Hello,

I am newcomer here and I thought I would tell you my story. I am sure you have heard stories like this before and so I apologise for writing as much as I am about to.

I write here after suffering immense pain and psychological distress after a dermatologist's improper treatment made my acne scarringfar FAR worse.

I would have never considered before that I had BAD acne scarring on my face (my back however is a different story). I have about 4-5 ice pick scars and a rolling type scar on my face that had always bothered me. I know, doesn't sound that bad does it? Don't get me wrong, I know somepeople have far worseacne scarring and I really feel for those people. I wanted to get these ice pick scars treated and made less worse. I knew in expectation that courses of surgerywouldn't be a magical healing device, but i would have appreciated that they be made better, at least anything better. As for my acne, I found a course of accutane promptly stopped all my acne many years ago.

I went to see a dermatologist at the Adelaide Skin and Eye Centre in Adelaide, Australia for treatment of these several ice pick scars back in 2017-18. The dermatologistrecommended a fractionated radiofrequency treatment, basically where I would put a numbing cream applied to my face for two hours before treatment and then she would run a laser device over my skin to apparently balance out the scarring.

I had about 3-4 treatments of this over 2017-18. She didn't just do the ice pick scars but my whole cheeks and I don't know why as this wasn't my complaint areas. I probably had some mild scarring on my cheeks but the attention i wanted were to be on the several ice pick scars. The first courses were light then ramped up for the final 2 courses. I highly regret this course of treatment which I now see was an impropertreatment for the ice pick scarring on my face.

I found that the treatment widened out my ice pick scars and made themabout 25-30% worse and far more noticeable than before. Even worse yet, Inow notice that people will sometimes stare or look over my several enlarged ice pick scars whereas this was not happening before. One ice pick scar in particular on my left cheek is much worse and now very noticeable in certain light and it bothers the hell out of me.

In fact I would go as far to say that the dermatologists course of action was completely inappropriate and unprofessional,almost like she was doing it to pay the bills for her clinic and the machinery theypurchased. It's all easy realizing this in hindsight, but I wish i had got a second or third opinion and not relied on a dermatologist to be a complete hack.

I went back after the fractionated radiofrequency treatment, having found it unsuccessfuland saw adifferent dermatologist (the original was unavailable)and asked about TCA cross, which I had read about being the best typical course of treatment for ice pick scars.The doctorgave me about 4 to 5 treatments of TCA cross, which i noticed did not do too much except bleach my skin white around the edges of my larger ice pick acne scars. She stopped at about 5 sessions and didnt recommend any more, even though I feel like my scarring is worse and TCA didnt do that much. When Itold her that the other dermatologist'sradiofrequency treatment made the scarring worse she dismissed my opinionand said that thefractionated radiofrequency needed about 6 sessions or more. I doubt 6 sessions would have been beneficial at all for my ice pick scars.

I am told by those that love me and I can talk to about such things, that my enlarged scars are not noticeable and not a big deal and "not that bad", but I feel something far worse. I feel like people will now noticethe scars on my face. Sometimes I will catch people looking at my scars and then they look away embarrassed or they look on in curiousity. It greatly pisses me off that some people are rude andstare at my scars not like I have not noticed. People see something unusual and like to check it out, I get it. Having a few deep ice pick scars on your face is unusual and can put people off as they don't usually see this.

I have suffered greatly after theradiofrequency treatment and now my ice pick scars botherme MUCH MORE than before.

It has caused me great psychological distress than has done much to wound my self esteem and confidence in social settings. I probably need to see a therapist to get a better view of myself. Perhaps i have a distorted view of my acne scarring... All i know is that i am inpain from what the treatment did to my scarring. People who were not really looking at my scars before now look at them, especially the larger deeper one, and it bothers me a lot.

And now I dont know what to do? I dont know who to go to to make it better, if that is all even possible? What avenues are there for any treatment to make my ice pick scars better? Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do? The dermatologist treated me with the worst possible course of treatment.

Sorry for writing too much, I appreciate you listening to my story. I appreciate any help or advice you may have. and I also know that I need therapy or something else too, as this is pretty much getting close to being an obsession and painful experience for me, not helped by the current times that we live in.