Can IPL Make my Stretch Marks Worse?

asked 3 years ago by anon
Latest answer by Mark Taylor, MD
Question viewed 2,611 times
Tags: stretch marks

I am having treatments for stretch marks - not from pregnancy. I have them on the breasts, hips, thighs, butt area and calves. I had five series of IPL and it did nothing. Now they seem worse after IPL - is that possible?

10 answers to Can IPL Make my Stretch Marks Worse?

No, you may even get some tightening with IPL treatment of stretch marks.

IPL will not make your stretch marks worse. You may even get a little bit of tightening. The heat produced by IPL is not enough to do much at all for stretch marks, but it certainly won't make them worse.

Mark Taylor, MD
Salt Lake City Dermatologic Surgeon

www.gatewaylasercenter.com

IPL and Stretch Marks

I haven't seen IPLs make stretch marks worse, not to discount your experience. Initially they may appear more red and perhaps swollen such that the stretch marks will appear worse but over time, it should improve-by how much? that's hard to say. I prefer to use a fractionated laser such as Fraxel or Profractional to improve stretch marks. It does a decent job on them depending on the severity. VBeam also does a good job on new onset stretch... more

Amir Moradi, MD
San Diego Facial Plastic Surgeon

Stretch mark treatment

IPL should not make stretch marks worse. However, there are few treatments that will make these straie better. IPL and laser therapy can reduce redness or pigmentation of stretch marks, but will not entirely alleviate them. These are challenging problems. A conservative treatment regimen includes topical retinoids.

Jason R. Hess, MD
San Diego Plastic Surgeon

IPL for stretch marks

IPL should have no untoward affectws on your stretch marks. There really is no good solution to treat stretch marks.

Steven Wallach, MD
Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

IPL for stretch marks

Improving stretch marks is difficult. Using a light based treatment to achieve this can be difficult. The idea is that the energy from the IPL will turn on some amount of collagen growth and treat any redness from visible vessels in the area. Realistic expectations are the key when trying to treat stretch marks and some other devices may be more helpful. As far as making you worse , That would be unusual and unexpected.

Shawn Allen, MD
Boulder Dermatologist

IPL treatment for stretch marks

IPL treatment might improve the appearance of your stretch marks slightly if your stretch marks are still red. It is highly unlikely that it would make the appearance of your stretch marks worse. There are some other modalities that might help your stretch marks, such as retinoid creams and some lasers. Unfortunately at this time we do not have a way to markedly improve the appearance of stretch marks, although many patients are happy with moderate improvement. more

Boris M. Ackerman, MD
Newport Beach Plastic Surgeon

IPL not much help for stretch marks

Striae or stretch marks are due to relatively rapid expansion of skin and/or significant loss of collagen due to corticosteroid. Fresh stretch marks may be red (or vascular) and IPL may be mildly helpful in getting them to become more blanched and white. That is pretty much it. I would start with prescription strength topical retinoid which can help to stimulate collagen and subtly improve texture of stretch marks. Ongoing studies are underway to confirm few anectodal reports of... more

William Ting, MD
Bay Area Dermatologic Surgeon

IPL and Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are NOT marks, they represent permanent CRACKS through the skin. These appear after rapid skin expansion (pregnancy, obesity, certain disorders such as Cushing's etc). As such, they cannot be erased by ANY modality (lasers, IPL,creams, lotions, rollers, pills, yoga etc, etc) The ONLY thing we can do for them with IPL or lasers is to reduce the amount of blood vessels that run through these cracks and thereby render them white/silver earlier. Period. Attempts to shrink them are... more

Peter A. Aldea, MD
Memphis Plastic Surgeon

IPL for Stretch Marks

We have been treating Stretch marks with lasers for the past 5 years and we have never seen any that have gotten worse because of Laser treatments. Many have not responded well, but we do not know any reason why they would get worse. Stretch marks are extremely difficult to treat, especially if you have the thin, white or silvery type. We have treated many different stretch marks successfully and a good many without any appreciable results as well. The easiest type of marks to revise... more

Harold J. Kaplan, MD
Los Angeles Facial Plastic Surgeon

Strongly Doubt It

IPL treatment for stretch marks is an acceptable, though often fruitless, treatment for stretch marks. It would seem on the surface of things that IPL treatments should be excellent for stretch marks. After all, they are supposed to disrupt collagen which signals the fibroblasts to pump out more collagen and elastin. An early study, published in Dermatologic Surgery 2002 Dec: 28 (12) indeed concluded that IPL was a safe and effective modality for treating stretch marks. However, a... more