I don't even know what to get for my scars anymore, there are too many options and I'm not sure which will work best for me. I have quite a bit of scars and a few lines on my forehead and was considering the Fraxel but I'm not sure anymore. Is the Fraxel really what all the hype makes it out to be?

 

well honestly its not nearly as effective as gettign a dermabrasion or deep laser treatment done. But if u have shallow scars or are willing to improve the deeper scars then use the fraxel. I would personally rather have some moderate scars made shallow with Fraxel then to have my face turn white red or brown from dermabrasion messing up my pigment.

the fraxel is an erbium laser as well (that shoots dots). from what i've read the pixel is simply a "head attachment" that works with different types of erbium laser systems, while the fraxel is a complete freestanding system.

JJ, I don't think the MTZs are visible. Last night I decided to try nightly Retin A to see if I can speed build up of collagen. Not sure if this will be ntoicable. I had been hesitant to do this during summer sun exposure.

Also, don't get too depressed. Remember, I'm 55 and my scars date back to the 1960s. Fraxel will probably work better for younger patients with more recent scarring.

Keith, your scarring is very mild and I think you got a very nice improvement so far. While I think I would have had a better result from a dermabrasion than with Fraxel, the risks and downtime make no sense, especially for someone like you with mild scarring.

Good luck

can someone pleeeeaaase answer this. Can u have fraxel laser done if ur on accutane?? and how much does it help with very shallow but yet noticeble ice pick scar

Hello,

I had some posts on this thread some number of months ago. Just thought I would chime in as some months have passed since my last treatment no. 5. I think my last treatment was at the end of April.

When I had my last treatment, it took about a week for my face to calm back down, this as opposed to usually over the weekend. Needless to say the doc cranked it up because of my complaining.

I was always pleased with the improvement in texture and overall skin quality improvement, with some improvement in scarring.

My scarring was minimal and would be kind of described as maybe scarred looking pores mixed with a chicken pox type look. The ones that bothered me most were kind of clustered with 3-4 in one area on my cheek. Anyways, after no. 5 and the additional down time and the not so much improvement from what I was hoping with the scars, I decided to just cancel before my no. 6 appointment. Well here it is 4 months later and I can say that things have definetly improved over the last 4 months. Like the doc and others mentioned you will continue to see improvement over the the next few months after your last treatment.

I think if I had gone for another 1-2 more treatments it would have gone from maybe a 50% improvement to 75%. Maybe I will go for some spot treatments down the road.

Just wanted to post some positve results from somebody that had 5 treatments and was going on 5 months since last treatment. I think like the others have mentioned as well, the doc needs to be agressive and you have to give it time and several treatments, clearly some people have more success than others, but I guess that is something you just have to be willing to take a chance on. I would encourage a person going for new treatments to not let the doc do like they did me and just start out to little and work their way up. Clearly you dont want to start out at the high end, but I think this low setting and work your way up is just wasting treatments imho.

Hello,

I had some posts on this thread some number of months ago. Just thought I would chime in as some months have passed since my last treatment no. 5. I think my last treatment was at the end of April.

When I had my last treatment, it took about a week for my face to calm back down, this as opposed to usually over the weekend. Needless to say the doc cranked it up because of my complaining.

I was always pleased with the improvement in texture and overall skin quality improvement, with some improvement in scarring.

My scarring was minimal and would be kind of described as maybe scarred looking pores mixed with a chicken pox type look. The ones that bothered me most were kind of clustered with 3-4 in one area on my cheek. Anyways, after no. 5 and the additional down time and the not so much improvement from what I was hoping with the scars, I decided to just cancel before my no. 6 appointment. Well here it is 4 months later and I can say that things have definetly improved over the last 4 months. Like the doc and others mentioned you will continue to see improvement over the the next few months after your last treatment.

I think if I had gone for another 1-2 more treatments it would have gone from maybe a 50% improvement to 75%. Maybe I will go for some spot treatments down the road.

Just wanted to post some positve results from somebody that had 5 treatments and was going on 5 months since last treatment. I think like the others have mentioned as well, the doc needs to be agressive and you have to give it time and several treatments, clearly some people have more success than others, but I guess that is something you just have to be willing to take a chance on. I would encourage a person going for new treatments to not let the doc do like they did me and just start out to little and work their way up. Clearly you dont want to start out at the high end, but I think this low setting and work your way up is just wasting treatments imho.

 

Can you list the settings you had for each treatment and how many weeks between those treatments? Will you go back in for any more Fraxels and if so what settings will you request? What types of change (ie. texture, color, spots, scar change or improvement in wrinkeling) did you notice following your last Fraxel over this last 5 months? Thank you for your post!

Thanks, nsxlr8, for the update!

Gives me hope, since my doc told me she is very aggressive and that she would be cranking it up next time.

Though I'm now worried about how bad this next one is gonna hurt!

Just have a couple questions that need to be answered by fraxel vets.....my 'normal' color is kind of a pinkish/red thanks to 2 exoderm peels.....will fraxel make that condition worse?? Also my first fraxel treatment is next tuesday....i have the whole week off after that and return to work on monday...will i still be red from treatment?

Just have a couple questions that need to be answered by fraxel vets.....my 'normal' color is kind of a pinkish/red thanks to 2 exoderm peels.....will fraxel make that condition worse?? Also my first fraxel treatment is next tuesday....i have the whole week off after that and return to work on monday...will i still be red from treatment?

 

I was swollen for at least a week, probably still had some at 10 days post treatment.

I was red for a good two weeks, and still have slight redness, and dryness/flaking on my cheeks. I'm 18 days post Fraxel.

Whyme, Fraxel changed my ruddy face color to tan, like the rest of my skin. Very happy about this

NSKLR8, congrats on your success. 50% improvement is huge. Do you have pictures? My docs attempt at pre and post failed as the angle, lighting were different and they were not close enough to show scars.

My daughter's attempt yesterday also failed, as I am trying to get super close ups in the open garage facing SW. I have her take them just inside the shadow on garage floor so that there is a huge amount of indirect sunlight to create heavy shadows. I will try again today, as I have some detailed pre pcitures to compare to, which show lots of scars.

Getting closeups in harsh light is not easy for comparison purposes.

Whyme, Fraxel changed my ruddy face color to tan, like the rest of my skin. Very happy about this

 

Have you went on accutane before? One of my big complaints of accutane, is a year post my face won't really tan, it just turns red. It's frustrating.

Sorry, but I give up on pictures. My youngest took a set yesterday and a set today in outdoor midday sun and in midday sun, just inside the open garage door. Although I feel badly about this, I decided not to post them:

1. Each picture is huge and is 12 times the allowed size for a posting. So, it would be a lot of work to downsize them and a lot might be lost in the process. I'm not a digital photo guy.

2. I am not sure they would tell you much because I am uncertain looking at my super detailed shots. I have printed the photos on 8.5x11 and each lower side of face takes up entire space. I have also taken prints and aligned them to before print pictures, as well using the entire 19" monitor. I looked in mirror with print ear next to real ear and determined that the close magnification was a factor of 2. And, the screen is even bigger. Yet, I was only able to draw the following conclusions:

a. Magnifying my scars by a factor of 2 or more in harsh light looks really bad.

b. Slight changes in lighting and angle, as well as how close photo was shot make a huge perception difference. In some case, blurring occurred with too close shots. I think she was about 6/8 inches away. Despite many attempts, none of post photos matched the pre photos well enough as to angle and light, but they provide a way better comparison than the docs photos which were too far away to show anything.

c. I still have lots of room for improvement.

d. I did get a big improvement in the 6 or so punch floats that worked well, that were fraxeled later with 4 full face fraxels.

e. I really don't see much change in the remaining floats that failed as well as the rest of the scarring treated soley by Fraxel.

Anyway, I know others are seeing benefits and Reliant must have had some data to support FDA efficacy studies, so I am still interested in Fraxel, as I think it is an easy procedure. So, I will keep reading this thread and hope that others can document their success, as I will be pleased for you and it will provide the incentive for me to try this in, say, another year.

Hey, Billy, don't feel bad about the photo thing. I can't get mine to work either.

Billy, much like you I have had little success in capturing things in photos, I even try playing with the color, reverse negative, etc. to get things to show up good. I can't say my improvements was exactly 50%, but I feel at least 50% better when I look in the mirror, haha, so I guess that is about the same.

The only time I good get a good photo of things was printing them out really large on high quality paper. I just use an older 1.5mb Mavica, too.

Lexis, I was about 4 weeks between each treatment. I dont have the last setting they used. I did post the other ones somewhere in this thread, I dont have them written down anymore, but I am sure if you search this thread for my user name you will see the ones that I did have. I just know that last time he cranked it up quite a bit since before I was pretty well back to normal by Monday, had them on Thursday afternoon. And this last time, by Monday I thought my face was melting off and it took until Friday before before I didn't cringe at the thought of being in public, but I was at work that monday with what looked like a huge road rash on my face, lots of oozing and pinpoint bleading that time.

What I feel like improved the most over the last few months was the remolding of the collagen in the scars. I think that combined with my facing being the clearest it has been in 15 years has helped a lot.

As for going for more, that is something I would certainly consider in the future, but it would be for spot treatment in my "problem" area if I did since I am not in a position to take off a week from work and am not willing to deal with whole facing looking like it did the last time inspite of the fact it was probably the most effective treatment yet. I don't know what settings I would ask for, probably what ever they did last time.

Hmm. I was going to schedule my second fraxel, but now hearing the mixed reviews I'm seriously considering cutting my losses and getting something else done--or waiting until I can find someone with the new machine (?)

Hi - I've been following the posts on Fraxel and really appreciate everyone's candid reports on their experiences. I finally decided to post mine.

I just had my 4th Fraxel last Friday. Today (Monday), my face is very red, swollen and a little crusty in spots. My results have been pretty good so far. I've been having the treatments between 3-4 weeks apart. I'm 47, have several shallow scars, a few deep ones and lots of sun damage. I've seen huge improvements in texture and the shallow scars are starting to fill in. I haven't seen much change yet in the deep ones. Major improvements in the wrinkles around my eyes. Since I have very pale, 'papery' skin, my dr did my first one at 14 at 4 passes, then 16 on the second round of 4 passes. Second, 18 and 20 (still 8 passes total). Third at 20 and 21. The 4th was 21, then 22. I think it's very aggressive for sensitive, thin skin like mine, but I feel it will be worth it. I do have to spend a few days in hiding, though, because my swelling is really bad. She's doing extra passes around my eyes and my eyes have been very swollen the first 2 days. I'm scheduled for my fifth in October. My dr says to keep expecting improvement as the collagen 'remodels' in the next few months.

billyboy you can put your photos on photobucket for free and put the link on here. please post them I have been waiting to see them since youfirst said you'd post them back in august!

Hi - I've been following the posts on Fraxel and really appreciate everyone's candid reports on their experiences. I finally decided to post mine.

I just had my 4th Fraxel last Friday. Today (Monday), my face is very red, swollen and a little crusty in spots. My results have been pretty good so far. I've been having the treatments between 3-4 weeks apart. I'm 47, have several shallow scars, a few deep ones and lots of sun damage. I've seen huge improvements in texture and the shallow scars are starting to fill in. I haven't seen much change yet in the deep ones. Major improvements in the wrinkles around my eyes. Since I have very pale, 'papery' skin, my dr did my first one at 14 at 4 passes, then 16 on the second round of 4 passes. Second, 18 and 20 (still 8 passes total). Third at 20 and 21. The 4th was 21, then 22. I think it's very aggressive for sensitive, thin skin like mine, but I feel it will be worth it. I do have to spend a few days in hiding, though, because my swelling is really bad. She's doing extra passes around my eyes and my eyes have been very swollen the first 2 days. I'm scheduled for my fifth in October. My dr says to keep expecting improvement as the collagen 'remodels' in the next few months.

 

Toner, thank you so much for sharing your results, and please keep us posted on your progress.

I go for Fraxel #2 tomorrow, and I'm more nervous this time than I was for the first one!

JJ, if you can tell me how to post/link to photobucket, I will do it.

Ok, I think I figured out how to do it. My left side sucks and I don't see any improvement from pre to post, except that I had 3 scars essentially removed by floats and then fraxel (2 under sideburn, and 1 along jaw). I had excisons on this side that turned out badly (see center of cheek - this was in pre photo also). I had a really bad surgeon several years ago. The attempts to refloat this area also failed

My right side is way better and it would appear that I got some improvement from the other 2 floats that worked + fraxel. The scarring on this side was more shallow. But, you can see how much differnce lgihting and angle can make, so it is hard to be sure. I don't know how to doctor photos, so you need not worry about that. Also, it took courage for me to do this posting.

These pictures are depressing because I am virtually scar free on forehead and center face, so I don't see these side face scars every day. My sister makes me feel better by calling me the blonde, buff guy with bad skin. For some reason, it's harder to talk to wife and kids about this.

http://s19.photobucket.com/albums/b177/bil...cne%20pictures/

billyboy, you have to make your photo album public in order for us to the see the photos OR you can post the links to individual photos.

Ok, made it public. Actually, I would be interested in honest assessments as to improvement, as I am on fence about more fraxels.

Better yet, let me know if you have better ideas for filling the pocks.

I did a test and the ears on my print page are, depending on picture, 2 to 3 times the size of my actual ears when I put the print page next to ear and look in mirror. At least they are smaller than they look in print or on screen.

Ok, made it public. Actually, I would be interested in honest assessments as to improvement, as I am on fence about more fraxels.

Better yet, let me know if you have better ideas for filling the pocks.

I did a test and the ears on my print page are, depending on picture, 2 to 3 times the size of my actual ears when I put the print page next to ear and look in mirror. At least they are smaller than they look in print or on screen.

 

billyboy,

Maybe I am getting the pre and post mixed up, but it looks like the fraxyl combined 2 scars to 1 larger one?

Or am I wrong and the 1 large one is now 2 smaller ones?

Because if that is the deal will never have Fraxyl. My scarring is minor and if it combined 2 scars into 1, I would be real mad!

Anyway yur a good looking guy, and since the scarring is on the sides, your lucky.

And Oh- your ears look fine!!! Pics like sometimes distort things, but I thought they were fine anyway:)

If you really are worried and wan't to further treat, I woud do more punch hole graphs on the ones that bug you, miner laser to even them out and some fillers like restylin in the left side. Your right side is great!

My husband has scarring on the sides of his face, not fom acne, he was attacked by a dog as a teen.

I never notice it because it is on he side of his face, but one part is deeper than your scars.

I like kinda rough looking guys, your scarring would never bother me, it just seems like if the scars are caused by acne they bother a person more I guess.....??????

You have a nice looking wife, children, and bod. It seems it never bothered your wife, but I certainly understand where you are coming from.

Oh your ears look fine, pics, have there way of distorting things, but they still looked fine to me 🙂

Back from second fraxel.

I don't know the settings for the full face passes, I know she did additional passes (cheeks and chin) setting of 35 (level 8 I think).

I'll call tomorrow and get the settings.

Serious firey pain for about 6 hours. I'm bright red. Plus, I have some pinpoint bleeding on cheeks, chin and forehead. Not as much swelling as last time. Possibly due to use of a chilled green tea mask product immediately following the lasering?

Two down, three to go.