IPL: Stories

I wanted to share this story in hopes it might help someone.

For my 30th bday, which was in 2008, I purchased a TCA 35% online. I just wanted to look a little younger, being a smoker and all. I now know I never needed anything that strong! I got a bit of a burn (my words) over my cheek bones and temporal regions (both sides). On the right cheek bone, it turned brown with red in it over the course of a year. The left cheek bone turned red, with visible vessles just under the surface. I tried a TCA 10% in December 2009. It made no difference. In October of 2010, I spoke to my seller again, who sold me all these products mentioned, and they suggested a Lactic Acid 50% to lighten my skin. I tried it and no change. By now, I went to see a professional.

Well, I quit smoking in June 2010. Since then, my skin has been a mess. I'm not sure if it's because it's trying to repair from all the cigarette smoke damage (I smoked for 16 yrs), or it's just sun damage from not ever wearing sunscreen from my medium depth 2008 peel. I feel it's probably the latter. Regardless, I didn't really notice it or pay much attention to it. Now every time I look in the mirror, my eyes see the imperfections and only the imperfections.

I eventually saw a derm at the Univ. of Iowa in November, 2010 who wasn't exactly sure what was wrong. She did a woods lamp test and saw telangistacia. She ruled out Rosacea. She felt my skin concerns werent worth all the emotional distress they were causing me and prescribed TriLuma. She said over and over, "let's just bleach it."

TriLuma is $200+ for 30 grams. Being uninsured and making less than $10 an hour, this wasn't an option. And TriLuma has side effects I really wasn't comfortable with, so I decided to forget it.

Since then, I have moved to Indiana. I had an IPL done at a Facial Plastic Surgeons office on the south side of Indianapolis. It was done by an esthetician. The goal was to remove the redness (90% of my complaint) and the little bit of brown under my right eye (10% of my complaint).

Following the IPL, my skin was red and looked sunburnt afterwards for about a day. I used a 1% solution of steroid cream to keep inflammation at bay. The next day, my skin was actually almost back to its state prior to treatment. Basically, it had little effect on me. I did have a few freckles "pepper", but they still havent fallen off. I could care less about freckles. I want the RED gone.

IPL was harmless for me. I think it did help some, but its only been a few days, and its my first treatment. And we all know you need a series of treatments.

On a sidenote, the esthetician who performed the procedure really concerned me. She laughed at me when I articulated the amount of stress this facial redness had caused me and she thought it was funny, follwed by "I shouldn't laugh."

For my own continuity of care, I'll go back to this clinic should I choose to proceed with IPL. But if I had to do over, I wouldn't use this doctors office again. They are very unprofessional there.

On a side note, I'm scheduled for IPL treatment #2 in February. I'm not sure I'll be going back. Why? I have yet to see a plastic surgeon. I am going off the advice of the esthetician and what I read here, that IPL, while not the preferred treatment, can help with redness and pigment issues. From what I've read, laser (YAG, Tunable Dye Laser, etc) are the gold standard treatments for redness. So why am I not getting the gold standard treatment when I have cash in hand? Good quesiton.

I wanted to share this so hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes. I've learned them all the hard way.

P.S. The IPL should of been $250. I only got the $150 price because they misquoted me and I held them to it.