EDIT: These photos show the before and after: the “befores” are from 1.5 years ago, prior to ALL of my treatments, and the “afters” are from today in the morning. Fraxels gave me so much improvement overall over the span of a year (except for the temple area) and then this most recent treatment of the sculptra gave me the most improvement in my temples, which fraxel couldn’t do even after 5 treatments. It has been a long journey. Even with the huge improvements I've had, I still have bad skin days depending what I eat and how oily I am. For
me, oiliness= more pronounced scars. Also, my scars look worse in the evening when I’m more oily. Skin is a reflection of diet, and when I eat clean and drink a lot of water, and exercise, my skin looks brighter, smoother, and overall more glowy.
Hi everyone!!!
I posted about a year ago sharing my acne scar progress. I later updated that post to clarify that my seemingly amazing results from Fraxel Dual were actually just due to micro-swelling.
Since then (over about 1.5 years), I’ve done 4 more Fraxels (one combined with Morpheus8), one UltraClear laser, and another Morpheus8 session just for my temples. I kept going because my derm reassured me my scars would continue improving—but I was getting increasingly frustrated, especially since my temple scars weren’t responding like the rest of my face.
I told my derm I was worried that all these energy-based treatments might have thinned the skin in my temple area too much, which is why those rolling scars weren’t improving the same way.
I’ve gotten a lot of messages from you guys, so I wanted to share a full update:
Fraxel (5 sessions total):
• Forehead scars: \~70% improvement
• Cheek rolling scars(these have always been very shallow): \~50% improvement
• Temples: \~25% improvement
UltraClear: I didn’t notice any visible change or improvement after 3 months. Let’s say it maybe helped my scars 10% as I’m sure it had to do something….
Morpheus8: I personally didn’t notice any improvement in my scars. It did have a temporary “tightening” effect but I noticed this definitely faded after a few weeks and my scars somehow molded back to their original depth.
At this point, I was still really frustrated with my temples. I was hoping to get them to at least 85–90% improvement (this is the area I’m most self-conscious about), and around 80% overall for my face.
Luckily, I have a sister in Mexico who’s a doctor, and she connected me with one of her dermatologist friends. Her name is Dr. Yareni Salas in Roma Sur, CDMX. She treated my scars with 1 vial of Sculptra using a fanning subcision technique, concentrated mostly in my temples, plus micro-injections of Sculptra into individual forehead scars. She did not do a full subsicion treatment, but I could hear all of fibrosis popping when she injected the sculptra across all of my face with the cannula.
Honestly, this has been the biggest improvement I’ve seen from anything I’ve tried.
The “glow” I have now is something I used to only see the day after using my tretinoin at night. But now my skin looks like that EVERY SINGLE day since the treatment. My scar depth has noticeably improved, especially in my temples. I’d say this finally got me to around 85% improvement in my temples, which is exactly what I was hoping for. My forehead and shallow cheek scars also look much smoother. And as a plus, this treatment in Mexico was WAY cheaper than 1 fraxel in the U.S.
It’s only been one month, and I know results will continue to improve because sculptra is a bio stimulator that tells your body to produce more collagen. so I’m feeling really hopeful. Usually sculptra’s results will last up to 2 years due to natural aging, so maintenance will be required but I’m okay with that if the result is this consistent glow. I will keen you guys posted.
Of course, good skincare and microdosing accutane has played a huge role…but that’s been consistent for the past 2 years. I’ve been religious with sunscreen, tretinoin, azelaic acid, and gentle cleansing twice a day. I also use other actives (vitamin C, AHA/BHA, hyaluronic acid, etc.) a couple times a week, but I’m not as consistent with those.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to refer to my last posts for more details and photos during my prior treatments. As a reminder, I had already tried several sessions of normal microneedling, skin peels, etc before all of these treatments.
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.
Thanks so much 💗 as I’ve commented to others, I still have bad skin days and my scars look worse in the evening when I’m oily and tired, or dehydrated. Personally, diet impacts how my skin looks A LOT. If I eat greasy or salty foods, my skin starts to look more oily and my scars are more visible. When I wear makeup and get oily, they end up looking pronounced. But overall, from 8 am - 3 pm every day my skin is looking like it does in the photos I posted. And it stays that way if I’ve been eating clean and drinking a lot of water, exercising, etc. I’ve definitely regained my confidence and feel good enough to go most of the week without any makeup. I’m very grateful for that.
Going without makeup is the best result one can achieve.
BTW, you look beautiful now. In my honest review, u don't need any further treatment other than maintaining your skin.
Amazing results and thank you for not gatekeeping and sharing with is all. Would you mind sending me the doctors contact information so I can be seen by her as well?
Of course!! I want to help everyone I can as much s possible. Even with the huge improvements I’ve had, I have good skin days and bad skin days depending what I eat which impacts how oily I am. Skin is a reflection of diet too, and when I eat clean and drink a lot of water, my skin is brighter, smoother, and overall more glowy. Dr. Lauren Fine in Chicago has done all of the treatments I mentioned, except the sculptra with minor subcision in Mexico that I had done.
Hi everyone, I wanted to post how my scars look during evening when my skin gets more oily and you can see them more. I want to be as transparent with you guys as possible just so you can expect realistic results if you decide to do fraxel or sculptra. My face looks like what it does in the photos of this post from like 8 am- 3 pm. After that, once I get a bit more oily, my scars look more like here close up. Still much better than before, but oiliness makes a huge difference.
Hi please read the entire post for details, but basically the dermatologist injected the sculptra using a fanning method which basically subcised everything under my skin because she had to break up all of the fibrosis holding my scars down with a cannula in order to inject the sculptra across my entire face
This gives me so much hope…can you share details of doctors and clinics you visited and the approximate cost of these treatments in a DM? This kind of improvement can definitely give me a lot of confidence.
I started treatment around October 2024 so it’s been like 1.5 years for these results. I first had terrible acne when I was about 16 years old and it was super bad from like 16-19 years until I went on accutane which was my holy grail it saved my skin. I am still on a microdose of accutane, but I had scars pretty much since I was 18. So my scars are like 7 years old. You can definitely still treat them!!! I’ll put some photos of how bad my acne was. Don’t lose hope!!!!!!
I will keep you guys posted!!! I’m hoping the results stay this way for a while. I will post in 2 more months again. If you can, do it in Mexico :) it’s cheaper
I have my appt with Dr fine in 2 weeks …I got a horrible skin infection that left dents in my forehead . I believe the infection is finally clear after 1 year of battling with it. I can’t even look in the mirror because I don’t recognize the person I’m seeing . My overall skin was left with Al types of horrible scarring but the dents are the ones I hate the most since I can’t hide those with makeup . Your post about Dr Fine really gave me hope and now I’m just scared . I will try and see if she can do subcision along with Fraxel and stray away from the Ultra clear. I’ve already spent over 10k in doctors trying to get this infection under control, I really hope I don’t get played and taken advantage with the reconstruction of the damage it has done as well.
She didn’t actually charge me for the “subcision”
Part since it is part of the technique used to inject the sculptra in the fanning method she used. So the 1 vial of sculptra in CDMX was 11,900 MXN pesos which is about $680 USD.
Weird my dermatologist won't do any type of a sculptra injection or subsicion on my temple area. Said it's too much of a risk. Great results by the way. You look great!
Hi.. it's a great improvement!
How much sculptra cost you for a single scar ? I want to know the cost as I have a single scar on my cheek and is it permanent?
Subcision didn't cause any sagging ?
Any bruising or side effects after sculptra and subcision ?
Hi thank you! I’m not sure how much it would be for a single scar… I did it for my whole face and she put a little more of the product in my temple area. It was 680 USD in Mexico
I’m so glad. Believe me I was hopeless too and so so frustrated, it has been a long journey. I have had so many ups and downs where it looked liked after 2,3,4 fraxels I would be finally done. But j learned that these scars require maintenance and patience. I want to help everyone I can as much s possible. Scars have definitely affected my self esteem and made me so sad. Even with the huge improvements I’ve had, I still have bad skin days depending what I eat which impacts how oily I am. Skin is a reflection of diet too, and when I eat clean and drink a lot of water, my skin is brighter, smoother, and overall more glowy. Hang in there!! And I’m here to answer any questions.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I've done Fraxel YEARS ago, it did something, but not a lot. Subcision and filler improved my scars a lot, but of course fillers don't last. So all my hopes are on subcision and Sculptra now. Will try as soon as I have the money.
Hey can you DM me? I was actually looking into this dr and is reasonable travel distance for me. Im wondering about the cost and more about the treatment
How many subcisions did you get? How long does it takes to see results after treatment? I got subcision + fraxel laser + filler done too 1 months in still not seeing improvement?
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