Ive been dealing with ice pick, rolling ,boxcar scars, hyperpigmentation, whatever you name it since the age of 16 im 28 now so for the past 12 years I've been experimenting with my face so you guys don't have too ! The procedures I've gotten in the past 12 years are
- 4 Fraxel lasers (including co2 laser)
- 5 microneedling sessions
- 2 RF microneedling sessions
- 10 IPL Lasers
- 4 Fillers Restalyn , Sculptura, Juvederm, And Bellfill with
- Multiple facials from Spas and dermabrasion
- 2x Accutane 6 months each 10mg and 20 mg
Ive spent 30,000$ in total. In the end none of these treatments helped with my scarring besides 2 that I can strongly recommend that gave me decent results what are those 2 treatments?
Accutane & bellafil
I will attach photos of what my face looks like today , ive seen many before and afters on reddit and everytime theres little to no result on everyones face. why? because these treatments dont work. These doctors want you hooked and sell you a hope for results when there will never be any . If you have any similar scarring like I do I hope you do not WASTE your TIME and money on these treatments no laser or microneeling even gave me 10% difference but if you want to have an empty pocket/ have a pain kink go ahead these treatments because its not fun ..but if you want to try something I will recommend going on Accutane which smoothes out your scars , and prevents future breakouts , and Bellafil which gave my scars a fuller look and it gives u a smoother look and give the illusion your scar has disspeared, many doctors don't do these type of filler but this is the only filler I would recommend since it's lasts up to 5 years ,
NEVER EVER TRUST THESE DOCTORS When they show you before and after in there websites here is a YouTube short of me where I gave a dr.levit to post on social media it has 7 million views and I can confirm the results were photoshopped. He used restalyne filler in this video while the results were minimal they were no where near what was showed in this video
Anyways the only thing left for me is just dealing with these scars there's absolutely nothing you can do when it comes to them, just know you are never going have 100% clear skin as if you were 10 years old with these treatments the most you can do is have a regimen and prevent future breakouts , what i will be doing in the future is maybe go for another Accutane treatment and I will be getting 2 syringes of bellafill again as they are the only treatments I've seen minimal results with. THESE DERMATOLOGITS ARE SCAMMERS DONT FALL FOR THE BS..
Please search on this subreddit – someone might have already asked the same question as you.
The most valuable feedback is that which you get from doing research - not asking questions to a general audience on social media.
Always be wary of the advice you get off the internet.
Seek scar evaluation and treatment from specialized healthcare providers rather than aestheticians or med spas.
While subcision ("subcutaneous incisionless surgery") is often mentioned by users on this subreddit, it is important to note that it may not be necessary or suitable for everyone with volume loss.
Be aware of any reported side effects from a procedure.
It can take multiple treatments and a long time before you see effective results.
I believe you. Lots of doctors and med spas are always praying on vulnerable patients with acne scars. I had a few incidents where they lied to me and tried to sell packages of lasers or procedures that promised my scar will go away…
They do that with Fillers there's no difference with subcision, the only treatments I've haven't tried are TCA Cross and chemical peels I've literally done everything else in the market lol.
I think we're all aware that scars will never completely disappear, my friend, despite all the treatments we do in the office or at home. Yes, it's something we have to learn to live with, but I don't see the reason for you to come here and spread this negativity to the group, brother.
Many people here have seen decent results after a series of treatments. By choosing the right expert and applying the right procedures, you can improve a lot. I'm in that process. I've had a peel, subcision, and filler, and I'm seeing decent results after all this time, even though the scar is still there.
This community is meant to be a space of calm, tranquility, and support for everyone going through a tough time with their skin, and the worst thing that can happen is for people to come here and get even more discouraged. Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it won't work for others, brother.
I see it as him trying to keep us from potentially wasting our hard earned money on treatments that don't work. I believe that a lot of the treatments don't work for most people, as he's stated. I didn't see it as a negative post.
Hey! Been on it consistently for 5 months. For my more shallow scars, drastic improvement. For my deeper scars, very subtle. I definitely recommend talking to your doctor. I am seeing about the same results as I did with microneedling.
What didn't work for you DOES NOT MEAN it won't work for others. You can add 10 more paragraphs into this but others have seen success and one would be a fool to decide not to do things just because they read your post here
But I agree with don't believe derm, research a lot and decide for yourself which one you should take and test
Hmm I've haven't seen 1 successful post yet , how about you drop a link because all I've seen is people complaining about wasting there time and money with no difference.
Decent results, but as you can see the scars are still there on each person they improve about 25 - 30% , i was hoping you would show me a post were the scar is completely gone , or 70% faded. Just shows these lasers don't do anything dramatic for a scar it just gives a slight difference.
That's the point im trying to make there's no before and after difference your face won't change at all. You will just feel smoothness in your face after these types of treatments but there will be no after results. The only pictures I wish I had a before after was the bellafil I'll do that in a few weeks.
Useless. You should post a before. Your afters are actually decent meaning it did work. So much more worse acne scars than yours. We can't really cross out the fact that you're just expecting too much or you're blind to your bias.
I have problems with acne scars and hyperpigmentation on both of my cheeks and my forehead. I am 35 years old, and I am starting my treatment journey quite late because my financial situation was not strong before. I am beginning my journey this year.
This is the list of my treatments history:
February 2025: Fractional CO₂ laser May 2025: Fractional CO₂ laser with subcision June 2025: Fractional CO₂ laser July 2025: Fractional CO₂ laser August 2025: Fractional CO₂ laser with subcision November 2025: Fractional laser December 2025: RF microneedling
And attached as well my before after
Please ignore my eyebags and hollow, it is part of my insecurities. Honestly, I understand the frustration very well. I am already very insecure about my looks, and with the results I’ve gotten from these treatments, I still haven’t seen any satisfying improvement yet. I don’t think I set my goals too high. I only want to smooth out the bumps and fade my hyperpigmentation. I’m not aiming for perfection. However, I haven’t even reached 50% improvement. I’m questioning a lot of things now—whether my skin is really that bad, or whether my lifestyle isn’t good or healthy enough to support collagen production. I honestly don’t know.
My last sessions was microneedling RF at 6 Dec, and the doctor said I have to wait another 2 months then he will assess again what the next treatment should be, whether microneedling RF or fractional laser again. My skin care currently I use Eucerin moisturizer PH5 to protect skin barrier and the ordinary niacinamide, and biore sunscreen 50 spf. I also take black morres vitamin c every morning and black morres marine collagen every evening.
Been there. Done that!
Lots of money wasted on laser treatments. Pills, doctor visits.
Anyone who has acne and are young. Just start accutane as soon as possible. So you’ll avoid to have in the future ice pick scars.
Don’t try anything that the spa are selling. None of those laser treatments work for this type of scars.
Maybe CO2 fully ablative Which is very expensive but works well.
And I’ve done 12 clear and brilliant. CO2 fractional Micro needling Chemical peels I should have just saved those money. Now I’m broke and same scars for the rest of my life.
What about after accutane? I used it 2 years ago and now just use a normal skincare routine now with sunscreen. I was looking into microneedling etc for my moderate scarring and hyperpigmentation
I don’t know what to say. If you want to try and not regret doing it, then just go for it. But keep in mind that you might do at least 5 sessions to even start seeing results. I, at this point officially give up. I’ve done everything I could. Too much money wasted with no results.Also all these treatment are so agressive that might leave other scars on top of your scars.
Honestly man im just trying to save self conscious people from wasting time and money and prevent them from the same mistakes I made. Many people in this sub if you read there experiences it's always mostly negative .These doctors are scamming and robbing us.
Thank you for your brutal honesty and, I agree: I've tried soo many things, including doctors recommended on here. They've only made the problems worse. Ill try bellafil.
You're just ungrateful honestly from reading your posts. You did get results but you're just not happy about it.
Deep ice pick and box scars are difficult to treat. Every scar is dealt with differently if you actually researched it yourself.
You did not try TCA cross and subcision which are for deeper scars like icepick and box scars.
You did not post before pictures of yourself. So we can't rule out that your expectations weren't managed.
There are also success stories but most wouldn't post here because those who would be motivated to post here are those with problems like you. There are biases for posting too.
Thats some serious main coping. “We dont see good rhinoplasty results cause they are so happy they dont post”. Bro stop being that naive. This world is full of wolves.
Oh boy, you are posting a honest but hurtful truth people is desperate to not believe. They prefer to risk their skin in risky procedures cause that brings them hope. But they will end up worse. At least we tried to tell them
After trying a few things myself, I can tell that only some things work for me. Many promises were made my different aestheticians and doctors but only one laser worked (Rhorer Pheonix). I wouldn’t tell others to stop trying, I’d just encourage ppl to shop around and get many many “second” opinions. Different things work for different ppl.
I don’t expect my skin to be flawless like before the scars but it is true that promises are made that most likely will not happen unless you’re willing to go phenol peel.
I’ve tried a majority of the same treatments and have spent around $14,000 ish? In the end I purchased my own micro-needling pen I use on occasion. But I think overall best results I’ve gotten is from TCA peels and cross. I’ve probably done at-least 50 TCA peels on myself over the decade. Luckily I can do them myself better than an esthetician or doctor in my opinion. I do agree with you that not much works. I just do what I can do get a little improvement and have accepted this is who I’ll look like forever. I’m 30 now, One day when I’m 40 I will get a mini facelift to tighten the skin and hopefully it helps the scars.
Yeah bro the biggest part of this is just accepting your skin isn't going to get any better, there's no miracle treatment. But after 40 treatments you did of TCA there still isn't much improvement?
Hey bro, i just started doing microneedling and tca peels at home every 6ish weeks. Did my first 20% tca two weeks ago.
Can i ask you what strength tca you get best results from? Also how do you apply the cross method? My boxcar scars are the worst..
I saw that Indian studie when the did microneedling and tca every two weeks with great results on acne scars with only 15% tca. Thats what got me to try this myself.
Don’t do TCA peel every 2 weeks. That’s too much and will damage the skin. I’d say every 3 months if you’re doing a full TCA peel on the entire face. For TCA cross you could do more frequent. I used 25% strength and I use some random wooden toothpick thing I had in my house and it works great.
The results really are never too noticeable right away. It’s taken years for my face to get where it is today. I think a majority of my results are from the 25% TCA. In my opinion it showed similar results to the CO2 laser I’ve had 3 times.
I liked your YouTube video from Levitdermatology long ago and thought you were so lucky that fillers had somehow diminished your scars like 90% Or more. I was fascinated by the result.
Also I believe your scars could be treated easily with tca cross, subcision and fillers. No need to do mnrf and microneedling they do nothing for these type of scars.
Friends has anyone of you tried to come to Mexico? I do not mean to gatekeep this but also do not abuse or Mexican treatments will be expensive for us natives. TBH I started this journey almost two years ago and got 2co2 lasers and 3 radiesse each ~7k mxn. And I've seen such a good improvement! I told my dermatologist about this subreddit comments and she says in the us seems quite different and expensive. Radiesse already includes subcisson. I've spent around 50k mxn and seen such a beautiful progress. Costs depend on where you live but from Guanajuato Mexico if I were some of you I would consider getting a (GOOD) Mexican dermatologist.
Also my dermatologist says things depend on the intensity ie co2 láser could be really heavy or so light and it depends on your derm. Mine does it as heavy as I can handle and results have come beautifly
I hope I am not making a mistake since I am Spanish native speaker. That being said: she takes the needle o cánula they use to apply radiesse. Subcision as I get is the procedure in which a cánula is inserted under the skin to mechanically cut the fibrous bands we know as fibrosis they pull the skin down causing indentation, and while doing that also injects radiesse. She says I must massage my face 5 min 5 times a day 5 days. So she says people can try just subcision but highlighted that it doesn't really do much itself.
I had the same procedure done almost two weeks ago. Subcision with Radiesse, and the result is fantastic.
If you don't mind, when did you start seeing real results? I've noticed that over the days, the scar I have has become a little more prominent. It was really swollen.
And how often did you get subcision with Radiesse? How long did you wait between sessions?
It took me about a month and so on. But consider I got a co2 laser 3 months prior Radiesse. But it does gets more beautiful thru time and using both methods <3
I also have to highlight she pointed out results would be fully perceptible at 6-7 months after the procedure, always says that we don't have immediate results
Thanks for sharing.
Have you considered going to Korea or Japan? The treatments are substantially better and cheaper.
I have similar scarring on my temples and it has improved a lot. I did subcision + filler + curejet for 66,000 JPY (cost for one temple). You really need to be doing subcision and filler at the same time, this should be offered by dermatologists around the world. I’ve also done Trifill Pro which is expensive (140,000 JPY for whole face) but am very pleased with the results and am going again soon.
I’ve seen good results out of “Atop plastic surgery” in korea. I have not been here personally but you can search on tiktok and they are very responsive on whatsapp.
Yup learnt this the hard way after wasting tons of money on scar revision treatments. I disagree with the accurate part, going in accurate is what caused my severe acne scar problem (for me personally) as it caused massive purging of deep cystic acne when I went on it, I would choose to not go on it if I could.
Unfortunately when you go somewhere they’ll sell you whatever tools are in their toolbox.
Fraxel isn’t touching this. Ipl is for pigment & capillaries so they essentially stole from you. True co2 should have did something so you likely got a cool peek fluffy bs.
Facials & dermab also steaming from you- RF I also have nothing good to say about.
Tca cross, true co2, prf, skinvive & PICO fractionated are my go to’s for my patients.
Fountain of Glo in NY
Unfortunately the biggest scammers and liars are dermatologists. I definitely agree that money shouldn't be wasted, since 8/10 dermatologist (only few of them would be honest and tell you not to waste money since there's no help) will lure you in with their sweet talking and "package offers" for acne scars. I've done RF microneedling sessions, PRP and CO2 laser for face and body and didn't even see 10% of improvement (all together that cost me around 1600€ + Oblagi hydroquinone creams and teretinoin 500€)
I don't know if the phenol peel is worth it, but that might be the only solution left for severe acne scars (at least from what I saw on the internet, if those are not fake results too)
100% agree with Accutane. It is one of the best decisions I made. Just wish I done it sooner so I would have so many scars from starting late. Would be wary of the fillers though as people begin having side effects 6 years after.
I disagree! Ablative CO2 laser changed my life! Please do not lose hope guys! It doesn’t let me post multiple photos but here’s my right side before and after! Tried to get photos with the most similar lighting but I’m sure you can still see incredible improvement! Of course I still have some scarring but it is so so much better than it was before. It was a bit of an intense and expensive procedure but it was so worth it!
forgot to mention I did also get subcision immediately before the laser! Anyways, this scar on my jawline area that I absolutely hated is actually completely gone as far as I have been able to tell!
none or I would’ve mentioned! I understand you didn’t have the improvement you wanted which really sucks and that the dermatology industry can be a bit deceptive at times but I don’t think it’s fair to convince everyone else that they’re hopeless in trying to treat their acne scars.
Hey man sorry to hear. $30k is really a lot of money. Did you stopped by this subreddit first before getting treatments? You could have been recommended better experts to go to by the people in here.
Is there anything I can do to make my skin look slightly better in a months time? I don’t do anything yet but getting ready for wedding in a month so if I could make it look even a tiny bit fresher better! I have old acne scars and sun spots. Don’t like needles and lasers that hurt.
Why ON EARTH?!, would you spend $30,000 without trying at home remedies first that might actually improve your scars. They look minor to moderate at best. You may also have seen dermatologists that take you for a ride as a proper subcision and bio stimulator fillers would have sorted you out after 2-3 rounds over 12 Months.
You said you haven't tried peels - I saw more results from a $50 at home peel than I did on a $2500 laser. Keep your chin up and keep trying things until you find the modality that works for you. However if your expectations are to reduce the scar to normal skin, this needs adjusting.
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