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Hi all, I just had my first treatment with Dr Steven Weiner in Florida, and wanted to share my experience. Overall, it was a fantastic experience with a spotless office and a very warm, welcoming, and professional staff. About me I am an Asian male from San Francisco, mid 30s, with Fizpatrick IV/V skin type. I have a mix of boxcar and icepick acne scars which are relatively shallow. I also have deeper linear scars as the result of traumatic injuries from a relative as a child. Why Dr Weiner's office? I originally sought out a doctor here in California, but received a very aggressive treatment plan (along with aggressive pricing). Because of my skin type and hyperpigmentation issues, I was hesitant to do numerous, intensive treatments all-at-once. Dr Davin Lim in Australia, who is one of the top acne scar specialists the world, highly recommends Dr Weiner in Florida. So I reached out, and after a very positive initial communication with Dr Weiner's office, I decided to bite the bullet and go to Florida. Even with the travel costs, it was more affordable than California. Also Dr Weiner and Sandy are the top Infini RF specialists in the country! Getting to Florida I'm based in California, so no direct flights are available to Dr Weiner's clinic in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The area has two airports, Panama City (ECP) and Destin-Fort Walton Beach (VPS). I originally booked for ECP, but changed it to VPS, because Destin had accommodations with nearby and walkable restaurants and supermarkets. I do not drive so this was important to me. I first flew into Dallas, which took about three and half hours. Then a two hour flight to Destin. Having the connecting flight actually helped, because I was able to get up, stretch my legs, and eat lunch between the flights. Transportation As far as I can tell, the area has no taxis. I got around via Lyft / Uber. Drivers are friendly, and no issues so far. Walking to places can be tricky, as the sidewalk sometimes will just randomly end. The Destin Florida area To a good ol' liberal California lad like myself, going to the South is not always top-of-mind. But whatever the politics may be for the state as a whole, I found Destin to be respectful, open, and tolerant. The area is a tourist destination, so there are people from all over, and it's more diverse than you would assume. There's even a Whole Foods, haha! At the end of the day, it's about how people treat you. And in the Destin area, I felt treated with respect everywhere I went. The clinic The Aesthetic Clinique is immaculately clean and professional. Completely spotless! The staff The people I interacted with were Dr Weiner, Sandy, Marisa, Nikki, and Brittany. I may be forgetting someone, so apologies in advanced. Everyone was friendly, accommodating, and epitomized the famous "southern hospitality". I felt very cared for, and it was really cool to see that everyone got a long and had fun working there. Intake When I arrived, I was greeted by the warm staff. It was great to see Marisa, the office manager, in person, because I had only talked to her on the phone. I was given some water and an iPad to fill out the intake forms. Yay for paperless! I then met Sandy, who was wonderful, and helped explained the process. She also took a couple of sets of photos with a professional camera system that would be stored in the cloud securely. Impressively, I had no wait times, because they do not doublebook clients, unlike most other clinics. Consultation Afterwards, Sandy took me to see Dr Weiner for the consultation. Both Sandy and Dr Weiner were present for this part. Dr Weiner looked very carefully at my face in angled lightning, and also stretched parts of it to see what types of scarring I had. He said that I mostly had superficial scarring consisting of boxcars and icepicks. As we talked, Sandy applied the topical numbing cream to my face. Dr Weiner felt that Infini and CROSS were my best options. For Infini, they would only do the parts of my face with scarring, rather than the entire face. Also, he said that subcision is not needed for me, because I don't really have rolling scars. Interestingly, he said I might not need Bellafill at all, but that he'll do a skin test on me anyway. The main areas that might need Bellafill are the parts with volume loss in the deeper linear scars. Even though, he is one of the top Bellafill providers, he did not push or try to sell me on it. I decided to proceed with Infini + PRP, and held off on CROSS, because I'm concerned about hyperpigmentation (I have to be in front of a lot of people over the next few weeks). He was totally fine with that. Overall, I really appreciated the more conservative approach. He nor Sandy pushed for aggressive treatments, unlike other doctors. Pre-treatment I sat in the lounge for about an hour for the numbing cream to absorb. After that, Sandy took me in to sign consent forms, and thoroughly reviewed the treatments with me. She also gave me post-treatment instructions to take home with me, along with samples of an aftercare cream to apply to my face. Next, I was taken to get blood drawn for PRP. My veins are hard to find, but the staff was very patient with me, and was able to get the blood out with minimal discomfort. Treatment: Infini RF After the blood draw, I was taken to the treatment room where my face was cleaned with alcohol. I was given a vibrating massage toy to hold in my hand and place on my thigh. This was to help distract me from the pain. I was also given a hose to spray cool air on my face as Sandy used the device. Sandy did two passes on my face. The first pass was intense but manageable. On a scale of 1-10 in pain, I'd say it was a 4. I did tear up a little. The second pass was much much more tolerable, which was a relief. The Infini part took about 20 minutes, though I didn't time it. Treatment: PRP After the Infini RF, they put a paper mask on me and covered my face in PRP. This was left on for about half an hour to absorb. Even though this was an added expense, I decided to do it to speed healing time, since I will be in front of people soon, and need all the help I can get to heal faster. During this time, they also did the Bellafill skin test on my arm. Treatment: Healite After the PRP mask was removed, I was put under a red LED light called Healite for 17 minutes. This was complimentary and also meant to help with healing. It was painless and had a pleasant warm sensation. Overall time and wrapping up I arrived a little before 12:30pm and left at 4:30pm. I was told to not wash my face until the morning. After the treatments, no one pushed me on any products or further treatments. I met with the office crew to pay for my treatments, and I was done! Going back to the hotel I was nervous about calling a Lyft to get back to the hotel, but the driver didn't bat an eye when picking me up or during the ride. I basically looked like I had a sunburn, and in this area, I suppose it must be fairly common. 16 hours later When I woke up, I washed the PRP off my face as recommended. I also washed off the small amount of dried blood at a few of the sites where PRP was injected. Because the PRP was red colored, washing it off reduced the appearance of redness greatly. The swelling reduced quite a bit, but there was still some left. I was able to get breakfast at a nearby crowded restaurant without anyone staring at all. And I was able to have a bit of small talk with the guy sitting next to me at the communal table. Again, it looked like I had a mild sunburn. I had a few patches of light brown crusting from where the Infini needles entered my skin, but it wasn't noticeable from afar. It helped that I have brown skin, because it hides some of the redness. 48 hours later After 48 hours, and returning to California, the swelling has gone down some more. Still a bit left, but doesn't look bad at all. The redness is almost all gone, and some patches of brown grid marks remain. I know everyone heals differently, but I'm so very glad that the down time has been minimal with Infini RF. So far, this looks like something I can do on a Friday, and be back at work on Monday without any issues. Expectations I'm making sure to set realistic expectations and don’t expect dramatic improvements with one treatment. My main goal with this first treatment was to make sure I can tolerate Infini RF and heal from the treatment without any complications. So far, everything is looking good, and I’m glad I can be out in public right after the procedure! Next treatments If everything heals well over the next month or so, I will book further Infini RF treatments with Dr Weiner's office. At this point, he and Sandy are the only people I trust with this treatment. In between the Infini RF sessions, I'm also looking into getting TCA/Phenol CROSS nearby in California, most likely with Dr Rullan, since this is easier for me to travel to. Overall experience This is one of the best experiences I've ever had a clinic. I was impressed by the thoroughness and everyone's good nature. Dr Weiner, Sandy, and the staff all had great bedside manner. They were very patient with me, and I never felt rushed into anything. The facilities were absolutely clean, organized, and professional-looking. Everyone was also thorough, respectable, and personable. The complete lack of aggressive sales tactics also made me trust everyone much more, and made me much more willing to come back for further treatments. Updated on 3 Sep 2018: It has been about 72 hours since my Infini RF + PRP treatment. Redness and swelling continues to come down. For those that wear makeup, I imagine this would be pretty easy to cover up. Brown grid marks are still present in places, but starting to flake off. They'll likely all come off when I shave next. Overall, skin is healing nicely and looks like a very mild sunburn. I'm very pleased with how well everything is healing. Updated on 29 Sep 2018: Hello, it has been a little over four weeks now, and I can see that my skin has improved in terms of overall texture. My skin also feels bouncier and smoother to touch. Redness + swelling are 99% gone. As for my scars, they appear slightly less noticeable and have subtly improved. They also appear to soften each week as I continue to heal, and I have set realistic expectations for this. I've only had one Infini RF treatment, and I know improvements will be gradual with more sessions. Overall, I'm very happy with how easy it was to recover from the procedure and the visible improvements so far. In 6 weeks, I will be flying down to San Diego to see Dr Rullan, and will be trying Phenol CROSS for some of the deeper scars—Phenol CROSS, apparently, has fewer complications than TCA CROSS. I plan to continue Infini RF treatments with Dr Weiner's office, most likely in early 2019 due my travel schedule for the rest of this year. I've attached a before and after picture, and did my best to get the lighting the angle to be similar. I'll continue to provide updates as much as I can.
Infini is one of the better ways to treat malar mounds. There is actually a paper that documents improvements by Roy Geronemus. You must make sure all the filler is removed prior to treatment. Festoons are more related to excessive skin in this area and probably not what you have.
This fat pocket is not treated with Infini. Only the skin is treated in this area with Infini. Nonsurgical options are Accutite and Agnes. Both use RF but are placing the energy much deeper. Surgery (Blepharoplasty) is fairly well tolerated in this area and I would consider a surgical consultation.