2 Sessions of Fraxel Laser-wouldn't Recommend, Laser Marks Left on Skin - England

Hi, so I'm sad to report after I thought I had got away with only temporary fraxel side effects, I have developed noticeable fat loss in the area I was treated. I would say it probably started around 4 years ago, I have just gradually been noticing a bit of an indent in the area-just a small square area where I was treated. At first I didn't think much of it or get worried but it's just been getting steadily worse. Then to my shock one day a few months ago I looked in the mirror from a different side to usual and saw what I thought was a shadow on the side of my face-then I realised it was actually ON my face and it was a big rectangle darker area because of fat loss...I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed how bad it was before and now it's all I can see.

The only reason I risked fraxel was to speed up the healing and get rid of redness from a small excision I had. I figured I've got a scar there anyway, how can fraxel make it any worse? It's only going to go over that small area. I now see there was quite a bit more area he lasered as I now have a pretty sizeable bit of fat loss.

It's really upsetting but for a while I've been looking into getting fillers for my dark under eye circles (nothing to do with fraxel-just unlucky my face is such a mess!) so at the same time I'm going to get filler for this fat loss. There is no question fraxel is the cause-I only had it in this one area and do not have fat loss the other side plus it is definitely not natural aging or anything like that it's a very odd effect. So any doctor that says fraxel 100% cannot cause fat loss is wrong. I haven't got back in touch with the clinic who did it I figure what's the point, I'd actually feel a bit bad going there and saying you did this to my face, crazy I know.

So that's where I am, regretting massively ever having fraxel, just kicking myself as scars fade really quickly and the redness would've naturally gone in 6 months to a year and it'd look so much better if I'd just left it-it's the 2nd time I had fraxel that caused the damage as I remember him saying he'd do it on a higher setting that time and it took so long for the redness to go down. I'm just gutted really, and it's only a relatively small area compared to my whole face but still horrible to look at, I'm just hoping fillers can sort it out at this point they're my only hope!

I know people always want photos (I do too) but at the time I never thought to take any and I'm not sure the fat loss would show up how bad it is on photos. I'm also just not comfortable with the state of my face (not just from fraxel) to post any. I don't know if they've made these lasers safer in the last 10 years since I had it done (I hope so) but I would just say if you're going to get it done be really cautious if they say they're going to do it on a higher setting because that's when the damage happens.

I have been scrutinizing the skin that was treated with fraxel in the mirror under harsh lighting-something I should have done before doing the last update. The skin is now a normal colour, and no longer has the obvious orange peel texture that it had before BUT it does have a different sort of texture to the rest of my skin. As I hadn't really noticed before it is obviously not very bad, but when looked at under bright light the skin is a bit lined and indented in places. However, I had scar excision in the same place so I cannot be sure if the indents and weird texture are due to that, or due to the fraxel. A small area on my arm where I also had fraxel for a scar seems to be completely back to normal with no texture issues at all.

I still do not recommend fraxel to anyone, and I am absolutely relieved that I didn't have more of my skin treated-I have scars on my lip and (other) cheek from a dog bite and I am sooo relieved I wasn't talked into getting that area treated too.

I am of course happy the redness has gone down, and so has most of the orange peel texture. I still feel that at best it was a waste of money, and at worst it has made my skin worse. I am somewhat scared my skin will get worse from all the bad reviews I have read but since it has now been two years I hope that won't happen.

2 years on and I am glad to say the redness has gone and so has the orange-peel type skin. I haven't been on here for a long time and my skin has been back to normal for probably 6 months to a year-it's hard to say as I had only small areas done so I wasn't too bothered about it and it gradually faded over time. My skin stayed red with orange-peel texture for months and I thought I'd be stuck like that but I'm glad to report I am now back to normal. I would not recommend this treatment unless like me you are having a very small area done say to improve a scar. Because if I'd had my whole face done I would have been red for months and months and had horrible texture too. I was NOT warned that could happen.

But I hope my update gives some hope that the redness and texture may eventually go down. I didn't use any cream or have anything else done to the area, I just left it and it improved by itself.