Rachel Cayce, MD

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO TO THIS OFFICE!

I was seeing Dr. Gutmark for a lesion on my lip in October 2017. On my way out of the exam room, I asked her, "Can anything be done for my freckles?" I have very freckly arms. She replied, "You would be a great candidate for IPL." OK so far fine. I proceeded to ask if they had packages, pricing etc., and the office staff offered to have my first treatment right then.

Here's where everything started to go WAYYYYYY downhill.

I heard Dr. Gutmark complaining to one of the other nurses in the hall that she had another patient waiting and she needed to hurry and pump and so she didn't want to do my procedure- ok fine, be a professional and reschedule. No wonder, since it felt exceptionally rushed. The nurse was "in training", so did not seem to fully understand how much gel to apply so it hurt a lot where she didn't put enough. She also forgot to have me sign a consent form until after the treatment.

Dr Gutmark seemed quite tired and spacy. During the IPL, I was in so much pain that my body shook with each shock. She did not apply the crystal in anything resembling an even pattern, so I ended up with 3rd degree burns and terrible tiger stripes of scabs. I had blisters all over my arms and chest. The doctor knew she had made a big mistake- she called/ texted me to check on my healing, prescribed steroids. I missed 2 weeks of work and could barely move from the pain of the burns.

When I came back for a followup she told me, "you said you had very fair skin!", to which I said, you are the doctor who sees my skin with your eyes, so I depend on you for the proper assessment of how to use the IPL machine.

Dr Cayce also was unhelpful and rude. As she is the owner of the practice (and her husband is the office manager), I hold her responsible for the atmosphere of the practice where procedures are rushed and profits are far more important than patient wellbeing. The practice has not even refunded me all of the money I spent because they demanded that I sign a form before they refund me. Pretty unbelievable that they haven't bent over backward to mend this terrible mistake!

I have spent 10k trying to get rid of my stripes. I still have scars on my chest, and had to get a cosmelan peel all over my arms and chest. Luckily I now have a competent, professional dermatologist. I would not want anyone else to go through what happened to me, it was really awful. Please see attached photos :(