My IPL Treatment for Freckles Worked Slightly, Should I Continue Treatment?

Our office has many different treatments for skin and scars depending on the depth of atrophy or hypertrophy. Scars require a combination approach using our HI DEF protocol which uses a combination of lasers, topical scar modulation, and RF treatments to pixelate scars, improve contour, reduce hyperpigmentation, and improve the visibility of the scars so that they are no longer visible in ambient light. Everyone has a unique pattern of scarring and we employ our HIDEF technique to improve texture, color, contour, and topography. We often use a combination of treatments that begin with a careful examination to examine the micro texturing of the acne scars. Atrophic scars and indented scars can benefit from injectable fillers such as Radiesse, Sculptra, and Restylane with or without subcision to remove tethered scars and atrophic depression. Hyper-redness in scars can be improved with V beam laser, Excel V, BBL, IPL, and Venus RF to improve the redness and reduce the visibility of deep scars. Fractional Thulium laser and clear & brilliant can also reduce the inflammation and redness of the scar when combined with topical therapy. Fractional lasers such as Fraxel, erbium, and CO2 laser can be combined with radio frequency and also fractional RF to improve textual issues and microtopography. Subcision and TCA cross are also used for deep ice pick scars and narrow valley scars in order to improve the micro texture. Above all, our combination approach with our clinical nurses and board-certified plastic surgeons can improve the quality of your skin by using at home Melarase creams combined with PRP treatments in our office to improve your skin quality and tone. I recommend getting a formal evaluation with an experienced team of experts in order to reduce your scarring.

Finally, hyperpigmentation of scars can be improved with at-home Melarase AM, Melarase PM, and Melapads to help reduce active PIH and melanin deposition.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Up to 6 treatments with IPL may be necessary to remove freckles. Many of my patients prefer a medium depth chemical peel which can do the trick in one treatment, although several days away from the public are needed for the skin to heal.

IPL treatments typically need 3 to 5 treatments to get optimal results.  Since it was your first treatment the provider was probably giving you a conservative treatment to see the reaction of your skin to the IPL.  This is to gauge or future treatments.

Hope this helps.

 

 Dr. Grant Stevens

IPL as well as true lasers work best when your pigmented areas are darker rather than lighter.  It is also possible that the person who did your treatment used a low energy level so you may benefit from trying again at a higher energy level.  As you know, not every machine works in the same way for every patient.

Freckles are extremely hard to treat with IPL, but it does help. It will not remove all of your freckles, as IPL is for more surface layers and some of your freckles will actually be at deeper layers than IPL can penetrate. At your first treatment your technician should always start with a lower setting. While this treatment should be helpful and you should see results, you should begin to see more results after treatments 2 and 3, and so on. Technicians should not go to the highest settings at a first treatment, because how you do after the treatment also needs to be considered. The first treatment should be helpful, but conservative. I would recommend you continue, but also be realistic that all of your freckles won't be gone.