GREATEST RESULTS EVER! IPL and CO2RE Laser For Acne, Dr, Mark Beaty, Atlanta - Atlanta, GA

Just had to share my naked chin one more time! I was in a hurry yesterday and went to the grocery store with ZERO makeup on. I looked in the mirror expecting to be horrified as usual, and look at my chin! How about that!? I have had two treatments and will definitely continue with the treatments!
I am not EVER going to risk going back to that world! Again, to say I am happy would be quite the understatement!

I lined these three pictures up, enlarged them, saved them, looked at them, and promptly burst into tears.

I honestly think I could end this review right now and everyone on the planet would understand and virtually give me a high five, a fist pump, and a retweet to anyone you know with skin problems.

But I want to describe the procedure and walk you through what it felt like, etc… It will be a let down compared to that little picture up there, but what wouldn’t be at this point? And pardon the tears on the keyboard. I am still in a little bit of shock.

A Brief Overview Of My Acne Issues

I had great skin for a long time. Well, normal skin. I remember having breakouts and the normal stuff at certain times of the month, but mostly it was fine. Normal. My family history is full of North Carolina tobacco farmers and my mother used to tell me I was “brown as a berry” and I had “tobacco spit skin” both of which mean that I tan instantly, have freckles for days, and always have a tint and a less-than-smooth appearance to my skin. Not like the old lady on There’s Something About Mary but not porcelain white by any stretch. (Ha, Stretch. Get it?)

But when I got pregnant at 22, my skin, especially my chin, just freaked out. And never really stopped. Supposedly if you draw a line around your entire head starting with the tip of your nose, all of those breakouts below that imaginary line are hormonal and there’s not much you can do about it except fix your hormones. Of course there’s quite a bit of debate about that, but after awhile, I believed it. 100%. I have tried just about everything (except Accutane). I have had peels, topicals, antibiotics, birth control pills, cortisone shots, other laser treatments, and every acne cream that has ever been for sale on Planet Earth in the last 20 years. Ok, fine, there are probably a few things that I haven’t tried, but really, there aren’t many.

Mostly, it is cystic acne. There’s always a mountain brewing. When one goes away, another one is in the wings waiting. Usually I have three at a time. I can’t remember the last time my chin hasn’t felt like I was in a losing fight. It always hurts, it gets infected a lot, it is pretty much disgusting about 40% of the time. The other 60% I use so many tricks I have learned over the years covering it up, many people don’t even realize that it has been a round the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year struggle.

I also realize that over the years, I have acquired something called dermatillomania which is “repetitive and compulsive picking of the skin which results in tissue damage.” Officially, dermatillomania is often grouped with other body-focused compulsive disorders (nail biting, nail picking, hair pulling, lip biting, cheek biting, and cutting). While my issues were situational and I am fortunate that I do not have it to the extent that many people do, I know that I have it (there is actually a test you can take online to determine if you might have this). For me, I did it to try to fix what was already awful; it felt like it was just me wanting to make it stop hurting and to make it stop looking like I was addicted to meth. But I would sit for an hour sometimes and mess with my face. And get so depressed. Again, I was trying to fix it not make it worse because I was so embarrassed and so desperate to make it stop hurting. I have taken more Alleve because my chin hurt from cystic acne than I have for headaches. But if my chin didn’t look like it did or feel like it did initially, I wouldn’t touch my skin.

Guess how I know that? Again, excuse the tears on the keyboard.

The Laser and My Concerns

When the Beaty offices acquired this laser (the CO2RE), there was major nerd alert excitement because quite frankly, this piece of equipment is like one of those massive playground sets that your dreamed of when you were little. Except made for people who love to see transformations. For the “Before and After” junkies that they all are.

I was a little nervous to have the treatments done mostly because as a patient of Dr. Beaty who has had numerous procedures done by him, I really do respect him, like him as a person, and am so happy with everything he has ever done. And I was pretty sure this wouldn’t work. I was actually almost positive that I would be the patient that had zero results. And he has never lied to me so I didn’t want to lie to him. And I was afraid I was going to have to go back to him and say, “So, Mark, you paid who-knows-what for this spaceship thing and look at me!? Do you see any improvement? At all? Didn’t I warn you!? Did you save the receipt for the spaceship? Can you still return it?”

That’s not what happened.

The Procedure Itself, Round One and Two

I sat in the normal procedure chair in the procedure room and the CO2RE Laser Spaceship came to me. Bryn, the RN at the Alpharetta office, performed the procedure and Dr. Beaty was standing next to her assisting. Lidocaine was put on the area and I sat for about twenty minutes while the numbing cream kicked in. And then the procedure itself took about fifteen to twenty minutes.

I wore eye protectors. I felt the flash of light with my eyes closed and the eye protectors on, but I didn’t feel anything. I actually thought it wasn’t working at one point. I asked Bryn if she had it turned on. She laughed at me but she checked (just because she knew I was going to bug her if she didn’t). I guess maybe at one point I did feel a little tiny ping of something, but it was so minor, it just solidified my negative theory that there was no way this was going to help my stubborn issues.

The only difference between Round One and Two is I might have been a little more optimistic the second time, but I might not have been. Trust me on this one: I have been Negative Nancy for a very long time regarding my acne for very good reasons: nothing, I repeat nothing, worked.

The Results and More Treatments

It is almost time for me to have another treatment. The experts recommend regular monthly treatments for a certain period depending on the purpose of the procedure and the severity of the situation. Dr. Beaty and I have categorized myself as someone who needs to have this done regularly, but we are hoping that after the sixth treatment, we may be able to slow it down.

See the picture? See it? LOOK AT IT AGAIN JUST FOR ME! See my pretty chin with no makeup or coverup? After just TWO TREATMENTS? What am I going to do with this massive investment in cover-ups and concealers? Obviously, I am happy. Ecstatic. Over the moon. Look up “happiest” in a thesaurus and insert all of those words here.

For my fellow acne sufferers, I would never lie to you. I would never give you false hope. I have had that way too many times myself.

Here are my important recommendations (I’m not a medical professional obviously):

Make sure that you have treatments done with this particular laser. Not other laser treatments and not machines that simulate these treatments. They might work too, but this review is about this laser and this procedure.

Do NOT go to a spa or a clinician to have this done. This is a powerful machine. You want to be in an MD’s office. Yes, I know some of those people are brilliant and certified and blah, blah, blah, but this machine can blind you and burn you. Call me crazy, but I want a doctor for that one.

If you are anywhere near Atlanta, go see Dr. Beaty. Seriously. Atlanta is fun. You can make a weekend of it. We can compare chins.

Make sure whoever performs the treatment, even if they are in a medical office, has the certification and training to perform the treatment. Even doctors need to be trained with this elaborate machine.

And finally, don’t wait like I did. Don’t keep watching infomercials or throwing anything you can find into your basket at the drugstore.

Please, feel free to ask me anything you want about this procedure. I want everyone to feel like I do now. My chin and I are ready to show you that it’s never too late to feel beautiful! Thanks, Dr. Beaty and sorry again to you and the scary spaceship CO2RE machine for doubting. We’re cool now though. Really cool now.