Mixto Laser on Asian Skin for Acne Scars - Los Angeles, CA
I am an Asian with acne scars, which makes my...
I am an Asian with acne scars, which makes my condition particularly tricky to treat with lasers. I was doing Lux 1540, but I will be heading back into school this fall and, thus, will have much less time for treatments, thus I wanted to try something faster.
As such, I turned to the Mixto laser as done by Dr. David Rahimi in Beverly Hills, CA. He proposed a Mixto + minor subcision followed by a touch-up after healing. He warned that I would not get rid of all of my scars, that the scars would mostly return by the end of the first month but then get better by around the third or fourth month, at which point he'd do the touch-up.
I am posting this as a blog for my progress and to answer any questions people may have about the procedure itself.
Dr. Rahimi's process, as he explained to me, was a little different than others, because he uses a different head on the Mixto laser to "shave down the edges" of the ridges of the scars as well as the Mixto itself. He also did a subcision immediately after the procedure to raise some bound-down scars, which I think was very necessary on the left side of my face.
Also, btw, when I say "harshest lighting I could find," I mean that, each time I took a picture, I went out of my way to find the worst lighting possible for my scars at that particular time with a light coming down from straight above. My bathroom has a single 120 watt pure-white light bulb, which is kind of like a weaker version of the side lights that dermatologists use to find acne scars. This does mean that the angles are possibly off with each picture, but this is the most objective way I can figure to do it, since there is no way the scars can actually look "worse" than they are with the angles I took them.
April 27, 2012:
Day before procedure. Had to take some sort of Doxycyclin the night before in order to prevent infections. I was also given two microdermabrasions each spread a week apart before this point in order to prep my face for the procedure.
May 9, 2012:
About five days after stopping applying Aquaphor, which means it's been 11 days since the procedure. I've mostly finished peeling. The scars look better, especially on the left side of my face, but they are still pretty evident in the right. It is difficult to wait for the full three or four months to see how these scars will develop.
Some acne broke out, and I was given an oral antibiotic to treat it, but it hasn't worked too well (I've always been pretty resistant to antibiotics). Fortunately, the outbreaks are pretty minor, nothing even approaching the levels that caused the scarring in the first place.
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May 28, 2012 Happy Memorial Day everyone. It's...
Happy Memorial Day everyone. It's been exactly a month since I had the procedure, I've posted my result pictures. Note: my left side has a bit of acne. I assure you, it's actually exactly the same.
Now, it LOOKS like there has been a lot of improvement on my right side, and there has, but really, it's not as much as it looks compared to my older picture. My older picture was a little blurred, made the scars look worse than they actually were. What you can REALLY notice is the bridge of skin between my two scars clusters, that was not really there before. Exciting stuff.
Anyway, in case you were wondering, this is has been my post-op treatment routine:
Morning:
Shower.
Wash face with cold water and glycolic cleanser. Pat dry.
Sunblock.
Spot treat any acne with Acanya (2.5% benzoyl peroxide/1.2% clindamycin mix).
Night:
Wash face with cold water and glycolic cleanser. Pat dry.
Acanya all over face.
Kojic acid all over face.
Neocutis Bio-Gel all over face (this is my moisturizer, essentially).
Every week, I will forego all of my topicals in the night treatment for a treatment with Atralin (topical tretinoin .05%)
So yeah. Steady as she goes, but there is definitely improvement. Also, the redness is much more noticeable in these pictures because I took off the color correction.
Hope ya'll had a great long weekend.
Replies (10)
May I ask what your care was before the procedure, during the procedure, and after the procedure? If it turned dark-red-brownish color, that sounds as though your skin may have been exposed to the sun post-treatment.
Had you been using something like Aquaphor or Vaseline to coat your skin during the 8 days it was healing and peeling? And is it a sunscreen or a sunblock? Sunblock actually completely blocks out the sun, sunscreens do not and have to be constantly reapplied. The active ingredient in a sunblock is a zinc dioxide, and by law the labeling needs to make the distinction between "screen" and "block" depending on where there is zinc dioxide or not.
Had you been using something like Aquaphor or Vaseline to coat your skin during the 8 days it was healing and peeling? And is it a sunscreen or a sunblock? Sunblock actually completely blocks out the sun, sunscreens do not and have to be constantly reapplied. The active ingredient in a sunblock is a zinc dioxide, and by law the labeling needs to make the distinction between "screen" and "block" depending on where there is zinc dioxide or not.
June 28, 2012 Pretty much exactly two months...
Pretty much exactly two months since I had the treatment. I added two more photos that I took last night, when my scars are at their worst after a long day:
As you can see, left side still pretty much the same (I'm still wondering why the left side resolved so damn well) whereas there is still room for improvement on the right, but it's definitely getting a bit better. I also have a bit of active acne still ongoing, but it appears to be on its way out, as far as I can tell.
There are some days where they look worse. For instance, on the left side of my face, a slight crater may show up at the end of the day, and on the right it'll look a bit messier, but overall this is generally how they look at their worst.
I scheduled my touch-up for July 28. After consulting with Dr. Rahimi some more, I have confirmed that it is, indeed, basically another regular Mixto treatment (in fact, he said he would be going more aggressively on my right side than last time), except he'll be attacking only the scars and not the entire face. He also said any subsequent treatments, if I would want any, would be $500 each. However, considering that I'll be starting grad school, I don't think I'll have time for more treatments until at LEAST winter vacation, so yeah.
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I think, so far, the percentage of improvement has been about 70% on my left and 30% on my right. There are still portion on my left that very much bother me, and my right can obviously use more work, so I am looking forward to my second treatment at the end of July.
Just wondering how your 2nd treamtment went and what you noticed on your three month mark. I heard you heal faster when you get a 2nd treatment, hopefully thats the case for you :)
I am actually still somewhat swollen, more so than last time, but the peeling of the skin went a lot faster than last time. I plan to post a picture maybe 10-14 days after treatment, since all of the swelling (or most of it, at least) would be gone by then.
Welcome to RealSelf and thank you for sharing your journey with us. I will be anxious to hear how the healing is going and if you will need future treatments.
Keep us up to date on your process. And thank you for posting the pictures.
Also, note, I am not looking for 100% improvement. Dr. Rahimi cited that, when all was said and done, there should be around a 60-80% improvement, which is exactly what I am looking for.
60-80% improvement sounds exellent! The complimentary work is also very nice. Good doctor! Do keep us up to date on everything.