One of Pacific Dermaesthetics’ patients, Kate Britt, has diarized her treatment experience here on our blog. Kate also wrote a blog in 2013 about her Fraxel laser treatment experience and a follow-up two months later. If you’re interested in having an IPL or Medlite procedure, Kate’s post will give you a good idea of what to expect before, during and after treatment. Please note that this is an unedited personal account and individual treatment experience may differ depending on skin colour, skin type, age and treatment parameters.
I’ll be 65 in a couple of months, so I have mature skin and I like to keep it looking great. I don’t need the fountain of youth; I just like my internal youthfulness to be visible on my face rather than buried behind the ravages of time.
After my Fraxel re:store DUAL laser treatment last summer, Dr. Rivers suggested that my face would benefit from a couple of additional finishing treatments, one called Medlite and the other IPL (Intense Pulsed Light).
The Medlite treatment uses another type of laser, different from the Fraxel laser. Medlite is very targeted to address skin pigmentation, so in my case it would accomplish small-area spot touch-ups for any brown sun-damaged spots that were left after my Fraxel treatment or that had appeared since then.
The IPL Photorejuvenation treatment would involve a full face treatment and would work on several of my skin imperfections, such as the remaining or new areas of sun damage, the reddish areas on my nose, chin, and upper lip, and even the small spider veins at the side of my nose. I was delighted to hear about the spider-vein help, because the look of those tiny veins has been bothering me for years.
The IPL treatment would help to even out my face’s skin tone and smooth out some of the finer lines of aging. More importantly at this stage for me, it would renew and revitalize the overall look of my skin, enhancing the improvements we’ve already achieved with my Fraxel treatments. The IPL system does this by boosting my skin’s natural collagen and hyaluronic acid, thus stimulating my skin’s own natural regeneration process.
I decided to take some time to think about it, and now, 6 months after my Fraxel treatment, I’m about to have both the IPL and Medlite treatments during one appointment.
Day 0: Treatment Day
My total appointment time with Sara was about 1.5 hours. I had dutifully followed all pre-appointment instructions, such as:
- no sun exposure for 4 weeks before
- no self-tanning products for 2 weeks
- no aspirin/ibuprophen for 1 week, no alcohol for 2 days
As per instructions, I arrived at my appointment with nothing on my face, no makeup or creams, etc.
First Sara took some ‘before’ photos of my face, including the UV (ultraviolet) versions of each view. Wow, those UV images sure show the sun damage!
Before Treatment
Before Treatment – side view
Before Treatment – UV Imaging
Before Treatment – UV Imaging, side view
Sara is a delight to work with because it’s clear she enjoys what she does. A trained expert in the use of the IPL system, she’s personally excited about everything it does for her clients. In fact, she said she gets this treatment regularly herself. During my IPL treatment, which came first, I asked a lot of questions and Sara seemed genuinely happy for the opportunity to explain the process to me.
One thing I really wanted to understand was the difference between the Medlite and IPL treatments, and also how these differ from the Fraxel treatments I’ve had in the past. What really helped me understand the differences was when Sara showed me some before-and-after photos of previous clients who had had each type of treatment, pointing out the areas they had targeted and the effects on their faces. My layman’s interpretation of Sara’s explanation is this:
The difference from Fraxel is that Fraxel uses a laser beam in a wavelength customized to target a specific layer of skin, depending on the reason for the treatment. IPL, on the other hand, uses high energy light pulses. Pacific Dermaesthetics’ IPL machine is an advanced unit, a photorejuvenation “e-Light” that adds a radio frequency for deeper treatment to boost the skin’s collagen layer. IPL treatments take less time than Fraxel will take less time to heal.
The IPL and Medlite machines have completely different purposes and use two different spectrums of light, each working on different levels of the skin’s layers. The MedLite’s ‘spot size’ (laser beam width) is smaller and it can target one small area at a time. The IPL “e-Light” has about a 1” wide area of coverage on each pass over the skin. Sara used the treatment “wand” all over my face rather than targeting specific areas.
When I asked Sara why I kept getting new and/or reappearing brown spots after my Fraxel treatments, she suggested that some of the skin damage had been quite deep and was still coming to the surface over time. She illustrated this by showing me the ultra-violet versions of my previous before-and-after photos and comparing them to today’s ultra-violet ‘before’ photos.
I also wanted to know why my face is able to have both the IPL and Medlite treatments at the same appointment, my concern being whether it would be too much for my face all at once. However, now that I understand how the two systems address entirely different aspects of my skin and its imperfections, I can see how they will work together to accomplish my goals.
We began with the IPL treatment. We went into the IPL treatment room and I stretched out on the comfortable reclined chair. Sara explained every step along the way, letting me know ahead about each thing she would be doing next. It made me very comfortable with the process.
Even though I had arrived with a clean face, no makeup, moisturizers, etc., Sara began by cleansing my skin with a creamy cleanser. Then she applied a stick-on eye-protector over each eyelid and began the treatment. She explained ahead that some people say the treatment wand feels like the snap of a rubber band, and that, even though I had protective eyewear on, I would see the light each time it “zapped” my face.
Before treating each area of my face, Sara applied some ultrasound gel to the area. Extremely cold! The first few zaps were a little uncomfortable, but not too bad. I immediately noticed a kind of burning smell, which alarmed me a bit, so I asked about it. Sara explained that this same IPL system can be used to eliminate facial hair, and what I was smelling was the peach-fuzz on my face disappearing.
My Face Directly After IPL
My “Sunburn” After IPL
As time went by, my skin got more used to the feeling of each zap and it began to feel hot in the areas already treated. Some parts of my face felt the zaps stronger than others, but Sara knew which areas those were going to be and forewarned me ahead of each, which was very helpful.
The treatment took about half an hour. When she was done and had removed the eye patches, Sara covered my face with a soothing cold cloth and left it there for about 10 minutes. My face felt hot like a sunburn, but the cold cloth reduced that feeling. When she removed the cloth, Sara handed me the mirror [see images to the left].
Then we moved into the Medlite treatment room—a similar reclining chair, a different machine. No gels or creams this time, just straight into the zapping. This time Sara was targeting the brown sun-damage spots that were left over after my Fraxel treatment or that had appeared since then.
This zap felt different, more like a pinprick. Easy to take. This treatment only lasted about 10 minutes because I didn’t have many significant brown spots and the IPL treatment had addressed the smaller, lighter ones anyway.
After Both Treatments
Before I left, Sara asked one of the cosmeticians to apply a sunblock-moisturizer to my face, followed by a light cover of mineral makeup so that the redness wouldn’t be too visible for my trip home via transit.
On the way home, I felt like my face had a bad sunburn, hot and tight. This feeling disappeared after about an hour, and for the rest of the day my face felt and looked completely normal. No redness, no heat.
During the evening, though, it got hot and tight again, so I applied more moisturizer and that calmed it back down. Before bed I washed my face with my hands (no cloth) and some gentle cleanser (no soap). When I dried it, the skin was a bit sensitive to the towel.
Sleeping was no problem—no discomfort with my face on the pillow.
Day 1 (one day after treatment)
Today it’s very obvious that something has happened to my face! It’s looking very spotty with a sprinkling of small red spots here and there. The sun-damaged brown spots have really darkened to a deep reddish brown.
The skin doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all. It’s tiny bit tight and itchy, and there are times I have to stop myself from reaching up to scratch the skin. Applying moisturizer relieves the itch so I keep applying more during the day as I need it. By the end of the day, there’s no more tightness or itchiness at all.
When I woke up today, there was a puffiness under my right eye. I worried about this at first, but then I checked the information sheet I’d been given about after-care and, sure enough, this is mentioned as one of the possible after-effects. The puffiness went down after a couple of hours.
Day 2
I woke up with the puffiness under the right eye again, and it went away again after a couple of hours. The marks on my face haven’t changed much in color, but some of the darkened brown areas have begun to look dry and a little crusty.
I had to apply moisturizer a few times today because my skin seems to be drinking it up.
So far I can’t see a change in the overall look of my skin, in terms of the IPL goal of “rejuvenation”—there’s no change in skin tone or overall fine-line smoothing. I know it’s early though. Sara told me at one point that the collagen boost takes a while to have an effect on the look of the skin, so I just have to be patient.
One big difference I’m very happy with is the change on the skin of my nose. Here’s a comparison between the before-treatment photo and the day-two photo. There’s a noticeable reduction in redness. Before we got started, Sara had said that the IPL treatment would improve any areas with redness; my nose has always had some redness, along with some small spider veins at the side. All of this has calmed right down already!
Day 4
Today I can see that some of the dried brown areas have begun flaking off. Overall, though, there is still not a lot of change in how it all looks. I’m a little disappointed about how slowly the brownish marks are disappearing. The red spots have mostly changed to brown, so I know there is healing progress, but I was hoping that the flaking away of the brown spots would have been more significant and that I’d see more of the new pink skin peeking through from under them. Patience! It’s so easy to want everything to suddenly look perfect.
However, there was one good change—today was the first day without the under-eye puffiness in the morning.
Day 5
Today I can see more change. The dark brown skin is flaking more and quite a few of those dried flakes have fallen away. Under those areas, the new skin is still a bit pink but seems to be healing quite quickly.
My skin now feels back to normal; that is, there’s no sensitivity, tightness, or itch. Even when I’m using a towel after hand-washing my face, it no longer feels like I have to be careful. However, I’m still being very gentle and not rubbing with the towel.
Day 7 (one week after treatment)
More change and progress! Today, in terms of the red and brown patches, it would probably be hard for a casual onlooker to tell I’d recently had these treatments. Most of the dried up brown areas have flaked away and the new pink skin under them is showing through—still more pink than the surrounding areas, but barely noticeable. There are still a couple of rough areas, such as on my right jaw line and right upper-cheek, where the dried flaking bits are quite noticeable. The overall skin tone has begun to even out.
I can’t really say there’s any difference in terms of a collagen boost, but I’m actually not entirely sure what to look for. I think I’ll have to wait for my 5-week follow-up appointment to compare photos of what my face looks like then to what it did on day zero (before treatment). I’m sure Sara will happily point out the difference!
As I await my follow-up treatment (weeks 2 through 5)
My face seems to glow more and my mirror is looking younger, at least to me. I haven’t mentioned having had the treatments to anybody, but suddenly I’m getting way more compliments than usual about how I look. I’ve been told things like, “You look great today!” and “You look so happy, you’re glowing!” I’ve been asked things like, “Did you get your haircut or…? Something’s different about you, not sure what?” and “Did you get some kind of surgery done on your face?… You’re looking so young!”
Of course, all of this is a great ego and confidence booster. When a woman feels prettier, it always seems to make us actually look prettier, right? The smiles on my face brought on by the compliments are probably adding to my overall glow. In any case, the effects are cumulative and my face is looking great if I do say so myself!
Follow-up appointment (5 weeks after treatment)
Today was my final post-treatment follow-up appointment with Dr. Rivers. A visit with him is always good for the ego. Today he said I look younger every time I see him! He said my face is looking great, that I look much younger than my nearly-65 years, and that the effects of the treatment are very noticeable.
Together we compared my before and after photos. Dr. Rivers pointed out the areas where he saw the greatest differences. Here are the front view before-and-after photos with my point-by-point list of areas that have improved:
- My nose is no longer pink all over! The size of the reddish pores has also diminished. You can’t quite see in this photo, but the red spider veins in the folds at the sides of my nose have nearly disappeared. This is a bonus I hadn’t anticipated, a result of the IPL treatment.
- My upper lip and chin have benefitted in much the same way – the redness has faded.
- My upper cheeks: the wrinkle-lines that point downward at an angle toward my ears are much less noticeable, less deep. Dr. Rivers said this is due to the collagen boost from the IPL treatment.
- The same is true of my forehead’s horizontal lines – not as deep as before.
- The same has happened to the lines on the lower sides of my cheeks, the vertical ones that kind of wrap around my ‘jowls’. Comparing the lower right sides of these photos illustrates this well.
- The brown sun-damage spots on my face have all lightened considerably. I was hoping they’d be entirely gone, but they’re certainly much less visible now. At least they no longer bother me as much when I look in the mirror.
- Overall, there’s a subtle rejuvenated look and feel to my skin.
When I look back at my motivation for having these treatments, I have to say I am extremely happy with the results. My facial skin isn’t looking as “tired” and it looks and feels much healthier. Yes, there are still a few faintly visible brown spots, but I’m content to give my face a rest from treatments for a while and see how it goes. The thing I’m happiest about is the diminished redness of my nose skin and the spider veins at the sides of my nose.
After comparing photos, Dr. Rivers and I discussed my skin-care routines going forward. He gave me a few tips for maintaining healthy facial skin along with the post-treatment smoothness and glow I’m enjoying.
Here are some other photos from today, side by side with those taken 5 weeks ago before my treatment.
Week 5 – ‘After’
Day 0 – ‘Before’
Week 5 – ‘After’
Day 0 – ‘Before’