Dot Laser on Entire Face - Atlanta

Just had the Dot Laser treatment done on my entire face today and holy sh*t did it hurt! I've had other laser treatments done before such as fraxel (sp?) and other high tech laser treatments but know one prepared me for how this was going to feel. In fact, everyone told me it would hurt less. With the other treatments it could get pretty uncomfortable but not nearly to where I was cursing the doctor:-) I squeezed the poor nurse’s hand much harder then she probably would have liked.

The appointment started with the doctor looking at what areas of my face needed the most attention. After photos for the "before" pictures I then went into a room so a nurse could apply a topical numbing lotion to my face. The lotion was applied around my eyes but only up to the socket bones underneath and not on any part of the eye lid. I sat with the lotion on my face for an hour to an hour and a half waiting while it worked its magic. I was then brought into the laser treatment room.

With the dot laser compared to the others I felt the heat of the laser more. It felt like hot repeated pinpoint zaps on my face, I could feel the heat of the laser penetrating my skin. The doctor started by doing one pass over of my entire face witch consisted of starting at the upper corner of my forehead and working in one inch sections across from the one corner to the other, dropping an inch down and working across again. He then did the sides, cheeks, nose, chin and earlobes. My earlobes are not something I expected but hey, he's the doctor. He repeated the process but with a different laser tip and as he explained in-between the areas he had just lasered so that it mixed it up instead of having the same dot pattern done twice all over my face. The second time over definitely hurt worse then the first. The first was tolerable but it hurt in the areas the numbing cream didn't quite reach around my hairline and earlobes. Then he upped the amount of laser amount and went over my cheeks and chin again where I have some older acne scarring. The increased amount hurt like a son of a gun! Still manageable but definitely a lot more painful. The laser pulses were longer then the first set of pulses and hotter. The next part though about had me out of my chair and running for the door. Evidently they can't put the numbing cream too close to the eye but they still laser this portion of the eye. So when the doctor lasered under my eyes, on my eye lids and in the inside crease of my eyes, the curse words started flying. He finished as quickly as he could but not quickly enough.

After he was finished the nurse applied a lotion to my entire face with the consistency of Vaseline and let me hold a cool fan to soothe my skin. I checked out, got in the car, and had the air conditioning on full blast pointed at my face the entire way home.

It's been a few hours now since I've gotten home and the numbing lotion has almost worn off and my face doesn't really hurt that bad. It feels like a bad sun burn and has that tight sensation that makes you not want to make any facial expressions. Right now it's really not bad and I don't expect it to hurt any more. I'm supposed to take an antibiotic and some other medication for the next few days. The doctor prescribed it one day before the treatment and I guess it's supposed to reduce the risk of infection. I'm also supposed to keep an ointment on my face for the next few days to keep it moist then switch to a different type of lotion once it starts to heal. I'll keep everyone posted and try to take pictures on each day so you know what to expect in the week after. Hope this helps and feel free to ask questions.

Updated on Jan 12, 2010