Freckle Removal Diary of Treatments
This is a photo diary of patient D’s freckle removal treatment. Ms D is having her freckles removed on her arms, forearms, legs, chest, shoulders and back. She is a 44 year old woman who has hated her freckles her whole life. She has tried many times before to remove her freckles at home, and also medically with little success. At primary school, she was teased, being called a “leopard”. She was quite creative and tried some DIY freckle removal, including lemon juice, white king bleach, hair bleach and even a scourer!
Ms D wrote to me “I have always hated my skin and always dreamt of being rid of them no one really understood how bad I felt in my skin!”
This is a photo diary of her treatments.
When I treat patients for freckles removal, I like to perform test patching all over their bodies, to
1. Make sure I choose the powers sufficient to get a great result
2. Make sure we get no complications at the powers in the test patch.
So many patients come to me who have paid thousands of dollars for freckle removal previously and with little or no results. They can be less than optimistic and trusting, which is really understandable! I like to perform the freckle removal test patching to show them the laser’s capabilities. I want them to know what they will be paying for. I just think this is really fair. I would love this option as a patient.
TEST PATCHING
Results at day 3 after test patching
Test patch results at shoulder and chest
Test patch results at 3 days for freckle removal on left arm
Test patch results at 3 days after freckle removal on the back
Test patch at 3 days after freckle removal leg (thigh) See other leg freckle removal results
Test patch after 3 days on Right arm. These and the back test patch results are the best of the test patch results in terms of lifting pigment
RESULTS AT 1 WEEK
Left arm, results of freckle removal test patch at 1 week
Right arm, 1 week after sciton BBL test patch for freckle removal
WEEK 2 RESULTS
Patient sent me this photo at 2 weeks with much excitement. She could see the potential for all the freckle removal!
WEEK 3 RESULTS! READY TO START FULL TREATMENT
OK, you can’t miss where we did the test patch for the freckle removal on the arms. What a beautiful result! The white lines are there ready for her full treatment on that day
Again, the freckle removal test patch results are easy to spot on the back here
4 DAYS AFTER FRECKLE REMOVAL TREATMENTS
4 days after full freckle removal treatment on back
4 days after freckle removal on the right forearm, easy to see where the test patch was performed!
4 days after freckle removal left arm
2 WEEKS AFTER FRECKLE REMOVAL TREATMENT
at 2 weeks after arm freckle removal, the pigmentation isn’t quite as dark and there is no more redness in the area, and the freckles are just starting to lift, crumble and peel
This is a great photo of what starts to happen at around the 2 week mark after laser freckle removal: The pigmentation that has lifted starts to crumble away/ peel off leaving the new and very clear skin
COMPLICATIONS
When I am removing freckles with a laser, I am trying to get a power that is JUST before the power which causes a blister in the pigmented areas, because that is the way to get the best freckle removal results. If I use too low a power setting, the results are just too poor and the freckles are not removed. The difficulty here is that this means that the patients and I have to live right on the edge with complications as well, because the higher the power, the higher the potential damage to the skin. This is one of the main reasons for the extensive test patching that I perform in the patient’s first consultation.
This patient had the complications of several blisters in the most pigmented freckles. Patients must always contact me if this occurs as it is very important, as these wounds need to be looked after. I treat this with corticosteroids topically twice daily. The blisters are usually very small, sometimes even just pinheads. They should be left alone and the liquid should remain in the blister, the patient in most cases should not “pop” them.
Being in Australia, I am lucky to be working with almost exclusively Fitzpatrick skin types 1 and 2 for freckle removal (ie the fairest skinned people). Typically these people have Irish/ Scottish /English backgrounds. This is the skin type that is most suited to laser, becuase it tolerates higher laser powers so well and has reduced incidence of complications with laser (ie hyperpigmentation is almost never and issue).
Blisters cause an open would and this risks infection, which is a very rare problem. I have had only one case ever of this from freckle removal. See my blog post about this case of infection after freckle removal.
Note the 2 blisters on the left hand side of this photo in the 2 freckles.
Kerrie says:
Would love to see these result after it has all cleared up. I have hated my freckles on my arms and shoulders especially, since I was a kid , I’m now 36 and still hate them!
December 23rd, 2012 at 12:56 pm
drnaomi says:
I’ve heard from the patient that her freckle removal results are going great, and that I will see her soon, so I will put some more photos up once they are ready:)
January 12th, 2013 at 1:55 am
Paige Webb says:
Can’t wait to see the final result, I also hate my freckles and would love to get them removed from my back, shoulders and face.
Just a question, how much does it cost roughly for this procedure?
January 22nd, 2013 at 5:05 am
drnaomi says:
Costs:
Test patch $240
Back $850 per treatment, 2 treatments typically required
Shoulders $850 per treatment, 2 treatments typically required
Face $650 per treatment 2 treatments typically required
January 22nd, 2013 at 12:04 pm