Subcision Treatment in TX

So on Monday, August 8th, 2016, I drove to Dallas (approx. 45 min) for my treatment. Nurse prepped me by numbing the skin through the five injections. Then Dr. Burns went to work on my skin. It felt a little strange as I’ve never been this numb on my face before. Dr. Burns would ask if I felt anything and I told him surprisingly I couldn’t really feel anything. The subcision treatment looks pretty intense but fortunately the nurse did a good job with numbing my face that it was painless. I did hear the noise from what sounded like the breaking of the collagen fibers under the skin. The whole process was approximately an hour from start to finish and I paid $500.00. I was prescribed antibiotics and prednisone (steroid). My face was red and swollen and it was difficult to blink my eyes as I was pretty numb, but the blinking wasn’t a big deal, it was the driving part that was difficult because of my vision (I drive a stick shift car and needed both hands). Next time i won't be make the trip on my own (my mistake).

Later approximately three to four hours after the procedure the numb was starting to wear off and I began to feel a lot of pain. The pain was in my cheeks and in my head (headache). It hurt pretty bad but after I had some food, my prescription and took an antibiotic and some ibuprofen I felt much better and really no pain since this treatment day.

Tuesday, Day 1 I looked like a chipmunk as my cheeks were completely swollen and my face resembled that of Quagmire from family guy’s. On Thursday, day 3, I still had some swelling and the bruising started to settle as I developed a “black eye” from the bruising. Perhaps if I really needed to go back to work I could have but I took the next three days as “sick days” to heal more comfortably. By Saturday, day 5, I was back at work and really the main side effect I had was a black eye and some minor swelling on my left and a lump on my right cheek. You can still see the scabs from where the needles were inserted (two points) on both sides of my face but it’s not a big deal.

Today is Wednesday, day 9 and the swelling on my left cheek is nearly gone, the “black eye” is not as bad and the lump on my right cheek is still there but not as large. I’m thinking the lump will eventually go away with by a few more weeks. The lump on my right side is a bit hard to the touch but as of right now I’m not too worried about it. I just had an intense treatment last week and my body is doing what it needs to do to repair itself. I was expecting some side effects and I’m just glad that the majority of the swelling is gone so I can deal with a minor bruise under my eye, a yellow-ish tint to skin and a small lump for a bit. I'm still in the healing process so I'll need some more weeks to let the skin heal and then I'll evaluate and go from there. The treatment itself went well.

Since my initial subcision treatment with Dr. Burns, I've had two other treatments. My first subcision treatment was in August 2016.

Initially you see what appears to be significant improvement but is actually swelling. The swelling eventually subsides around month one or so.

I had my second subcision treatment in January 2017. I read about subcision/suction method. Basically you use a suction tool to pull on the skin. The idea is to pull the skin away from the face to prevent the skin from reattaching with the scar. It felt like bruising and the skin darkens as the blood continues to build.

I've had several people tell me that they've seen improvement. They've complimented on the improvement on their own (without me bringing up my skin condition). I don't see my good friend and his girlfriend very often (less than ten times a year) but when I went to visit them in Dallas, his girlfriend said "wow you can really see the difference". She said this to me on her own, without me bringing it up. I felt that maybe she was saying that to make me feel good about myself but I will take she was being honest because it was a completely random thought that came to mind after she saw me.


I had my third subcision treatment in June 2017. Again, I knew what to expect. Dr. Burns is great at what he does. I knew that I could expect to see swelling immediately afterwards but Dr. Burns noticed that the scars were not as tethered as they were before. Perhaps the scars weren't as tethered because of my previous treatments. In a week it will be the third month since my third subcision treatment. I've seen improvement in my skin but I'm well aware that my scars are pretty severe.

I am scheduled to meet with Dr. Burns for my one year follow up. I'm looking forward to meeting with him so we can discuss my skin's condition and possible treatments to follow.