don't do it - Palm Coast, FL

I had slight acne and chicken pox scars on forehead and in between eyes (see b/4 pic w/ no makeup). I have posted often but now I am brave enough to put up these pics. My entire face was lasered. I was told it was Fraxel. On my medical records it says: YAG ablative laser, 2940 NM with 200 depth and more aggressive treatment on forehead and in between eye areas (not much detail is given). The pain was severe! Please note it has been 4 years since this treatment, I believe it was between 1200 and 1500 dollars--I cannot find the exact figure and paperwork. I was in bed for weeks and did not leave the house, excepting Doc appts. for one year.

It was difficult for me to receive a true understanding of the exact procedure that was performed on my skin, thus this update. The actual procedure that I received was a microlaser peel on my entire face and a profractional laser treatment from my forehead all the way down to the bridge of my nose. The profractional laser treatment is what caused the micro holes all over my forehead, temples and inbetween my eyes (on the bridge of my nose). The laser company was Sciton. The profractional treatement went 200 microns deep into my dermis. Even though I only received a micro laser peel on the remainder of my face, It too was damaged, in my opinion. the skin is much dryer, crinkled, and I have many more fine lines than I did before. I also have spider veins all over my face. Thankfully I have been using an excellent vitamin K serum that has almost entirely cleared up the vein problem in only one week!!!. It is: Vital K non-aqueous serum made by the company Skincare Essentials. you can purchase 3 vials on amazon.com (best pricing found here) for about $35.00 plus s&h each vial is 3.5 ml, but it does go a long way. I will keep everyone updated on any other solutions I find. I will be receiving botox treatments on my forehead soon to see if this helps the appearance the "my forehead has one million wrinkles" appearance.- good luck to you all!

I received a micro laser peel (Yag laser) made by Sciton. DO NOT DO IT!!! Unless you are severely disfigured it is definitely not worth the risk. I was told that given my fair skin, there was a 2% chance of hyper pigmentation and that since this laser was very gentle (only a "micro" laser peel) that scarring was not likely. What no one tells you is that you will most definitely be left with micro-holes all over your skin. Thank goodness they look a lot like pores but they are not. The problem is that these micro holes are in straight lines across your face. Especially on the forehead, these holes tend to form lines that appear to be wrinkles all over your face! This cannot be bo-toxed away, because although they look like you have a million wrinkles on your forehead, they are not wrinkles--they are lines of micro holes. In addition, I now have spider veins covering my entire face (previously I had a few around my nose, as most people do). These spider veins were directly caused by the laser hitting my skin and breaking my capillaries. I have called the Sciton company 4 times but they refuse to call me back. Sciton's website says nothing of these complications, except the slight risk of hyer/hypo pigmentation. I was a beautiful woman with some acne scars my forehead and between my eyes. The plastic surgeon told me that it might not help the acne scars and that there was a 2% risk of hyper/hypo pigmentation, but he never said that it could make my skin look much worse w/ micro-holes and spider veins (he did warn of hyper/hypo pigmentation, but told me the risk was near zero!) . Now I have 3 additional skin problems and my acne scars are still there. Caution!! Do not be fooled by the seemingly excellent results you see about a week after your skin has "healed". Once the swelling really goes down you will begin to see the micro holes all over your face. Then about a month or even 3 months later the hyper pigmentation will set in and it hasn't stopped yet and I am 8 months post-op. When you go to the doc all they will say is "just wait and see". the truth is, after you have waited for 2 + years and the problems are still there, they will then blame it on aging or sun exposure, etc....Now it is too late to prove it was all the laser. I have always looked young for my age, but thanks to this laser I aged ten years in 3 months. I tried to get a glycolic acid peel today (8.5 months post-op), as was my usual custom, but my skin still isn't healed enough. I did a lot of research b/4 getting the procedure but unless you type in "micro holes" and "laser" and things like that--that you cannot possibly know to search for since no one tells you about these complications, you won't be warned. I am a highly education woman with a strategic MBA from a well respected, brick and mortar university. I have a Biology degree as well. PLEASE feel free to e-mail me if you have had a similar response to a laser treatment. Perhaps as a group, we can complain to the FDA and finally put this laser companies out of business.