Has anyone had success with laser treatments? If so, which one?
I have been dealing with acne since I was about 17. Before then I had perfectly clear skin and was very confident about my appearance. Out of nowhere my acne was so bad I was prescribed accutane and prednisone (I don't know why - big mistake) for severe cystic acne. I turn 21 in a few days and I all I want is my face back, I'm tired of this. My acne is no where near as bad as when I was prescribed accutane but in comparison to my skin before my major breakout my skin is more red, uneven complexion, rougher looking (less smooth), still get zits, black heads in damn near every pore on my forehead, nose, and under eyes, and scarring. I feel like many of my zits come in the same places because I have very deep clogged pores. I'm thinking if I could clear out these pores it would fix the problem.
What can I do to combat all this and make my face look like it used to or close to it?
If you still have active acne, you can't do anything for your scars yet, maybe consider a 2nd round of Accutane or some other method to get your acne under control. Retin-A or Differin sounds suitable for you because it helps with superficial scars and skin texture at the same time.
The general consensus on this forum (and amongst derms) is that fractional ablative lasers work well for superficial/mild scars, and subcision works well for deeper ones.
For lasers, the risks are always there but having a reputable doctor and following a good post-op care routine will greatly minimize them. I think most of the bad hyperpigmentation you see in horror stories are due to the doctor being over-aggressive on the first treatment or because the patient did not follow post-op instructions properly. You can check out the posts made by people who have done ablative fractional lasers in this forum, almost all of them have had a positive experience and seen some degree of improvement. I'm going for my first Mixto session in 2 weeks and will be posting the results in a month after if I can remember to do so.