Hi all,
I had severe nodular cystic acne for about 6 months. Before that, I had mild acne such as black heads on nose and little on forehead, I rarely had pimples pop up on my cheek. After only 2 months of it, I started to use accutane. When my accutane treatment for 6 months finished, I hardly ever had any cysts or pimples since than. The thing is, these cysts that popped out of nowhere, appeared on my back, chest and cheek and left terrible red marks on my cheeks and hypertrophic scars on my back and chest. My derm said it was hormonal and that he'd never seen such a bad case serge all of a sudden (I had seen him only around 4 months before it happened so he can prescribe something for my mild acne on my nose.). Six months after i finished accutane I decided to start with fraxel restore. I have had 3 treatments since and only had around 15-25% improvement on my acne scars. My question is, what should I expect from the next 3 treatments of fractal restore? If I were to have 6 or 9 more would it make that much of a difference? I also need help on knowing how to treat my hypertrophic scars. I have been using silicone sheets for 3 months now and it's gotten a little bit better but not much. The ones on my back or brownish or peach colored but the one on my chest is very red. What could I do to help them go away?
Hi there your case is a complex one ;-P
I feel the hormonal or prescription issue exacerbated your breaking out. We have acne scars, so it's a given we heal poorly (auto immune disease). Just think of these treatments like Fraxel were made for people with little issues.
Fraxel has fallen out of favor, it's overpriced, used for everything but not good at it, and has marketing so everyone wants some fraxel
Fraxel restore will do nothing for your scars. It is Fraxel re:pair that is the c02 laser and stronger. Even that is not as good as some of the newer tech like Infini RF microneedle system, or CO2RE Laser which can be adjusted several different ways (CO2 laser).
I go over Keloid scars (your back) in the faq below please see the scar types, I also give treatment advice. Basically it uses steroid, to flatten them, then scar repair wok is done.
Scars are never a one and done thing my friend, I have been doing treatments for years. You see a small percentage of improvement each time. But re;store will not get you there, transfer the credit to do something else, or get a refund.
For your face divots, the best treatment is filler and subcision, please see the faq below for more.
I am afraid you may have something else going on, have they done food allergy testing on you? Accutane can speed up underlying effects sometimes. Keloids are a lifelong thing, and pop up on the back an chest.
The redness is a easy one, see the section skin: red on the faq. You need v-beam done on the area, will take away the color, this will make the BIGGEST diffrence. I suggest this the most for you.
17 hours ago, beautifulambition said:The redness is a easy one, see the section skin: red on the faq. You need v-beam done on the area, will take away the color, this will make the BIGGEST diffrence. I suggest this the most for you.
Thanks for all the input. Can you explain to me the main diff between the V-Beam (which I've search online and is also known as the pulse dye laser) and IPL? Im asking this because I believe my derm offers only IPL. I know both treat redness but do you know which one would be better for my case?
One uses laser V-beam, and one uses light IPL (Intense Pulse Light). Certain light bands work on say browns, reds, hypopigmentation.
The V-Beam is great because it uses cryo cooling, so the epidermis is not heated and thus not damaged. It targets only the vein or red blood cell creating the redness. I've done many v-beams and I often look like yourself after other scartreatments. The blood vessels are closer to the surface. Using the laser they are basically shrunken and thus not seen.
IPL is fine, its just not as good as Vbeam, and may take several treatments (vbeam may take 1 or 2). I think the v-beam would be better, but if you do not have access then just do the IPL. Vbeam is often at medispa or dayspa skin clinics. I've seen it occasionally on Group-on if your in the USA.