I have scars like yours, they are mostly rolling scars along with small icepick scars. I did Fraxel Repair laser in my country, but I dont think my doctor went deep enough, I will go and visit a few Realself doctors that I found very knowledgeable in the US early next year. From my understanding is that our best way to treat these type of scars is with fraxel repair/deep fx + subcision and tca cross for larger ice picks.
I had 3 treatments of Fraxel laser 7 years ago, but it didn't take care of my scars enough, which I think have gotten worse since then.
I also have this nasty scar, the newest one, from my Accutane treatment.
Who performs TCA cross nowadays? Also, I live in NY and there are only 2 doctors that I've researched who do subcision and 1 in NJ.
My belief is that most doctors push the laser treatments on their clientele, but I am not interested in non-ablative lasers, like Fraxel; I would only consider the original ablative co2 laser treatment if I am going to spend thousands of dollars.
I had 7 fraxels restores and dual which is 4 laser treatments a month apart and 2 perfecta and 2 smoothbeam and 2affirm and 1 ipl and the worst was the Erbium which gave me all my scars. I only had a few but after the erbium that's supposed to be the one of the most aggressive I came out with fat loss and scars, pigment change, broken blood vessels. My texture changed too. Horrible I will never touch a laser again. Trying needling and fillers instead. I might try tca cross for the deep ones but don't go for laser, It costs a lot, doesn't do much and a lot of doctors who used lasers aren't any more. I even went to a laser specialist and he won't do the aggressive ones anymore, patients didn't see good results and a lot were damaged. Go to the iplandlaserdamage boards to see some stories, even on realself. it's a life time of misery if it goes wrong.. I would try subcision with suction method and needling before putting a laser to my face.
I talked with a proclaimed doctor from NYC who is an expert at acne scars and he said he was sorry I wasted my time and money on Fraxel laser treatments.
He can improve the appearance of them drastically with other methods such as subcision.
I have to wait a year until I can do any procedures though.
What can I do in the meantime to help my skin heal faster and get stronger, because Accutane really has weakened it.
Also, is swimming a good idea for the skin?
Here are more pictures of my acne scars- as you can see they look very different depending on the lightening.
I'm breaking out, but I still have 4 more months on Accutane.
Is needling recommended 6months or a year after Accutane?
I think any treatment is only allowed 1 year post accutane period, but ask your dermatologist just in case.
I talked with a proclaimed doctor from NYC who is an expert at acne scars and he said he was sorry I wasted my time and money on Fraxel laser treatments.
He can improve the appearance of them drastically with other methods such as subcision.
I have to wait a year until I can do any procedures though.
What can I do in the meantime to help my skin heal faster and get stronger, because Accutane really has weakened it.
Also, is swimming a good idea for the skin?
I don't know if swimming will help acne scars or make it worse. Most likely does nothing to it.
This lady had somewhat similar scars to yours and she did subcision as well.So hopefully you get the same good results, good luck!
(check 2nd page for her 2nd result)
Swimming is a very very bad idea imo, especially during/after Accutane, if you are talking about swimming pools. Will irritate your skin even more(slow down the healing).
Could you tell me the docs name please either on here/private message? NY is one of the places I will visit next month to speak with some of the Docs that make sense to me(aka not just pushing their laser treatments) from Realself based on their answers and ratings,will see what they suggest for my acne scarring, you are welcome to join me if you want. For some of my deepest scars I would be interested in what doctors who perform silicone fillers(aka instant permanent solution) can do, only thing I want to make sure is that the doc is "legit" as those require a lot of skill, but results are awesome(one of the docs i plan on visiting & talk about my scars and how they can be improved with silicone fillers: http://www.barnettdermatology.com/treatments.php?id=24 ). Got around 3-4 doctors that I am looking at in NY currently, each of them specializes in something non-laser related, so hopefully they will be more objective than the laser (1 treatment & done) docs.
My scarring is very very similar to what you have, I can post some pics, but I dont want to derail/hijack your topic.
Please, post some pics, I'd love to compare and share tips- we are all in this together.
My doctor is Dr. Nelson Lee Novick. I was considering Dr. George Young, Dr. Barnett and Dr. Jeffrey Rapaport who is technically from NJ, but his office is just on the other side of the river by Manhattan.
These are the last set of "before pictures."
Your scars are minor. Microneedling will probably remove them in 6 months.
Too bad I have to wait until April to be done with my accutane treatment and then wait 6 more months to get started with subcision and microneedling. It's not fair! I've become so obsessed over my skin that I need to create another obsession lol