IPL Scarring: White stripes on face. Will this go away? (photos)

The striping you see are areas treated in the background of areas not treated leaving the appearance of striping.  Striping occurs when there are skip areas and is usually attributed to poor technique.  I would go back to whomever performed your procedure and let them evaluate you.  You will likely need another treatment and better technique and this will be corrected.  Best of luck!

Thank you for your question whitneypom. I am sorry to hear about your situation.
IPL is a great treatment for facial rejuvenation. When certain areas on the skin are treated with IPL and areas between them are missed it can lead to what is called striping. We use the Forever Young BBL IPL by Sciton which allows us to avoid this. This is because the laser has a large spot size and a fast repetition rate. So instead of doing a single pass with strong settings we perform 2 or more passes with conservative settings with slight overlap. This provides fast yet safe treatment without striping. Striping can be treated with this type of treatment. I recommend that my patients wait 4 weeks between treatments. Please consult with a doctor for specific recommendations. Good luck!

Hi there-- from those pictures, it looks like you have had an uneven IPL treatment resulting in striping. The skin that is not well treated remains dark and the lighter areas have cleared the pigment. This can happen especially when the skin is really too sun tanned to perform IPL. I probably would have recommended a series of VI peels to address the pigment first. Once the skin has improved you can then do IPL. You'll need either repeat IPL to treat the remaining areas or go back and do a VI peel now and then IPL if needed after that.

Thanks for the great question and I'm sorry you're upset. The areas of white skin are where you were treated with the IPL. Because IPL works so well, the pigment is totally gone in these areas. What is happening is that the untreated areas are outlining the treated areas because of the presence of pigment. You will not be left with permanent scarring, but will need additional treatments to even out your skin tone. Best of luck!~Dr. Sieber

Thank you for your question and for submitting your photos.  I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing complications from your prior IPL treatment.  It's difficult to make an exact diagnosis without assessing you in-person, but based on your photos, you appear to be experiencing 'striping' rather than true scarring.  Striping occurs when IPL pulses are placed unevenly on the skin - essentially, the whiter areas are skin that has been fully treated with IPL, and the darker areas are untreated skin.  I would recommend following-up with the supervising physician at the clinic/spa where your treatment was performed.  You will likely need 1-2 additional IPL treatments to even out your treatment.  Best of luck!   

When striping appears after IPL treatments, it would indicate that the technique was not as precise as we would like.  There are skip ares between treated and untreated skin.  It appears that the lighter areas are segments where the excess pigment from sun damage has flaked off.  You did not mention blistering of those areas, so I do not think that it is scarring. You will need another treatment to even out the stripes and get rid of more damage.  You should return to the facility and ask to see the doctor so that the treatment can be done with proper timing and supervision.

Thank you for the question and photos.  What you are seeing is the treated vs. untreated areas.  The white areas have been treated, the darker areas have not.  You will need to have a second treatment to even things out.  the peeling of the skin is just the old treated skin peeling off.  The stripes do not look like scarring in the pictures.  I hope this helps.  Regards, Dr. DiPasquale

IPL is not a laser, its light that treats in sections, hence it does NOT allow for a blend. Good machines like Lumenis, Scition etc... deliver consistent energy levels, and great IPL technicians know how to space the treatment areas so ' skip' segments don't occur. The fix? 1. Wait a few weeks, use HQ bleaching cream, then another session of IPL -this can blend in 2. Chemical peels by a specialist can blend in 3. Use other lasers that can control passes e.g.. Clear and Brilliant or Fraxel 1927. This is not scarring and can easily be rectified by a Specialist as we see this sort of reaction on a weekly basis. Don't worry as your skin can be blended in. Dr Davin S. Lim. Brisbane. Australia.