Fraxel Restore to Reduce Eye Circles - Rome, Italy

Hi, to everyone! At first I have to apologize for my bad english (i'm from italy). This is my story:

About 4 months ago i had one session of fraxel restore ( palomar starlux 1540) around the eyes in order to thicken the skin and achieve some improvement for my blue- dark eye circles ( i have a very thin skin that let the blood vessels show trough).My plan was to have fraxel restore in a first moment and then in a second moment -in order to resolve definetely my problem ( eye circles and eye bags)- a transonjunctival blepharoplasty.

The doctor that did the procedure ( a renowned and experienced laser dermatologist ) told me that the procedure would be non invasive and practically without risks ( what a liar!). Now, after more than 4 months the treated area is still red (erythema) and nothing seems to improve . The doctor who did that to me doesn't really know what to say (redness after fraxel restore should last maximum 1-2 weeks). The only thing he cared about was to change with photoshop my pre- and after photos in order to show me that there hasn't been a big change (what a shame!).

Now I've changed dermatologist. I went here in Rome to europe's biggest dermatologic clinic where the laser expert said to me that he never saw somenting like that (persistent erythema, redness after fraxel restore) and that i'm a singular case and that fraxel restore is really really safe (why are this docs continuing to lie?). He also added that in his opinion the redness will fade away slowly with time (i hope so!). All in all, this whole experience shocked me a lot. I still don't understand how it is possible that plastic surgeons and dermatologists all over the world put their lasers and ipl machines so easily on peoples faces and say that they are very safe. They are lying!! In the last months I read so many terrible stories about lasers and ipl and before the procedure i just couldn't imagine that this popular, "non invasive" procedures, used by so many docs could cause damage so easily.

So please ,do not do lasers and ipl if your case isn't really serious and if there's nothing else you can do about it!! These machines work by damaging the skin and if your skin is sensitive and doesn't heal well they will damage the skin permanently. Please don't do it, it's just not worth it! After this terrible experience I want to wait at least another year to see if the redness fades away on it's own (how my current doc says) or at least improves (would be great!). If not, I will try the v beam laser to resolve the redness and if it will not work i'll have to put on make up around my eyes for the rest of my life ( and i'm a guy).

I'll update my story periodically.So please, don't do lasers if you don't reallly need it and always be honest with people. Things like that (in general) wouldn't happen so often if people would be more honest, less selfish and more unselfish.

Well over a year past and nothing improved. . In this year i saw alot of other doctors (plastic surgeons and dermatologists) and they all told me that faxel restore was absolutely useless and irrational procedure for my issue. They told me that what I called eye circles was and is the result of shadowing effect created by my eye bags and accentuated by my tear troughs and upper cheek hollows.And i had no hyperpigmentation , vascular issues or wrinkles on my skin. flawless skin.No need for lasers. But at that time i didn't knew anything about midface rejuvenation and possible tratments. I was tricked into believing by that doctor that my eye circles were only caused by blue-purple blood vessels showing trough and that the only possible treatment was fraxel laser.He said that the laser would have thickened the skin and drammatically improved my situation. Other docs told me that collagen production results in textural improvement , diminished wrinkles, but not in a real, substantial thickening of the skin.Maybe a micro micro micro thickening but not able to improve in anyway a sitaution like mine. Now i also realize that i did not had more blood vessels under my eyes that any other person and that my undereye skin is exactly as thin as every other undereye skin. My circles are simply the result of eye bags and lack of voulme of the midface area. wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment....i also have to correct a thing i wrote in my original review : i never planned to have a blepharoplasty at the time of my fraxel procedure. i knew that there was this operation called blepharoplasty (didn't actually knew anything about it and didn't knew if it was the right approach for me) but after sawing that doctor i really thought that fraxel laser was the way to go. he never told to me that i could be a candidate for a transconjunctival blepharoplasty or fillers. he said that fraxel was the way to go and said that there were absolutely no risks or side effects correlated with this procedure. only after having seen other docs i understood that a bleph is actually the appropriate treatment and how absurd it was to had fraxel done. so since last summer i'm planing to have a bleph and searching the righjt doc but i'm bit afraid of this step....and could eventually worsen the redness.....i may try the v beam laser but they told me that that laser can't be used under the eyes...we'll see...