I recently went into a laser spa in Dallas to receive my 4th treatment. Up to that point - there had been no problems. At the end of the treatment it felt a bit ‘different’. By the time I had dressed - I was starting to feel horrible pain. I asked the lady to look (I should have noted and questioned the shocked look on her face). She said - oh its ok - put some of this cream on there. Sooooo I stupidly just walked out. By the time I made it back to my hotel room - was was on fire - literally. I had pain unlike anything I have ever experienced. I hobbled to the ice machine and sat in ice off and on all night.
My skin was blistering and by the end of the following day - every place that she had ‘zapped’ was a solid dark red area that was seeping and beginning to form a scab.
When I contacted the spa - I was told that I must have tanned or something to cause this reaction (uh - I haven’t been in a tanning bed in AGES!!!) Thinking that maybe they weren’t quite understanding how badly I was burned, I dropped by the spa. THIS TIME - when I showed the girl - she was in shock and started apologizing. It was then that I noticed the machine was being taken apart. She explained that a ‘filter wasn’t working right’ I do not know what this means - technically - - -but bottom line is that I was SEVERELY burned - - - BEWARE!!!
I did the laser hair removal…the result was hyper-pigmentation on my left cheek.I also did the IPL…my result was a scar left from a burn on my left cheek also. :(I also signed a piece of paper saying that the lady that did it would not be held responsible if something went wrong…I signed it because I never thought anything would go wrong…Wish I would have found this website before the fact.
Anyone who is badly burned to where there is lasting pain after the procedure should seek immediate medical attention. This can greatly reduce the chance for long-term scarring.
Be sure to take photos as well. Even if you signed a waiver, you may have rights. See the legal referral section on this site if you were injured and feel you should be compensated.
If you were badly burned, there isn’t much that can be done at this point except “tincture of time.” But there are a few things that can be done to minimize any complications. You should be working with the center and they should be referring you out to an appropriate consult if they don’t have the expertise to treat you there.
But I think it is important to realize that it is very difficult for these kind of reactions to cause permanent scars. If properly cared for, they almost always resolve completely. They can look horrible, especially to someone who hasn’t seen many of these type of reactions, but they are never quite a bad as they look.
If you feel like the center isn’t concerned or treating you properly, there are a few physicians in Dallas that I could recommend. May I ask what center you went to?
I agree with Andreea. Please take pictures. You have rights even if you signed something saying that you don’t. After all, they don’t really give you a choice. It sounds like their machine was malfunctioning and you ended up being a victim of it. Personally, I would pursue them especially if they don’t seem that concerned as you described. And don’t forget to get your money back. Right now, you should see a dermatologist, someone who is experienced with laser burns.
This was a hair removal company in Kansas City Missouri.The lady that did it said that she didn’t think it would scar.I went back again and I couldn’t believe that after she had burned me that she was still charging me for the hair removal…That’s when I decided I shouldn’t go back.She used the IPL machine(set on a different setting) on the burn mark and gave me some lightening lotion but I couldn’t see a change in the redness.She also said that she thought that the reason that it burned me was because I had makeup on…I think that it’s her fault since she had cleansed the other parts of my upper lip with a cleanser.I did the hair removal thing because I wanted to feel better about myself.It was a present to myself.As a single mother of 3 I don’t have alot of money to throw around.Thanks ladies for your responses and advice
But I think it is important to realize that it is very difficult for these kind of reactions to cause permanent scars. If properly cared for, they almost always resolve completely. They can look horrible, especially to someone who hasn’t seen many of these type of reactions, but they are never quite a bad as they look.
…But they are as bad as they look. That is the whole concept here. The machine was turned up to a point where it caused biological harm. Telling someone it may not be permanent when no photos or triage has been taken is misleading. Even if not grossly scarring, this can still lead to squamous cell disruption, discoloration, and premature aging. Hair removal should never approach this type of mistreatment. Using this high of power is plain wrong. This person should take photos, seek medical attention, and pursue litigation. She needs to be compensated for suffering. Burns, first, second, or third degree should not be part of the agenda. Condoning this and saying everything will be alright is like these south of the boarder liposuction clinics waiting to call ambulances while the outpatient client bleeds to death saying everything will be fine. This is horrid and is outright wrong.
I just cringe when I read these burn posts because I know how it feels. I was burned as well.
What the heck are you talking about? What is squamous cell disruption? And please tell me the mechanism by which this will cause premature aging? Mistreatment? Horrid and condoning? Please turn the hyperbole down.
Here is the issue. If you go out in the sun and have fair skin or even not so fair skin and let yourself bake, you can get second degree burns. This is a burn down through the entire epidermis into what is called the basal layer and will create blisters. This type of burn rarely, if ever, creates scars. As far as I know, it is impossible to get a third degree (full thickness burn) from the sun.
In a 2nd degree sunburn, the skin looks pretty normal except for serious redness and the blisters. But they are quite uncomfortable and very painful.
Now let’s turn to laser hair removal. Other lasers are different. At normal settings, as far as I know, it is impossible to create a full thickness burn. The reason is that what is creating the heat is the absorption of melanin in the skin and the melanin is only found in the epidermis and in the hair follicle. The melanin in the hair follicle can create a microburn around the hair follicle (which is what we are trying to do) but the heat absorbed by the melanin in the epidermis isn’t going to cause a burn that is deeper than the epidermis. So what you get is a 2nd degree burn, that rarely, if ever, causes a scar. Now this is not to say that it can’t cause a scar if it is improperly cared for (and gets infected or doesn’t heal properly), but in and of itself it doesn’t.
But there is a second complicating factor that involves these kinds of burns that is not found in sunburns and that is the melanin itself. In sunburns it is not destroyed and therefore the burn looks normal colored. But with lasers, the melanin is what is targeted and what generates the heat. This melanin is destroyed and in the process of being destroyed it creates this black colored reaction.
Think of it this way, if I had a handful of little paint balls and layed them on the floor, they would be noticeable but wouldn’t cover that much of the floor. But let’s say I smash them, now all of a sudden, paint is every where and things look a lot worse. Yet, I still have the same amount of paint.
This is what happens in the skin with the melanin which is exploded and all over the place. It makes the blisters and reaction look much much worse because everything now looks black. And we equate black with charring and necrosis (gangrene for example). Yet all we are looking at is superficial (within the epidermis) melanin that has been spread out and is now catching the light and bouncing it back in a way that makes the skin look black.
I have met many physicians who when seeing their first example of a laser induced burn with the melanin destruction were horrified and assumed the worse. Yet, weeks later came to realize that the skin was healing quite well and resolving completely. Which by the way, think of all the pictures you have seen about bad reactions. How many of those reaction have you seen pictures several months later? The answer is probably none because the horrifying reaction has gone away and the picture has lost all its drama.
These things do happen to the best of us. Anyone who says they haven’t had these kinds of reactions hasn’t treated many people and/or been around long. And when it does happen it is important to take care of the person and make sure that they understand what happened, what to expect, and are supported through the process. But litigation? Come on. It has its place but not as a first reaction. Is this the kind of society we want to live in?
And it is important to understand that in the vast majority of cases, these kinds of burns resolve to completely. I don’t need photos or triage to know this. People need to know the truth, otherwise, imaginations run wild and that actually harms someone much more. These kinds of reactions can be uncomfortable and painful, but will resolve fairly quickly. And the silver lining is that often the results are actually better faster, though it is not the best way to get there.
I should also point out that the person above clearly stated that the machine was malfunctioning. This wasn’t the result of using too high of settings.
Insurance Law: One cannot waive liability. It doesn’t matter what they had you sign. It doesn’t mean squat in front of a judge. It doesn’t matter if they themselves were incompetent, then blamed it on the machine. They are still responsible for the machine’s quality assurance/ quality control, it’s administration, and it’s application. That’s like a taxi going off a cliff, then telling the next of kin, ‘We’re sorry, it’s not our fault. The breaks weren’t maintained.’ And besides, in a case where there’s negligence, they are not going to tell her, 'We were negligent. We had it up too high." This is scary. It says alot about the quality of these machines, and how their operators can use the machines without knowing enough to detect this. I feel sorry for these people getting such horrid burns and their money taken.
Please stick with electrolysis. It’s so much safer.
Get photos, document all the pain you felt and when and where and for how long. Go to your doctor so he can triage the burns, get that documented,and call a lawyer. You will most likely get all your money back, plus pain and suffering. You have that coming, they screwed up.
Obviously, you have an agenda. Which is fine. Just please be honest about it.
My agenda is quite clear. I do laser hair removal, want to see it done well by everyone, and want to make sure the misrepresentations aren’t left unchallenged.
And as far as lawsuits. . . I’ve had a few clients over the years who threatened to sue over a reaction (we’re starting to push toward 400,000 treatments, so it happens). We told them to please do so. They go to a lawyer, who looks at their “injury” and writes us a nice little demand letter. We respond politely, send copies of their records and wait. What happens is that 3 or 4 months later that same person is sitting in the lawyer’s office and the lawyer can’t see the injury anymore because it has gone away. At that point, there really isn’t a case since there is nothing to show the jury. And the case goes away. In one case, we got a letter from the lawyer telling us that he was resigning from the case. In another case, the client came back for more treatments and was really surprised when we said that we would not treat them again.
Here is the irony of all of this. We bend over backwards to take care of our clients. Depending on the severity of their reactions we have routinely given them money back and/or done additional treatments at no charge just because we understand that it is painful and frustrating and it was the right thing to do for them. The ones who immediately think of a lawsuit are the ones who think they just won the lottery. And they end up getting nothing.
I’m not saying there isn’t a place for a lawsuit, but not as a starting point.
With me, they were just so secretive about it. When the burn happened, I could tell the assistant was aware of a burn. She looked at the operator, and the operator kind of just looked at the area with some hesitance. They said absolutely nothing to me, just carried on with a hushed atmosphere. When it was over, I looked at my foot. The blister was already forming. I said, ‘What about this?’ She then put some aloe gel on it, and told me casually that it would go away.
…It didn’t. It probably never will. It’s a permanent scar. I paid them thousands of dollars and all they did was permanently scar me. This whole scenario is so weird! It’s like these kinds of things are accepted in the shadowy world of cosmetic practices. WAKE UP PEOPLE! This is a scam. After five laser treatments totalling about $2,400 dollars in which most all of my hair grew back. All I have for my $2,400 dollars is a permanent scar on my foot. You know those dot-type Bandaids? The circular type about the size of a nickle with the dot in the middle? It’s about that size. When did I get it, hmmm, about on my third treatment that would have been some two years ago. By the looks of it, it’s as permanent as can be. and I have a smaller one on my right leg. And this was at one of the more established offices. Imagine what the quacks are doing.
Laser hair removal is clearly in decline here in San Diego. Years ago, you would see lots of ads for clinics promising clients to be ‘Hair free by summer’. Now those ads don’t exist anymore. What you see now more is IPL skin complexion treatments. And, the electrologists appointment books are filling up again. Industries should never underestimate the common sense of the people. Good riddance I say.
Mantaray
PS: No agenda. Just logical about 130 years of electrogy success versus what the laser people keep trying to test on humans.
PPS: My advice to the original poster. Document and see a lawyer.
Can you post a picture? You have mentioned this a few times and were asked for one each time, but never posted. When you questioned my results, I posted a picture. I’m curious to see what this permanent scar looks like. Sure, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone here, but considering how biased you are now towards electrolysis, I’m sure we’d all like to see it.
And once again, you can stick with only electrolysis now if that’s your wish. I love both as do most who have had a good experience with both. There is a difference between bashing laser (rather Comet diode/RF) based on your personal bad experience and blindly ignoring everyone with good laser experiences and just sending them to electrolysis even when it’s not the most practical thing and they can get good results with laser.
I don’t want to waste time by pasting all the threads from the electrolysis section of this forum which complain of lack of results or scarring caused by electrolysis. I’m sure you’ve read them. It’s not that hard to be objective even if you were screwed. There is even a recent post by “Aime” right here just within the last day who is afraid of trying electrolysis again even though that’s what all of us are recommending in her facial hair case instead of laser treatments. All because she had a bad experience and has permanent scarring from electrolysis. There is a possibility of things going wrong with both and being objective means acknowledging that fact.
p.s. You keep mentioning that the place you went to was very reputable, however all the evidence you provide suggests otherwise. It seems the only reputable thing about it is what they said to you during the consultation. It seems that sslhr who considers his clinics reputable doesn’t just brush off people with burns.
