Howard K. Steinman, MD

I am totally new to this website and have already found such valuable information that I wanted to share my experience to hopefully help others suffering from acne scars and searching for effective treatments. Micro-droplet silicone injections were my first form of acne scar treatment 3 years ago. I knew nothing about it and hadn't even heard of it before, however a dermatologist recommended it to me and I decided to try it. It took me 6 sessions, each spaced approximately a month apart, and the results were amazing. I would highly recommend this procedure for people with depressed scars. The only downside is that it doesn't correct the redness of scars, and it doesn't help for ice-pick scars either (just rolling scars). Unfortunately, I decided to have subscision performed by facial plastic surgeon a couple months ater (to help with the icepick scars) and over the past nearly 3 years all of my scars have come back and I even have new scars as a result of the subscision procedure, and the subscision did not work at treating my ice-pick scars. I'm not sure if the subsicion procedure interferred with my injections but now I wish I'd been more informed because it was all a waste of time and money. Now after 3 years I am searching for a new doctor and I'd love to find one who does micro-droplet silicone injections (because the dr. who did mine last time has since retired). Unfortunately it seems like all doctors nowdays, whether dermatologists or cosmetic surgeons, are pushing laser treatments as my best option for my acne scars. After reading horror story after horror story on this website as well as others, I am staying as far away as I can from lasers! I am scared to death. Bottom line, this treatment really works for rolling scars and I would highly recommend it. Results are immediate, there is absolutely no down-time- I think I had to ice my face for a few minutes afterwards and you could notice a few tiny spots of blood where the injections had been, but other than that there were no side-effects or any signs that I'd even had anything done- and the results are permanent (well, they were supposed to be, not sure what happened with mine!). I would just be cautious to do your research on whether or not this treatment can be combined with others, as I learned the hard way that apparently fillers do not mix with subscison. I think that maybe injections and fillers need to come last? Also, be patient, as you are only being injected with very small amounts of silicone each time, it takes a few times depending on how deep your scars are to really show great improvement (and again, these treatments can only be performed every 4 weeks, so mine took a total of 6 months before I was completely finished). If anyone knows of a Dr. in the San Diego area who is repuatable and will provide options other than laser, please let me know, thanks!