“Permanent Hypopigmentation After Laser Treatment - Nashville, TN”

I'd like to thank you and everyone else for sharing their stories, I'm really having second thoughts about IPL. I would still like to have it done but I will find out as much as I can about the place first and won't get it done unless I am confident that they are competent. Also if there is a consultation I will try to have just a small area done to make sure there is no unexpected reaction, I really hope that's possible.

Please have 2nd, 3rd and 4th thoughts about having this done. I am 1.5 years after 1 Smartxide treatment and still have spiderman scars that are so prominent that I have to cover them up all the time on my chest. Finding a swimsuit is impossible, even if I could get the courage up to go swimming. This have wrecked my life...I had to donate all my nice evening clothes, forget wearing any type of summer dress or v neck anything - trying on clothes or bras is a nightmare reminder. I feel self conscious and ashamed that I allowed myself to be disfigured for the rest of my life. It has changed the way I feel about myself and my confidence sexually and emotionally. I feel like crying every time I come out of the shower and see my chest in the mirror. Please, please do not consider C02 laser.

I'm still researching all my options, so far I think IPL is the safest option for me. It seems what is important is who it is done by. I am 27 and I have broken veins all over my nose and face. I have no self confidence, no social life, I'm extremely self conscious and it affects me every day, I just want it to be fixed. It's really horrible to think that people who are not properly trained or experienced can scar people for life and get away with it. I am thinking it would be safer to see a dermatologist than a beauty therapist(?) I'm not going to rush into any decision but I have to try something.

I had this happen to my face I was only 23 the lady who performed it lied about every aspect of treatment I had no idea anything could even go wrong. Can completely feel your pain in crying every day and affecting every aspect of your life! I am not the same person she has wrecked my life! Aspect of your life! I am not the same person she has wrecked my face my life I had just been offered modeling jobs prior to her ruining my face and was due to start a nursing course which I had already paid for. It has been 2 half years now and I still struggle with every day life to avoid mirrors or my reflection when out I don't go out with friends much as feel so hideous I have not felt able to work since due to panic attacks and depression and through all this I am still struggling to sue!!! As apparently courts doen't think much of facial scarring so wouldn't be awarded much and no win fee won't take me due to this. They must be loads of people like us out there surly we can team together and get justice!

Sarah 

Hi Lisa im from nottingham in the uk & have always struggled with my confidence i went to ask the lady at the clinic about pixel laser after i saw it on an embarrassing boddies programme in the uk. i had not long had my first daughter and felt that my skin seamed dull and had lost its youthfull plumpness! ( really i had lost alot of weight following my daughters birth and that was the reason for my skin appearing thin) so i went to ask the clinic about it or if ipl best! i also asked isnt it abit much for my skin as she would only allow me to have a package of 3 i only wanted her to treat one area once but she said not possible! she sucked me in to beliving it was a minnor treatment and told me they wasnt anything that could go wrong my skin would look even better than before. i still wasnt sure then they started sending me 50% off treatment txts and to cut along story short i went for it. After the first treatment my skin was utterly perfect i told her i had the overall results i wanted but because they had already made me pay for all 3 and the first went so well didnt even see it being a problem having 2nd. Thats when somthing went wrong i think she had the settings too high cause after she told me to sit and cool my face for 15-20 mins she had never even said that 1st time. i went home and felt ill my face was like red raw meat for a few days and it continued to stay red then started blistering and my skin on right of face just slid off!! also i felt as though my face appeared melted it was as though my facial skin had just slumpped down. she told me id had a reaction to vaseline but it was fine, the rawness carried on and i kept ringging in worried to be told all normal she used higher settings this time eventually she told me i needed retinol and put me on this extreamly high dose and told me to use it night and day! within a few days my face erupted in acne. when i phoned the clinic she had gone on holiday for 1 month!! eventually i spoke to a nurse and she told me retinol should not be used in such high doses and to slowly come off it. anyway they is lots more to story i could go on and on but she treated me terribly and lied about everything!! i later found out her husband owns the clinic and she is actually a pyhsio pherapist not even a nurse. my life has never been the same since i feel doors that were open for me have shut and careers and lifestlyes there for me gone!! and this vile woman still has her life and career no punishment wotsoever. it turns out her husband is a scientist and they all know each other in this buissness and all stick together, her husband is actually best friends with the inventer and producer of the pixel machine that she uses in her clinic!! i dont feel i can trust anyone now i have been dermarolling myself now since january this year with numbing cream etc. i actually paid £450 for a supposed expert to dermaroll my face just so i could have a more vigorous treatment and the numbing cream he put on didnt work so i was in agony i told him but obviously he was more conserned getting me out for his next appointment. so i now have scarring on my forehead scratch marks and holes as when your dderma rolling its important to have your skin taught but obviously with me being in pain i was frowning swith caused scarring!! if i go out in the sun and forget to keep reappling sun cream or didnt have it on i get a brown red blotchy white mask over bottom of my face where she did treatment as well as my skin now being all lumpy and lack of elasticity my dimples arnt as pranounced and my smile not the same. i used to feel more that happy not wearing make-up now i feel bad with or without!! sorry to go on. what have you tried and did you get any justice!! thanks sarah

Sarah, I am so sorry that this happened to you!! It sounds exactly like what happened to my chest. If you see the pics on my first posting, it shows me before the treatment (which I did have some brown sun spots on my chest, but looking back now I wish I had left them alone). The second pic shows how blistered I was after the IPL treatment, and the third picture shows how my chest has white, hypopigmented bar marks in the shape of the laser tip. These white scars are in the same location that the purple blisters were after the IPL treatment. Here is what I have tired... First I tried to fade the areas around the scars to make them less noticeable. I tried to do this by using a 01% Tretonin, 4% hydroquinone (bleach) and 2% cortizone cream (for itching and redness). This cream was all 3 of these ingredients compouned together. I saw very little fading of the skin around the white scars, especially if I even got a minute of sunlight, which turned the brown parts darker and made the white scars more noticeable. They next thing I tried was cosmetic tattooing.. I thought if I could not fade the brown skin around the scars, possibly I could have the white scars tattoo'd to match my skintone. BIG MISTAKE!! The lady used ink that was way too dark, and to make matters worse, the ink did not "grab" inside the white scars... it only grabbed in the areas immediately surrounding the white scars, which made the white scars even more noticeable, since they were surrounded by this dark tattoo ink. That's when I found out about derma rolling. I ordered a roller in Nov. 2010 and rolled regularly all winter and used a copper peptide serum that I ordered from Skin Biology. One day in April 2011, I woke up and looked in the mirror and thought I was healed!! The skin all looked the same color and I could not see the white scars. However, I soon realized that what I was seeing was just inflamation/irritation/redness due to the consistent rolling that made basically all the skin on my chest the same color, but it was just due to irritation. I know this because as soon as I slowed down on the rolling, the white scars re-emerged. Next I tried more IPL (from a different person this time) to try and break up the tattoo ink. I had about 5 IPL treatments this summer and as you know, it's not pretty nor fast to recover. I had to keep my chest covered as the pigment rose to the top of the skin and eventually peeled off. After 5 IPL and seeing very little improvement, my aesthetician recommended I try Fraxel Re:Store. I had my first treatment (and I'm not sure of the settings, but the girl I go to now is very conservative, as she does not want to cause further scarring) but I do know that she did 2 passes... She started in the middle of my chest and did about 5 vertical passes on each side of my chest, then she started at the top of my chest near collar bone and did about 7 or 8 horizontal passes, going down to between my boobs. It was not has harsh as IPL because there was no blistering and really not much redness either... my skin felt sort of like sandpaper from where the Fraxel made tiny columns (like pixel) in some of the skin, but left the rest untouched. I had that done on Aug. 19th. The lady said it would take at least 1 month for me to see improvement. It's been a little over 3 weeks, and sadly I do not see any improvement...well, possibly a TINY bit, but I intend to go back mid-Sept and have another Fraxel, as it seems to be less invasive than the IPL. Also, about 2 weeks after the Fraxel, I started applying Retin A at night and a Vitamin C serum then sunscreen in the morning. I have not used the derma roller, but I will tell you that there is one white spot that is larger and the skin seems "thicker" on that one... So I just have been taking a regular sewing needle and poking at that spot morning and night. I have read that this can "break up" any skin that has formed a hard scar. I also put the copper peptide on that one area after needling with the single needle, then apply retin A at night and vitamin C serum in the morning before putting on sunscreen. I have not exposed the area to ANY sunlight at all this summer, which is distressing because I have always loved to go to the lake/pool/beach. As in your situation, I do not want to attend any social events or really go anywhere other than to work (where I wear scarves every day around my neck to cover my chest) then home, where I feel comfortable enough to at least just put on a tee shirt and relax for the evening. This has ruined my social life and my husband is very upset... Our nephew turned 1 year old on July 16 and his birthday party was at an outdoor park. Needless to say, the sun on a July day would have made this worse, so I chose not to attend, which upset my husband and I'm sure his parents (my in-laws) and also his brother (father of the baby)... My sister in law could probably care less if I was there or not!! LOL! I think she does not like me!! Oh well, whatever. Did I also tell you that I have talked with a girl on here who bought some Bioperine tablets (I think at Vitacost) and crushed them and added water and put on her hypo scar and after 3 days she said she could see improvement??? You might try that?? I have not yet because I'm not sure how that would affect the Fraxel treatment that I just had in August and the one I intend to have mid-September. As far as justice, where I live has a 1 year statute of limitations to sue for this type of injury, and of course the place that scarred me kept dragging things out... I had the treatment in Sept. 09, but did not realize I was permanently scarred until the following spring, probably March or April 2010, when I did get some sun and noticed the white spots would not re-pigment. That is when I called them and they kept dragging things out, by compounding the cream for me to try, then paying for the cosmetic tattoo, which just made it worse. By that time, my 1 year to sue had expired. I was always searching for someone to take my case but no one here in my town would. I did find a law firm in Texas that would take it, but by the time I found them, it had been just over 1 week past the one year mark, so I was out of luck there! So I have just taken to the internet to put the NAME of the "spa" DERMESS RENEWAL NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, TERRI HIGHTOWER, MANAGER, CONNIE GRAVES, RN (she is the one who burned me with the IPL) and DR. DAN HIGHTOWER (Terri's husband) who is supposed to be the "MEDICAL DIRECTOR of DERMESS, but I never saw him there and later found out he is not even a plastic surgeon anyway!! I have put every bad review possible about what they have done to me on the internet to try and keep this from happening to anyone else! They cannot dispute what I am putting on the Internet because they know it is ALL TRUE!! The pictures DO NOT LIE!! I have also filed complaints with the government boards who oversee Nurses and Doctors. I have not yet heard back from this process, but I will not give UP!!! Feel free to contact me anytime about this... Let me know if you have progress and I will do the same. I have found that there are some really good people with really good suggestions on real self website. Try not to let this get you down... I was (and still am) very down about it, but at least the weather is getting cooler here and I can wear clothes that cover up my chest, but in your case, it is hard to cover up your face.. I'm so sorry this happened to you. Please file any complaint that you can with your government, and also seek out a barrister who might be able to sue (you mentioned no one would take your case, but keep looking!! You might find one eventually. I found the one in Texas by going to Google and typing in LASER BURN LAWSUITS. He said I had a good case, but the 1 year had expired by the time I found him. But the laws may be different where you are. Also try to seek out a QUALIFIED doctor in your area that might be able to recommend a treatment routine to help you get back to where you were. Stay in touch and keep me posted!!

It is so very important that you file an adverse event with the FDA. These types of events need to be documented.

If you have not, please file an adverse event report with the FDA. This will help others in the future who might also be harmed by this device.

Here is a link where you can file the event on line:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/medwatch-online.htm

Your name will be obscured and if you choose to give your doctor's name it will not be viewable by the public, but the FDA will have a record. Your doctor should have notified the manufacturer of this event as well, it was his/her duty that he/she do so if you notified him/her of your damage.

It is never too late to file and adverse event report.

Good luck and I am so very sorry this happened to you.

Thank you for the FDA contact information. I will file a report today. However, I'm not sure of the exact make/model of the laser that was used. I just know they were advertising it as IPL. I will still file though.

Perhaps you can contact the doctor? It's important to have the make/model, so that the FDA is forced to investigate.

I doubt that they will answer my question or even take my calls for that matter. I have filed so many complaints against this place, DERMESS RENEWAL Nashville, TN, that they probably have a big SIGN above the phone that has my name/phone/pic saying "Do not provid services or talk to this woman!!"

Fortunately for you, there is a federal law on our side. It is the HIPPA act. They can be heavily fined by the Federal Government for not providing you with any part of your record that you request. You can also report them to the attorney general of your state if they refuse. I know there is new legislation in the works in TN to protect ones such as yourself from med spas wielding lasers/ipl. They can charge your a fee for your records but the are REQUIRED BY LAW to provide what you ask. If they don't, tell them they will be reported to the attorney general. You have rights guaranteed by the law.

That is good information!! I will for sure send them a written request for my records! Can you tell me about the pending legislation in TN?? If I had the house or senate bill number, I can find the sponsor and contact them to support the need for such legislation!

I will try to find out for you and post it.

Can you PM me your email address instead?

Just to add....you might want to consider giving up trying to fix this and just let the the body try to heal as best it can. The scarring cannot be fixed. Burns are permanent and at best, the redness might subside but the white grid marks are there to stay. According to everything I've read and seen, Fraxel can melt away any good fat reserves in your face so who knows what it could do to your chest. Retinol is only good for sloughing off the top layer of skin on your face to refresh...cannot see using it for anything else..just my opinion. I am reviewing my legal options. I feel like I am taking my power back by taking control of the legal process and not letting anyone hurt me anymore with false promises of these procedures...there is no magic bullet for fixing burn scars caused by lasers...ask any plastic surgeon....I did.

They did a poor job, negligent really. Though it's no fix, I hope you've consulted about possible legal against this practitioner. Also, contacted the state medical board to lodge a complaint. At the very least, it may help ensure that no one else is hurt there.

Houston4818, I did try to find an attorney locally to take the case, but it wasn't until I checked outside the state that I did find an atty to take the case, but by then the 1 year statute of limitations had tolled. Yes, I have filed a complaint against the RN that burned me as well as the "Medical Director" who was never even at the place to oversee anything. I'm still waiting to hear back from the Medical Board. Also there has been legislation introduced in our state to more closely regulate and monitor these laser spas, and I have been in touch with the sponsor of the bill and went a couple of weeks ago to testify in front of the Health Committee that is considering the bill. I'm doing everything I can to make sure this does not happen to anyone else. Thanks for your comment and suggestions.

Hi, I suffered severe hypopigmentation on my face from CO2 laser 10 years ago. I ended up with zebra stripes across my face & it did destroy my life. I did lots of research & found Dr Fiona Wood (Plastic Surgeon & Burns Specialist Western Australia, "Australian of the Year" recipient) director of Avita Medical who invented cell transplants for burns victims (RECELL). I was clinical trial patient where coin size piece of skin shaved from head,skin cells cultured from this piece, face skin dermabraded, cell solution applied, bandages for 10 days, new skin grew with new pigment cells. Scary operation but thank god it worked. I have my face back,(and beautiful brand new wrinklefree baby skin) I am ecstatic and I will always be indebted to this fantastic surgeon and her team. There is a cure for loss of pigment & any sort of burn scar. Dr Fiona Wood is a director of Avita Medical (under AVH on the Australian Stock Exchange). Many surgeons around the world have now been trained to do this RECELL procedure. I believe the US Defence force are now doing clinical trials with this product. Check Avita Medical website to find a doctor & more about this procedure. I went through huge depression & hell after my disastrous CO2 laser surgery but I never gave up hope. There is a solution and a cure. I am living proof. Best regards, Catie