Beware of Sculptra! Side Effect That PS May Not Tell You About! Delayed Inflammation!

I had my first treatment of the laser Perfecta this morning in my PS’s office. Numbing cream was applied to my face first and she let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then she came in and wiped it off and then started with the two-step beam process. The first pulses were for skin tightening and collagen stimulation. This just felt hot on my face. I am sure the numbing cream made it bearable. Then she switched the laser settings for the second phase, which addressed redness and brown spots. This felt more like the rubber band snapping pulses that you read about. It was uncomfortable but I would not say extremely painful. She said I had a high threshold for pain. Around the nose hurt the worst where she hit some of my small broken blood vessels. I forgot to say she also applied eye goggles over my eyes. When she was finished she applied aloe vera clear gel to my face and gave me an ice roller to ice my face which I did for a good 10 minutes. She told me to expect swelling, especially under my eyes for a few days and that I should apply ice packs on and off for today. I also have a small purple bruise on my right cheek which I think might of been a light brown spot. She said do not be surprised if I also get some crusting around my nose. She advised me to use a good heavy moisturizer, like Aquaphor, for the next few days into use a good SPF sunscreen. I made an appointment to see her in another four weeks to evaluate whether not I will need another session or if this helps reduce the redness left from the sculptra irritation. As of right now my face has stopped burning as it is hours later, but is swollen and is raised in some areas where the laser beam was. It also feels very tight. Doing this after my experience with sculptra makes me nervous and I hope I have a good outcome. I will start a new review for the laser .

So after all the small blisters and active inflammation has finally died down, I am now going to go ahead and have one session of my PS’s perfecta laser. The inflammation left behind redness in both of my cheeks. It is more on my left side and I often have to put a little foundation over to disguise the redness. Apparently this laser takes out redness and eliminates broken capillaries. This laser treatment was offered free of charge, but I did not want to take her up on the offer until I was sure that all the inflammation was gone. Plus, I did not want to do it in the summer months when my face is more exposed to the sun. I will post the results afterwards . I did report my adverse effects to Galderama, The makers of Sculptra.

I am now three months post the second injection of one vile and the redness has calmed down a bit and the burning has pretty much gone. So I decided to add some new moisturizers to my face. Big mistake! I had added a week ago Cetaphil night moisturizer for facial redness at night. A couple days ago I added EltaMD a.m. moisture therapy. I had previously been only using Clinique's redness solutions daily relief cream. But because my skin had seem to be getting better and that cream is very expensive, I decided to try new things. I'm not sure if it was the Cetaphil or the Elta MD skin therapy a.m., but I woke up two mornings ago with little tiny blisters on my left cheek, in the area that was very red and had had the rash. At first I thought they were pimples, but then I looked closer and realized they were more like blisters. I suspect it is the EltaMD AM moisturizer because I had been using the Cetaphil pm moisturizer for over a week. The funny thing is I had read reviews on the Elta MD moisturizer and all had said it was for sensitive skin! I have been using the Elta MD UV clear broad-spectrum SPF 45 for a few weeks with no issues . I immediately discontinued both products and went back to just using the Clinique redness moisturizer. Within a day, the blisters had dried up. In another week I will try the Cetaphil PM moisturizer again but I will not be using the Elta MD a.m. therapy moisturizer again! What I can't get over is how sensitive my skin has become now. I used to use retinols regularly, The ROC Night serum every other night and Retin-A the other nights. I also have been using Avon Reversalist night cream for years, but have not been using it since the redness started . I pray that eventually all this will pass, I just don't know how long it will take.