Laser Surgery Festoon Treatment. Tampa, FL

Dr. Adam Scheiner's laser festoon surgery/resurfacing is very intense and risky procedure. If you are considering this procedure then just be prepared to experience constant inflammation, redness, sensitivity, permanent hyperpigmentation and scarring. It is now 8 months post surgery, I haven't seen any improvement in my skin or the treatment of the festoons/malar mounds. I am struggling so much to get my skin back to normal before surgery. I regret every single day for getting this procedure done. I have a great deal of discoloration and unfortunately the damage is so deep that products and other lasers are just not effective. I am in the process of getting treatments by a local dermatologist and I am having to spend thousands of dollars and hours of time away from work and downtime -- I have undergone 5 sessions of two different types of mild lasers to get rid of the hyperpigmentation and redness -- so far I feel like I am not making much progress.

The entire process for Dr. Scheiner's laser surgery is daunting and overly traumatizing. There is a great deal of downtime even after you are done with the vinegar soaks. I nearly lost my job because I had to take 5 weeks off work to be decent enough to meet face to face. I was not anticipating this. The mental and emotional agony of seeing your face so damaged, isolating your self from the world, having your life be on hold and hoping and praying every night for your face to heal is the most traumatic experience one can endure and it's 10 times worse when you don't see any improvement on the condition that you sought treatment for. It's even worse if you are not a local patient because guess what? something goes wrong then you are out of luck and you are faced with additional out of pocket costs on treatments and numerous visits to your dermatologist. I can go on and on about the issues I have had but I am trying to move on and this review is simply something that I felt compelled to write so that anyone considering this procedure gets an honest feedback and not solely rely on the Doctor's advice.

I think its really unfortunate that this happened to me and believe me if I can go back and change things, I would give the world to have another chance on deciding against the procedure. At the end, I felt like I was misled and deceived. I was convinced that traveling cross country, putting my life in jeopardy, locking my self in a hotel room for 2 weeks (doing vinegar soaks) and spending thousands of dollars would all be worth it because I would see significant results in treating a condition that I was genetically predisposed to (nothing to do with sun damage btw). Whether my condition was misdiagnosed, I can't say but what I will say that Dr. Scheiner should have known that his laser procedure would not treat my condition. On top of this all, the procedure aside from the fact that it didn't work for me and damaged my skin, was performed carelessly in a way because the treated areas are in large circles covering my entire cheeks but one side is different than the other and that "feathering" technique he talks about is just crap. I pointed out to him on several occasions that the problem I see on my face is not similar to the patients he has treated and he still proceeded to convince me that I was the perfect patient and would see significant results. I should have been smarter and listened to my gut instinct and unfortunately I was brainwashed with all the marketing hype and the doctor and his staff's persuasions.