So, I had mixto a week ago and thought I'd share my progress thus far.
I've had what I'd call moderate but prevalent acne scarring covering both cheeks and temples from 10 years of acne. I was able to finally get my acne under control about 3 years ago after a course of Accutane and was left with scarring mostly in the form of boxscars and rolling scars.
Prior to my mixto treatment, I've had approximately 10 treatments with various non-ablative lasers, 3 subcisions, a few tca peels at 12.5%, and a few needling and dermarolling sessions (self-administered).
While these treatments had improved some scarring, for the most part the results were not that impressive. I'd say the subcisions helped the most. I think my primary problem is the doctor who was treating me, while good intentioned, his methodology for treating scars just didn't work for my face. I think his philosophy was more along the lines of several mild/moderate treatments are better than aggressive treatments.
Anyways, I decided to give a fractional co2 laser a shot after becoming frustrated with my progress over the past 5 years of treating my scars. I didn't chose the mixto for any particular reason. It was more a matter of convenience in that based on the doctors I could find performing laser treatments in my area, this one worked out well with my work schedule and seemed competent enough (I really don't know how you measure a doctor's competency with a laser anyway). She also was willing to do a very aggressive treatment as I was upfront about not being satisfied with my past, less aggressive treatments.
As far as my mixto experience, well the treatment was definitely aggressive. It was a whole different beast compared to my previous treatments. After the treatment, my face was not really bloody but it was oozing,red, swollen and crusty. I crusted up for a few days and mostly peeled by the 5th day. I still have a few patches of fairly thick skin that is getting ready to peel.
My face is still a variety of colors ranging from pink to red to purplish but other than the few spots that are still peeling, I'd feel fairly comfortable out in public. I'd say the swelling has mostly gone down as of yesterday so it took about a week. I didn't really have too much of an acne problem from the aquafor other than a spot or two that I was able to treat pretty quickly.
As far as results, well it's probably too early to judge as my skin is still healing and I know the collagen growth process takes some time. Based on initial judgement though, I'd say both temples look like they are going to see some nice results. As far as my cheeks, it looks like it's going to be a tale of two sides. My right side is coming along nicely but my left side looks like it will probably need an additional treatment. I saw my doctor today for a follow-up and she remarked that the right side looked great and the left side looked like it might need additional treatment as well before I gave her my own opinion.
I can't really say why one side seems to be doing so much better other than I think my doctor was just more consistent/did a better job at treating the right side. I say this because my right cheek has pretty much the same consistency in color right now where my left cheek has more inconsistency (there are patches that are pink and patches where my normal skin tone has returned).
I have taken some before pictures and immediate after pictures but I'll wait until a month has passed to take any more pictures. I do plan to have one more treatment which will focus heavily on my left cheek and probably touch up the right side as well in about 3 months.
I paid $1000 for my treatment which included just about my entire face excluding the forehead which didn't need any treatment. I'd say thus far that it was the best treatment I've done for my acne scarring.
Im happy for you that you were able to get at least some sort of improvement thus far! Im planning on doing the Mixto as well in a couple of months. Thanks for sharing your experience. your experience with mixto as well as Dragz experience with the Mixto in another Post, gives me confidence and just reaffirms my plan of getting the Mixto treatment.
Thanks again, and good luck with the healing.
I'm one month post mixto now so I have a pretty good idea of the results from this treatment. I'll be taking some pictures in the next few days to do a more honest compare.
At one month, I still have a little bit of redness in the more aggressively treated areas. I've been trying to lighten a spot that looks like a red square from the laser on my left cheek for a week now. My scarring does look much improved on both sides of the face. The shallower scarring has just about disappeared. The deeper rolling/boxscars on my cheeks will need a second treatment. These scars on my right cheeks responded better than those on the left. I would say one more aggressive treatment will probably correct the scarring on my right side to the point where it wouldn't concern me anymore. My left side has 2 deeper boxscars that have not responded particularly well to any treatments but they are a bit shallower. We'll see how they respond to the second treatment.
Also, both temples improved significantly. Again, the right side looks like it responded better but I'm not sure I'll need a second treatment on either temple.
Hi jbird12,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. You should be nearly 2 months post-op at this point. Just curious to know if you're still seeing improvement in your scars, and what your opinion of MixTo is at this point. Looking forward to reading any update you can provide.
Thanks!
Just wanted to update everyone on my progress. I had my second Mixto treatment about 10 days ago. The doctor again agreed to be aggressive. She actually showed me a photo of a clinician who had the treatment done prior and asked if I wanted it "that aggressive". The guy looked pretty jacked up so I told her yes.
This time I oozed much more and for longer than I did the first time but I didn't really scab up this time. By end of day 3, my face was mostly red and swollen. The major swelling subsided on my left side after about 5-6 days and 7 days on my right. So all my scars are pretty much back at this point.
I am much more red this time. I had to go back to work today and I can just about pass it off as a bad sunburn (in November 
) but there are some spots that are a deeper red that makes my face look very splotchy. I'm hoping some of this subsides over the next few days because it is kind of embarrassing right now. Besides that though, I'm having no major issues.
I'll update again as things progress.
I don't know...I'm very private about my acne scarring. If I do post pictures, it won't be until about 3 months following my second procedure and in some sort of read-only format for a short period of time.
i see. i guess i'm sad to hear that. would it help if you cropped any of your recognizable features out of the picture? we would only see scars. and you would seriously help the community, as i'm sure you know there are a sore lack of picture-verified threads...
Figured I'd update as I'm now about 24 days post my second treatment. Most of the dark redness finally subsided last week but I still have a red spot or two lingering. My complexion has improved greatly following the second treatment. Especially on the left side of my face where it has been difficult to treat in the past.
The two most prominent scars on my left cheek are still visible but they are definitely softer. The patch of scarring on my right cheek has improved greatly from the two treatments. They are still visible but are much less noticeable now.
Over the past year I've had 2 subcisions (with non ablative laser treatment as well), 2 needling/derma rolling sessions and 2 aggressive Mixto sessions. I think my face needs a break for awhile so I plan to re-evaluate in about 6 months.
If I do any more treatments, it will definitely be something similar to my Mixto treatments. It is the only thing that has shown significant improvement in my scarring.
