an issue. It's much easier after the first treatment, because then you know what to expect.
I have a range of scars, ice-pick, box-scar, rolling etc on forehead, cheeks and nose. Jawlines and hairlines are clear. I think fraxel may have inadvertently stopped my acne. Hope it is a permanent effect.
Most of the literature on fraxel; do a google on the latest boston conference on laser treatments for acne scarring, clearly showed that level 25 and above were the new standard for treating acne-scars.
I am 30 now, and find my scars are more noticable compared to when I was in my 20s. Might have to do with reduced collagen levels in skin with aging.
Blaster
Thus far I have the following observations about my treatment -
I have had two treatments, level 20 for first one, and level 25 for second treatment. 6-8 passes.
Since my fraxel I have barely if at all experienced any breakouts. I have generally experienced 5% improvement after my first treatment and 10% after the second. With a spacing of 5 weeks apart between treatments I feel fraxel has had positive results on my scarring.
Looking forward to another 3 treatments at level 25 and above. Hoping to get level 30 at 8 passes for next treatment. I feel with this level of improvement I can aim for 60% improvement after 5 treatments.
Just a quick question, is there any proof or reason why fraxel will reduce or stop cystic acne. If not are the effects I am seeing temporary? I.e no acne since fraxel treatment.
Blaster
Was wondering what kind of scars you have? I suffered from severe cystic acne which was treated with accutane. I now have some icepicks and some small boxscars and some other wierd looking scars not sure what they are. For the most part they exist on my cheeks and side of my face and did not ever seem that prominent until I hit my thirties and then I started to notice them more in different kinds of light which had never happened. Hmmm Any way... was maybe looking towards fraxel. I do peels and use retin-A but mostly for skin maintenance. I made an appointment for a Fraxel consult on June 2. I have read that the higher settings are what are now being recommended to treat scarring. How was the pain?
Thanks for the input. Do you think the reduction in the scars is from the tightening of the skin? Do you notice your skin to be tighter? Maybe if I say a prayer I can look ten years younger and have less scarring... okay maybe two prayers... hehe. I'm also looking forward to the other benefits such as more even skin tone etc. Would you say those changes are as slow a progress as the scar improvement? I know I have a million one questions. Sorry. It's just that this forum has been then most unbiased source of information I have ever found.
i too pray that my skin would heal faster and produce collagen galores. hey, quick question to those who had fraxel done before, is it effective for ice picks scarring?
IJ'm sorry to say I haven't seen much improvement with the ice pick scars. I think Fraxel is least effective for this. I still have 2 months to go since my last treatment, so hopefully they'll get better soon.
Hi Cubsfan
Any improvement in pores or scarred pores? I am noticing some improvement in shallow rolling scars after Fraxel # 2 and tighenting of skin on forehead wirnles, but this may not be permanent.
Thanks and best wishes
Hi billyboy! I see small improvement in the pores. What I thought were pores getting a lot better, were actually scarred pores. They have improved a lot. The rolling scars are better too. I'm happy to hear you're seeing improvement already. Way to go!
Just back from fraxel #3! Finally! I asked to see Dr. Rapaport before the blue stuff went on my face and while I was waiting to see him I took a look at my before photos. The pics in regular lighting look like I barely have scars. The ones that bother me the most are hardly visible. But the pics under the flourescents. Whoa. But still, the scars that are most bothersome to me aren't all that noticeable. (there weren't really any closeups however). There are however spots that SHOULD be more bothersome to me. LOL
Anyway, he asked what I thought of the results so far. I told him my husband has said 25% improvement. He looked at the pics and at me and said, "I think he's right. We can do better. You should plan on coming back for that fourth treatment" (free of charge, thank you very much). At our initial consult he had said he would do a fourth if necessary and I was really envisioning having to fight for it, but HE'S the one that suggested it. Imagine my surprise!
So, level 24, 10 passes on the cheeks (where the scarring is worst), 6 passes on the forehead. I'm not nearly as swollen as last time (level23)
I asked him if he thought if a person were to have a fraxel treatment every three weeks for five years could they have perfect skin. He said he didn't think so, that the benefits max out after a certain point. For some reason it impressed me that he acknowledged the limitations of the laser. And he's still not pushing other procedures, which also impresses me.
ANyway. We'll see how I heal. After the second I noticd that overall skin tone was much better, but the scars, although more shallow are still most definitely there.
Has anybody used Biafine after their fraxel treatments? I had my third fraxel 1 week ago, and my doctor gave me a sample of this product. It is *amazing*, and I suggest anybody who is having fraxel get some from their doctor. With me, it made my skin heal more uniformly, sped up my healing process immensely, and eliminated ALL peeling and flakiness afterward (which I'd experienced after my first 2 fraxels when I wasn't using this product). Also, my skin has been prone to breaking-out after fraxel, and Biafine is so gentle that it doesn't cause my skin to break-out (compared to Aquaphor, which according to my doctor causes some people to break-out).
As far as scar improvement goes, I'm hesitant to say I see a difference yet. I think I'll wait until after my 6th (final) treatment to post about that.
Never heard of Biafine, but sounds interesting. Wonder if my doctor has samples. Can you do that? Ask your doctor for some random product he may not have heard of? I'm telling you, I could have used it this time around. My face looks horrendous. For some reason it looks like all my pores are magnified. After the first two treatments mmost of them swelled shut. This time, not so lucky. My moisturizer actually got imbedded in a bunch of them. Hee-haw!
Billyboy,
I'm not sure of the settings my treatments have been at. I'm a research participant, and my doctor said that the levels she is using aren't the levels used for non-research participants, so I can't really compare my settings to what the rest of you are doing. I will try to find out more information about this, though. One thing I do know is that the settings are the same for every treatment.
I feel as if I have seen some improvement with my scars, but I am *very* hesitant to give myself, as well as others on this board, false hope. I feel more comfortable waiting until after my treatments are done to post confidently about improvement. My doctor said a lot of people see things like pores beginning to fill in after the third treatment, but that visible scar improvement doesn't come until months after the last fraxel treatment.
Chrissy,
I would definitely ask your doctor for Biafine. If he hasn't heard of it, then he needs to become informed and get some samples!
Best wishes to everyone and their scar treatments.
I've asked my doctor about other procedures if I'm not satisfied with the fraxel results. He's recommending waiting at least six months before deciding how to proceed. So, it's like you said. Results continue for several months after that last treatment. Sheesh. I'd kind of like to get on with my life...can't get pregnant during treatment.
Have any of you experienced Fraxelers been taking any supplements while going through the treatments? I read a couple of posts that detailed regimins of things like vitamin c, borage oil, msm...etc, etc....
I have an arsenal of pills and copper peptides ready and waiting to use during my treatments but was curious to see if anyone else had tried it and had good results. Anything I can do to minimize the downtime would be great; my appointments are all on Tuesdays and I can't take time off from work afterwards....I don't really want to scare everyone in my office....
I just had my first Fraxel done yesterday.
It was not as painful as I thought it would be during the procedure but more tender for the rest of the day than I thought it would be.
I was blue and now I'm red, just like I expected. It took a little longer to remove the dye than I had hoped but I wasn't surprised that it was almost 24 hours before it was mostly gone.
It was more difficult to remove than I thougt, too. And I didn't see the best results of dye removal until I followed the esthetician (sp?) adivice, exactly. At first I tried a variation of her instructions to try to save some time. She said to put a cream (they gave me some) on my face, let it sit there for awhile and then put a cold wet towel on my face and then gently pat the dye off. I found that an OTC cream I have actually worked better than their super expensive cream did. It's Cetaphil cream. But the cold, wet towel was amazingly affective. The colder, the better. I got a bucket of ice water, soaked the towel, wrung it out, and put it on my face (like they do for facials). Tons of dye came off that way.
My face feels hot and burned like a sunburn, just like I expected. I put on a light lotion that has an 30spf and that was sufficient to moisturize without being greasy. What's more, the lotion is tinted so it provided a little bit of coverage that helped even out the redness a bit. If anyone is interested in trying it, it's great: Neutragena - Healthy Defense daily moisturizer (light tint) with spf30. You can get this lotion with no tint, light tint and medium tint.
But seriously, it just looks like I was at the beach too long, LOL.
**She did emphasize that I wouldn't start seeing results until 6months following the last treatment, regardless of how many treatments I have. So, if I have only two more, spaced one month apart, I won't see an improvement in the scars/lines/sun damage unitl somewhere around Christmas.
Hmm....that seems like a helluva long time to wait to see if you need more treatments. I can't imagine starting over with this in January. Oh well, we'll see.
I just had my first Fraxel done yesterday.
It was not as painful as I thought it would be during the procedure but more tender for the rest of the day than I thought it would be.
I was blue and now I'm red, just like I expected. It took a little longer to remove the dye than I had hoped but I wasn't surprised that it was almost 24 hours before it was mostly gone.
It was more difficult to remove than I thougt, too. And I didn't see the best results of dye removal until I followed the esthetician (sp?) adivice, exactly. At first I tried a variation of her instructions to try to save some time. She said to put a cream (they gave me some) on my face, let it sit there for awhile and then put a cold wet towel on my face and then gently pat the dye off. I found that an OTC cream I have actually worked better than their super expensive cream did. It's Cetaphil cream. But the cold, wet towel was amazingly affective. The colder, the better. I got a bucket of ice water, soaked the towel, wrung it out, and put it on my face (like they do for facials). Tons of dye came off that way.
My face feels hot and burned like a sunburn, just like I expected. I put on a light lotion that has an 30spf and that was sufficient to moisturize without being greasy. What's more, the lotion is tinted so it provided a little bit of coverage that helped even out the redness a bit. If anyone is interested in trying it, it's great: Neutragena - Healthy Defense daily moisturizer (light tint) with spf30. You can get this lotion with no tint, light tint and medium tint.
But seriously, it just looks like I was at the beach too long, LOL.
**She did emphasize that I wouldn't start seeing results until 6months following the last treatment, regardless of how many treatments I have. So, if I have only two more, spaced one month apart, I won't see an improvement in the scars/lines/sun damage unitl somewhere around Christmas.
Hmm....that seems like a helluva long time to wait to see if you need more treatments. I can't imagine starting over with this in January. Oh well, we'll see.
Congrats on your first treatment! If you're like most of us on here, you'll see improvements a lot sooner than that.Do you know what your settings were?
I've asked my doctor about other procedures if I'm not satisfied with the fraxel results. He's recommending waiting at least six months before deciding how to proceed. So, it's like you said. Results continue for several months after that last treatment. Sheesh. I'd kind of like to get on with my life...can't get pregnant during treatment.
ChrissyC, I am pregnant now and can't wait to get my treatments. My skin looks worse now that I'm pregnant (I guess since I can't use Retin-A) and I'm having a very difficult time waiting til the Fall for Fraxel. And when the baby arrives and I can get treatments, I can just imagine how chaotic it will be to travel an hour and a half each way to the doctor, spend 2 hours there for treatment, all the while trying to nurse and keep the baby sleeping and content (my husband will be with me but still it's going to be difficult). Were you told that you can't get pregnant while going through the treatments? I was told that the numbing cream they use is the same as what the dentist injects when they need to do work on your teeth. My doctor said to wait until the baby is born but I still wonder what could be so bad about the numbing cream since only a little bit would get into your system. Have you been told not to get pregnant during treatments or are you just being cautious?
I've asked my doctor about other procedures if I'm not satisfied with the fraxel results. He's recommending waiting at least six months before deciding how to proceed. So, it's like you said. Results continue for several months after that last treatment. Sheesh. I'd kind of like to get on with my life...can't get pregnant during treatment.
ChrissyC, I am pregnant now and can't wait to get my treatments. My skin looks worse now that I'm pregnant (I guess since I can't use Retin-A) and I'm having a very difficult time waiting til the Fall for Fraxel. And when the baby arrives and I can get treatments, I can just imagine how chaotic it will be to travel an hour and a half each way to the doctor, spend 2 hours there for treatment, all the while trying to nurse and keep the baby sleeping and content (my husband will be with me but still it's going to be difficult). Were you told that you can't get pregnant while going through the treatments? I was told that the numbing cream they use is the same as what the dentist injects when they need to do work on your teeth. My doctor said to wait until the baby is born but I still wonder what could be so bad about the numbing cream since only a little bit would get into your system. Have you been told not to get pregnant during treatments or are you just being cautious?
Blinny,
The doctor will not treat pregnant women for scar revision. I wonder how much it has to do with your skin just being wacky when you're pregnant. All those hormones, you know? The whole melasma thing etc. DId they say it was safe to nurse while undergoing treatment? I think what it actually comes down to is that they don't have any studies that prove that it's safe (who would the subjects be?), so the general rule of thumb is DON'T.