Hello all, I have been reading these forums for ages and share everyone's pain - I have constant redness on both my cheeks, and I mean my WHOLE cheek - this has had such a negative impact on my life, ruining my time at secondary school to a stage where I had to leave 3 months earlier for my study leave due the stress - I even had year 7 students mocking me (rosie mcnosey was a favorite of theirs) and I couldn't take it. Add in the fact my face goes purple in the cold, I've had a pretty **** time as I'm sure a lot of others who share this condition have. I couldn't even wear make up as I would still be taunted and most of the time it just faded away - you just can't win

My dream is to be a dog handler in the police, and I realised I needed to take action otherwise I would not pursue it due to the misery my face was causing. After trying many suggestions from here such as fish oil and carrot juice without success, I started to investigate PDL. I can assure everyone that IPL is NOT the right treatment for KPRF, as my brother has the same condition and after 10 IPL treatments there were no improvements.

Upon visiting my dermatologist and having my skin looked at through a dermascope, you could clearly see loads of blood vessels in lots of wiggly lines (not thread veins) and he was confident PDL could help. Now as I start college in September and would not get treatment done in time on NHS, I looked for a private clinic and found one of the only one's in my area.

6 weeks ago, I had a test patch with the Cynergy PDL - 2 weeks after that, the red was gone from where the laser had hit. I was in absolute disbelief, I had convinced myself that it would have no effect at all due to reading a post on a different forum that said the Cynergy had done nothing.

So, 4 weeks after noticing this clear up (Thursday) I had my first full treatment - let me just say, it hurt like hell ! Even though it's just painful for a split second, having such a large area to cover meant literately lots and lots of zaps were needed and the pain takes it toll (despite this, it only took 10 minutes! It was zap after zap) - it certainly did not feel like "the snap of an elastic band". But all the time I was just thinking "this is going to potentially change my life" and put up with it - it's mainly how hot your face feels for the first few hours after that is unpleasant.

So now, about 40 hours later, I can already see bits of white appearing on my face as the bruising fades - when I see the whole result I think I might actually burst into tears! I was a bit disappointed that a rather big bit of red did not come up with any bruising (can mean not as good a result) but I'll be having a second treatment in 8 weeks to get any bits that have not cleared. I have photos taken 2 hours after treatment that I'll post tomorrow and will put a before and after photo up in a couple of weeks when results start to show.

Sorry for such a long topic, I was just very eager to share my experience - I'm looking forward to moving away from a and feeling to a .
If you can afford PDL and have a respected dermatologist in your area, 110% go for it! If your in UK, the NHS do offer it - just expect to be a on a long waiting list as if it's like my local hospital they only do it 1 hour every week. Thanks for reading!

Thank you for that post!!! I am a fellow kprf sufferer since toddler hood and I have gone through my share of taunting as well.
Congrats to your successful treatment! It gives me hope for the future as I plan to invest in PDL treatments as soon as I can save the money.
I look forward to seeing your photos.

WOW! Congratulations!

Please, show your foto

Hey there,

I am glad your first PDL treatment has gone well! I have had several treatments and plan on continuing with the laser. I was meant to get more treatment last Wednesday but the laser machine was broken so sadly i have to wait another 3 weeks. It took me a while to see any improvement as the redness on my cheeks was pretty deep, so my derm said. Now have a few small white patches/lines on my face.

Sadly it hasn't really helped me with the flushing i get and I can cant seem to get a doctor to put me on any medication for that.

I wish you all the luck with your treatment!

Here are the pics: the non-bruised pic shows where the improvement was with the test patch - you can see the laser pattern near my lobe (the size of pic means it doesn't really show as well as it actually is) - everything that is pale was once red. Second and third show my face 2 hrs after first treatment - as you can see some parts didn't bruise but definately got struck.

It is hard to see any improvement from the photos but I can gradually tell from looking close in the mirror that it is starting to have some effect, but tbh I won't see anything major until 1.5 - 2.5 weeks or more - when I'll post before treatment and after pics. Many thanks.


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interesting topic, i wish you luck !

Hey DogVan,

gratulations to your success with only one treatment!

I am also in PDL treatment, tomorrow I will have my 7th treatment. I also use Cynergy form Cynosure with Multiplex. I had also the same big problems in life and in my badest times, which lasted about 2 years I was suicidal (no attempt). But now I am back in life

I also opend a thread with pictures:

IMPROVEMENTS with PDL-Laser (incl. Pics)

I can support your claim, that only PDL ist the right treatment for KPRF! All the other stuff are gimmickry, nothing more. Real results only come from PDL with the right options.

Can you tell us something about your improvements, your next treatments and how long the bruising lasted?

In contrast to you, I think the pain with Cynergy is not so bad.

Greets,

GettingUp

Hi guys,

I'm so sorry for not posting a reply for so long, been very busy - thank you to GettingUp for the email that reminded me of the topic.

Right, first off, I wont be posting pictures yet. The reason for this is because I was extremely naive to think this would be a quick fix - it isn't. The PDL is a long process, and I now realize that just because I read that someone got theirs removed 70% in one treatment it wont always be that for everyone.

But saying that, does it work? Yes! The improvement is barely noticeable right now but if you look very closely you can see bits of red died down. My parents always say how reduced the redness is and you can see some small white dots where the laser hit. I'm not feeling any change but that's because I'm self conscious. It still goes red if cold but not as severe.

What I'm going to do is something similar to GettingUp - make a montage at end of say 3-4 treatments, which I feel will give a good summary of the PDL. My next appointment is middle of August and I'm going to be asking for high power, as last time some bruises didn't come out which can affect results. Bruising lasted just over 2 weeks but by week and half were just light brown.

Overall, I believe PDL is the best cure for KPRF or other facial redness. It may take a while and few treatments, but as I am already seeing small results I am confident more will help. I promise to update after second treatment, which will be about 2-3 weeks away. Thanks.

Hey DogVan,

i have right now some bruises (today was treatment day^^) - how many joule did your derm used?
PDL is the best treatment, but it is also no wonder weapon. In hard cases like mine it lasts around 7 sessions, maybe more with always high energy and strong bruising.

Wish you luck,

GettingUp

I agree totally. There is no quick fix. I guess if you image your face as a highly pixelated (sp) photo full of red dots. Each lazer treatment gets rid a say 10% of the dots so you end up with a fading of the redness and maybe some small patches that are white.

I have had 2 major PDL treatments however my derm says certain areas of my skin are still a mass of tiny broken vessels. The neat thing about PDL is that you are dealing to the actual problem and the fix is longterm - my first treatment was about 10 years ago now and my skin has not regressed at all in colour.

That's a good message