I watched and waited to get Ellacor for nearly a year. I then waited to write this review until the full healing was over.
The concept is perfect. They punch out cores of 8% of your skin in your mid to lower face. (and neck in my case)
And you can repeat it, up to monthly for even more improvement. Less risk of looking unnatural as a facelift might.
The Ellacor treatment was not painful for me during or after, and I took no drugs -- most people do. They do inject a local.
MID-LOWER FACE & NECK thumbs up.
The progress is slow enough-- it takes 3 months to see the outcome -- that if I hadn't taken pics, I would have barely noticed.
None of my friends could tell any difference, but the pics don't lie, it DID make a substantial positive difference.
Ellacor is still not for everyone IMO. They say '3-5 days downtime', but I learned that is just for the ability to put on makeup, and even that can take 2 weeks if your skin is still raw.
I had an event 4 weeks after treatment and still had to cake on thick makeup to hide the red squares. thick makeup --ugh). It took at least 2 months for me to not have to cover up my red squares.
I was told beforehand that was rare for redness to be there after a month, but my friend who did it still has red spots after 3 months. And another clinic told me multiple people took 3 months. I believe it takes longer if you are fair-skinned as we are.
So ASK re redness duration, especially if your goal is multiple treatments to get the result. I'm happy I did it this once, but I would not go the through months of healing again -- and the worry about scarring. That is too long to do Ellacor multiple times.
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ABOVE THE KNEES thumbs down
Okay, in fairness, knees are off-label. (so is the neck fwiw). But, I wanted to avoid knee wrinkles that we starting.
So, 3 months later I still have red square scars in the entire area. I just did BBL laser for it last week. Fingers crossed that they go away. A PA told me it was taking multiple IPL treatments for redness.
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MORE:
I also did CO2 laser on my upper face at the same time. That looked great, and my local doctor & I can see the improvement. Healing was in the normal time frame.
Good news/bad news: Ellacor dissolves filler. For me that was *good* as my filler from years ago had migrated lower (Go on YouTube, it's more common than you might think). So, I was happy to have it gone.
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BOTTOM LINE:
Ellacor is still new. I would wait for more RealSelf reviews to try it out. Especially since Cytrelis is just starting to scale this, so they will have to make sure there is adequate training and the right calibration. The downtime may improve as they do so.
I'm not sharing my doctor's name, because this review is on the technology, not the doctor. Important to separate the two.
Updated on 12 Sep 2022:
It has been almost 6 months. I think my face looks the same as at 3 months. I realize I should take pictures -- as hard to remember. Cytrellis does state 3-6 months for full healing/impact. So it will be important for me to take photos.
I'm still glad I did my face.
I want to add that for a while the skin texture ('dewiness') for my face didn't seem as good as before Ellacore -- and now it's finally back! I also did some exfoliation a couple of times (light glycolic acid -- only for a minute), and maybe that helped.
I'm use to laser treatments where the 'injury' actually improves texture right away.
It may have just been time, but it is a relief to have healthier looking skin again.
KNEES
The BBL did help the red marks on my knees somewhat -- but it took months -- for the first month I noticed no improvement.
I'm going for 1 more round of BBL for my knees this month and my fingers are crossed that they will finally look normal again. The good news is at least makeup covers it -- but who wants to wear makeup on their knees? I actually do wear makeup on them when I'm out with shorts as I'd be too self-conscious about the red marks otherwise.
Once the knee redness goes, I can better assess any improvement in knee wrinkles.
If Ellacor + 2 rounds of BBL is what it takes, it will have been worth it for my knees and I will revise my rating for it.
Yes, BBL adds to the cost -- but I don't see any other solution for knee wrinkles. Surgery on an area you bend all the time is too risky for me.
Updated on 13 Sep 2022:
I just took my ~6-month photo in the same lighting as the 3 month. I can't tell the difference between 3 months and 6 months.
But then I took a pic in super unflattering lighting. Still an improvement over my before pic, but not as great. Looking back, that before pic must have been taken in unflattering lighting too.
Trying very hard for consistency and accuracy. I'm always aware of lighting and angle in before/after pics.
My conclusion: Yes, improvement from before Ellacor. My current look is like the more flattering pic, but my 'before pic' was not as bad as it looked relative to my 3 months due to the unflattering lighting.
Thus the improvement from Ellacor is not as remarkable -- but still I at least had improvement. And I'm happy with my current look.
ps Good news: Knees redness MUCH better from the first BBL round (took new pics) -- but not posting those pics to keep anonymity.
Updated on 18 Jul 2023:
Dr. Waibel in Miami told Ellacor round 1 + CO2 round 2 was the best combo -- over 2 rounds of Ellacor. She offers both, and is all about the best result for the patient, so I trust her.
I get the reasoning, -- because CO2 laser makes your skin look better/healthier/dewier, while Ellacor only does tightening. Plus I still have some acne scars, so my motivation may be different from others, as CO2 helps there also.
Dr. Waibel does fractional *ablative* CO2, which is more intensive and supposed to also do some tightening. I personally found that just fractional CO2 laser never did any tightening -- though it did make my skin look dewier.
If I post photos and information on it, I will likely create a post in the CO2 section. However, I expect to come back here and compare it to Ellacor in terms of tightening. It does take 4-6 months to see the results, so it may be a while until I do.
Still glad I did round 1 of Ellacor for my face. (but not recommending it for the knees as the redness for me didn't go away until I had BBL).
Updated on 23 Feb 2025:
My laxity is now worse than before the treatment.
Further, not only did I have to do two IPL treatments to get rid of the red marks, I also needed ablative CO2 laser to restore my (relatively) dewy skin texture that was lost after Ellacor.
Given all the time for healing, the expensive additional treatments, it's not worth it.
I still think Dr. Waibel is a great doctor, just not big on this treatment. And she is great and aggressive with CO2.