Dear podders,
Through readings on the forum, and as well as from people whom I have met, I have noticed an increasing trend of irresponsible treatments by doctors (no names will be mentioned in this thread).

Both treatments are very familiar to podders... roaccutane and laser. The pitfalls of roaccutane has been listed in another thread. Lasers are also well known as the most invasive treatments one can do for the face - best effects, but highest cost and slightly more side effects than other treatments. Both treatments have their uses, but one thing many people do not realise is that these 2 treatments CANNOT be done together.

As a quick explanation:
Lasers work by causing superficial to deep 'dmg' to the skin, and helps trigger the bodies natural healing mechanism to help get rid of scars and pigments. It is well documented that lasers should not be done on people who have decreased healing ability (eg. diabetics, cancer patients etc)

Roaccutane has a well known side effect of slowing healing. All patients get this regardless of how low the dose you use. The higher the dose, the slower the healing.

Increasingly in the market, salons and doctors are starting to use combination treatments - peels with IPL, peels with laser, laser with micro dermabrasion etc etc. Actually, this can only be done if both treatments are done at very low strength... in other words, you pay twice as much for maybe a 10% increase in effectiveness.

However, the regime of using lasers with roaccutane has to be the most dangerous one. Because of the reduced healing from roaccutane, lasers actually do not work since they are dependent on your body healing on its own. Even the fraxel laser which is supposed to have the least downtime cannot be used with roaccutane. You run the risk of severe skin problems and scarring which can not be fixed if you ever develop them. Now some people tell me the effects have been wonderful.... but the fact is, you probably could have achieved the same effect with either 1 of the treatments alone. I know of at least 1 clinic where patients are on long term roaccutane, and the clinic sets their laser machine to such a low dose that all it does is heat up the skin, then they sell this as a package. At the setting the clinic uses, the laser actually does nothing.... roaccutane is doing all the work. Yet the clinic charges the patient $300 per session of laser (actually the price alone is a give away.... a laser easily costs $600-2000 per session if done properly).

Please remember that once you are on roaccutane, you should not be receiving any other treatments (inclusive of CPs, IPLs, diamond peels etc). Laser is the strongest of all treatments (salons are not allowed to use it.... any salon claiming to have it is lying) and can severely burn you if on roaccutane. If a doctor has no confidence in his skills with the laser and still needs to give you roaccutane, go find another doctor who will either do laser or titrate roaccutane for you.... not do both at the same time.