SmartXide DOT Laser Therapy

Hi, It has been a week and a bit since you had the Smartxide treatment. Have you noticed any other changes. I actually noticed changes were still occuring three months down the road. Subtle things. People are guessing me to be 10 years younger than I actually am and I am getting way more attention from men. I am not sure if its because my skin looks better or that the treatment has helped my self confidence. I have my next treatment on Tuesday. I am a bit scared as some people have said that you will notice more pain the second time around as the skin has thinned a bit. I guess I will see if that is true or note for me. Allison

Allison--Here's something below that I posted under laser treatments (I think.) Let me know how the next treatment goes--good luck! I have some light (not too deep) acne scars and patches of large pores. I'm very light skinned with blotchiness & redness around my nose. I think you could say my skin is coarse & thick. I just turned 55 so my skin is getting drier but I have a huge problem with whiteheads & blackheads! Although my skin still looks pretty good for 55, it was starting to get crepey with tiny little surface wrinkles. So any or all of these things would be nice to get rid of with the Smartxide. Monday Dec 8 made 2 weeks since I got lasered. It wasn't until this past Friday that all of the tiny dot scabs had fallen off. I still continue to show some redness, actually light pink, on my neck, but it feels so smooth & soft! Now let's see if it tightens up any. Now to my face. The doc told me that she used a really high setting near my eyes to try to help with my sleep creases, so I'm still redder there than anywhere else. But I'm able to cover it up just fine. Where I really wanted to see some change was in the texture of my skin and I think I'm seeing that. Even though the little scabs have flaked off, I see some very fine peeling going on, but when I step back from the mirror my skin looks much smoother and less blotchy than what I recall. I'm really excited about this and hope that I continue to see improvements. As I said in earlier postings, I think it's going to take at least a month to truly see the results. SO far I like what I'm seeing and I have my next appointment late next week!

Dear Sandrasue, I looked pretty bad. I have to admit it sort of surprised me. I had some swelling and puffiness & I was very red. Really a good comparison is like a very bad sunburn. That's also how to describe my skin's sensitivity afterwards. I was given a DOT aftercare kit kit made by DOT. The first day I didn't wash at all because skin was so sensitive, again like a bad sunburn. For about 1-2 hours after the treatment, your sking feels hot & the doc told me to "bring down the temperature of your skin" with icy cold plastic bags. This part is kind of scary too because it IS burning. But it does cool down and then you don't have to ice down as often that day. My doc also advised to put Aquaphor on it. I hesitated to do that at first because it's so thick & greasy. But by the second day, I could feel my skin drying & scabbing. In a couple of spots I could see raw skin and so I started to use the Aquaphor to keep skin moist and slow down the drying. I think this was a good move because I believe it helped prevent scarring--that's just my opinion. The second day I washed VERY gently with a DOT kit cleanser, applied kit balm. By the 3rd day the dots turn to little brown scabs and the red skin starts to turn brownish. As for results, I think it is still too early to tell what the full impact will be. I had this done on 11/24/08. It's now 12/20/08 and I can tell that I am still healing. There is still a patch of redness under both eyes & around my nose. Small brown freckly patches have been definitely reduced. While it's hard to be sure I do think that the texture of my skin is a little better--pores a little tighter. I went to an open house at the medspa where I had this done and was able to talk to the Smartxide DOT representative. He took a look at my face & treatment log (strength of laser used on which parts of my face) & he said that he felt that I was healing on track and that I would be seeing changes in my skin for another couple of months. In fact, he suggested that I wait until March to have a second follow-up DOT instead of now in December. That way I could see what one treatment had accomplished. So I am taking his advice. The best advice I can give you, assuming you have a good doc, is to take care of your skin once you have the DOT and don't rush it. Let it heal up and keep it moist with what your doc gives you. It took me a good 5-6 days before I felt that I looked normal. That didn't stop me from going out, but I know I looked really weird. Hope this helps, glad to share.

Iracarley, Thank you for the information. I have cancelled by appointment. I received my preop in the mail. The doctor was going to sedate me and he called it a "pulsed co2 laser resurfacing." I called their office and asked if this is the same as dot therapy, and they said yes. He even gave me the brochure from SMartxide Dot Therapy. It makes me too nervous. I have four young children and I don't have a lot of down time. Thank you for sharing your story and keep us posted on how you are doing. Do you know much about photo facial procedures? I am looking for something that is no so abrasive.

I had a photo facial laser treatment done 2 years ago. I did not see any results and would not do it again. But I have pretty coarse skin so it might work better for you. For the Smartxide, I did not get sedated, just a numbing creme. And it was unpleasant, but I was able to take the pain. Everybody is different. Like I've said in previous postings, the worst time was the first hours after the lasering. My skin felt like it was burning. Now that I know what to expect, I am pretty sure that I will do a follow-up treatment in March. It's been almost 30 days since my first Smartxide & I do like what I see. Next time, I'll be more realistic about expectations for down time. BTW, Sandrasue, when I say down time I mean time where I wouldn't want to be seen by some people. This was the only thing holding me back. I never felt sick or so much in pain that I had to stay home. Just wanted to clarify my experience for you. Thanks & good luck on the photofacial!