Just had the Scion BBL (broadband light) treatment 3 days ago for KP Rubra Faceii. The doctor used the 515 nm filter. I'm not sure if BBL is any different than IPL (intense pulsed light), meaning that its not a laser therapy. BTW, I notice a few people call IPL "laser", but that's not quite correct. Here's a link if you want to check out the differences:

http://www.shorelaser.com/AboutLasersMed.html

There seems to be really mixed results as to the effectiveness of broadband pulsed light. This particular doctor seems to think that, although effective for rosacea, it won't help for KP:

http://rosaceagroup.org/QandA/Dr_Peter_Crouch.php

I'm still not really clear what the difference is between KP on the face and rosacea. I have constant high pigmentation, and occasional intense blushing on my face and ears. I have KP everywhere else, so I always thought it was KP on my face too.

Anyway, back to the treatment. WARNING: all the promotional literature indicates that BBL is a gentle, non-painful procedure with no downtime,

( http://www.regalolaserskincare.com/D...mphlet_BBL.pdf )

but, in fact, the treatment itself was quite painful (think of hot fat being splashed on your face!), and I could smell something burning (the doctor told me that the light burns hair away). The treatment itself took about 25 minutes for my whole face. The burning sensation was quite intense for a good 45 minutes after treatment.

But I was not prepared for what I woke up to the next morning: The swelling was so severe around my eyes that one eye was partially closed, I had brown and red blotches all over (at least that's a sign that its working), and striped "lines" because the treatment is not 100% uniform. As I told my husband, it looked like I'd been through a boxing match - and lost! I looked so horrible that I left work early. I work as an engineer, and I couldn't imagine facing clients looking like that! It's three days later and I still have a lot of swelling and the discolouration is starting to harden at the surface - eventually it will fall off. My husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I told him, " a new face"!

Even though this sounds pretty bad, I think it has helped for the redness (blood vessels) on my cheeks, but I will have to update you when the healing has progressed a bit more. But to anyone considering this procedure, a few tips that I wish my doctor had given me:

• If you are doing your whole face, there WILL be some downtime
• Take ibuprofin ahead of time (NOT blood thinners, like aspirin)
• Keep the cold compresses on your face for as long as you can, to reduce swelling. I am going to invest in one of those eye compress masks.
• Next time I would try to sleep partially upright, again to reduce swelling
• I would try to "prepare" my system ahead of time, ensuring proper nutrition and vitamin supplements to hopefully speed healing. This procedure is not as harmless as the brochures advertise!

Good luck to anyone else trying this!

I had 1 IPL treatment for my KPRF and it didn't help at all. With IPL treatments you won't see results for atleast 2 weeks. Most people don't see any results until after their 3rd treatment. After researching laser treatments some more I had 2 V-Beam treatments. There was a noticable inprovement in redness after each treatment.

i take it your a male right?? if so when you had these treatments did it remove hair like the lady said? are you a sufferer of sparse facial hair growth? i ask this because obviously it would be an irritating factor.
thanks
mark

No, I am female. But I mean the fine stuff that is on the forehead close to the hairline. But the treatment does remove hair, which is why they can't treat the eyebrows. I'm not sure how this treatment would work for guys...