Laser Resurfacing Hypopigmentation

[Mlight]

Too bad the dermatologist failed to tell me that after having laser resurfacing (11 years ago), white patches would show up on my skin.... So here I am, with strange white patches, as well as acne scars (including one area where the skin is quite depressed, due to the overuse of steroid injections in cyst sites, so I am told) and 50-year-old skin that is in remarkable shape otherwise, maybe due to my vigilance in avoiding the sun and regular Retin-A use. I am in the process of purchasing the 1.5 roller for the scars and other wrinkling, the .5 for product absorption and maybe the single needles for the individual scars. Do you have a recommendation how to address these concerns?

[SarahVaughter]

I think that your selected combination of a 1.5 mm and a 0.5 mm dermaroller and the single needles is excellent.

   

  Melanocytes (pigment producing cells) are at the bottom of the epidermis (it is around 0.1- 0.3 mm deep, deepening on the skin area - It differs). They produce the melanin pigment. If some patches of skin do not contain enough melanocytes or the melanocytes are malfunctioning by under-producing melanin, you end up with patches of hypopigmentation.   An extreme case of melanin shortage disorder are albinos, who almost completely lack melanin.

  Melanin is also in our hair. When melanocytes in certain skin patches produce too much melanin, you end up with hyperpigmentation.

   

  Lasers work by heating up the skin and this can unfortunately sometimes result in hypo- or hyper pigmentation.

   

  Dermarolling/needling often triggers or "wakes up" melanocytes and the hypopigmentation improves. You should needle the white patches and also needle a little over the edges of the while patch to facilitate the migration of melanocytes from the surrounding normal skin into the white patch.

   

  Using a 0.5 mm dermaroller is also a very good idea because it penetrates approximately to the depth where the mealnocytes are. A 0.5 mm dermaroller penetrates about 0.3 mm into the skin.

   

  Here is a photo of a customer of ours, who got hypo pigmentation after IPL (Intense Pulse Light) treatment and was struggling with hypopigmentation for one year. Then she bought our single needles and her hypopigmentation improved dramatically after just 5 months:

   

  https://http://www.owndoc.com/stretchmarks/dermarolling-before-and-after-photos-from-our-customers/

   

  You may also be interested in this:

   

  https://http://forums.owndoc.com/dermarolling-microneedling/Melanocytes-transfer-for-white-scars-and-hypopigmentation
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