Hi all,
Went to a supposedly experienced MD (cosmetic/laser dermatologist) to start a package of 6 treatments of laser hair removal on my chin. She treated my type IV skin with the GentleYAG. At no time did she provide me with protective goggles or even tell me to close my eyes. I had my eyes open during most of the procedure and watched her zap my chin and saw the flashes of light. She just did everything so fast I didnt even realize that she hadnt put any goggles on me until I got home and my eyes started to bug me. I have floaters, cloudiness and some eye pain. I called her office the next business day and she was very apologetic, but blamed it on her assistant. She suggested eyedrops and an eye vitamin, but insisted my eyes could not have suffered any damage. What do you all think of this? This was about 10 days before Christmas and it damn near ruined my holiday. To make things worse, my eye doc was on vacation. I will make an appointment with her this week. Have any of you had this happen or know of any cases like this? Needless to say I am very upset and disappointed in this awful doctor.
I feel like posting up a link to her website just to warn others…but I won’t.
Another secondary concern I have is that she might be ramping down the settings to save money on her end. I had purchased an AmazonLocal voucher that gave 6 treatments on chin for $99 with the GentleLase or GentleYAG. When she came into the room, she immediately started telling me how it was supposed to be 3 treatments and that AmazonLocal made a mistake but she was honoring it. She made comments like, “it’s like getting treatments for free” and “you’re getting a really nice Christmas present”…but she said it like she was kind of mad about it (of course, getting my eyesight damaged due to her carelessness must be the extra Christmas bonus on top of that…LOL). Anyways, my chin was NOT red at all, there was no edema, in fact it looked like nothing had happened, and now, which is 2.5 weeks later, there is barely about half the chin area shedding and half is like before. Is it possible then that she is not treating the area properly to cut her costs?
I do not like this doctor at all. Very unprofessional. I wish I had not just “blindly” ( no pun intended) gone in there to start treatments, but maybe taken time to check her out. She is an hour away, so I guess that didnt seem very doable though. And she has a website where she promotes herself as a caring holistic-type practitioner, so I guess that made me trust her more. Ugh. 
Best to see an eye doctor to check if there has been any damage to your eyes. I would also look into lodging a complaint with this doctor’s medical association. Where are you located?
In my practice I do not recommend lhr for facial hair, for a few reasons:
- Possibility of pigment disturbances,
- Female facial hair tends to be too fine for the laser to treat, laser works best on thick and dark hair, and
- It is possible that the laser can stimulate more hair growth.
Group buying discounts treatments are often done on very low settings. The old adage “You get what you pay for” holds true.
I hope for your sake that you do not have any long term damage to your eyes!
Thanks for your feedback. I am in southern New Jersey.
I would definitely lodge a complaint but the fact is I am still considering finishing the course of treatments with her (as it is already paid) and I feel if I lodge a complaint she won’t want to treat me.
The hair on my chin is actually quite dark and coarse.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she was using lower settings to save money. I have no idea how much it would cost for her to use the appropriate setting or how much she “saves” if she uses a lower setting, though, and if the difference is worth having a dissatisfied patient?
I hope not as well and am heading to an eye doctor soon.
By the way I would really appreciate input from others here! I am new to the forum.
I have had LHR treatments from 3 different clinics. Protective googles are always the first thing that is handed to me as soon as I lay on the treatment table.
If you look at Candela’s website, they also clearly state that protective eyewear is necessary:
http://www.candelalaser.com/about/index.cfm?task=laserSafety
The fact that your doctor failed to even follow this basic safety protocol is a massive cause of concern and I personally would lodge a complaint and ask for a full refund.
Thanks mh1212.
I actually did see that on the Candela website. I googled up almost everything I could in relation to this issue.
The doctor claimed this “never happens” and as I said put the blame on her assistant. Not that it helps anything at all.
I was very distracted by the holidays, but now that they are pretty much over (and I have to say this incident kind of seriously ruined them for me), I will think about this and decide how to proceed. It’s a HUGE disappointment b/c I considered a few different doc’s offices for my facial hair (of which chin is the worst), and even had trouble with one who turned out to be rude, uninformed, and condescending when I asked him questions.
After that, I looked up this doctor, who has a website complete with extensive video of herself and patient testimonials. She sounded so good that I thought I had done all the researching and inveistgating needed. Also, she is of the same ethnicity as me so I thought she of all people should understand my skin type’s needs. To realize that maybe in the end this doc was yet another wrong choice, well, it’s just kind of sad.
I’m really sorry to hear about your experiences. Your doctor’s excuse simply isn’t good enough. I’ve had a mixed bag of technician competencies but never eye safety wise.
As electrolysislady said, there is a risk of laser treatments stimulating hair growth. If you run a search on this forum, you’ll see people who have had this very problem. For that reason alone I wouldn’t risk laser for facial areas. I’ve had my bikini line and underarms lasered.
I’d urge you to look at electrolysis instead. I had my first treatment to my upper lip last week and the sensation was a mild sting at worse and much less painful than laser. I’ve been treated with Gentlelase, Yag and Soprano lasers. More importantly I know that electrolysis will be a permanent removal.
Good luck!
As usual, I hear different things from different people…I know of people for whom LHR on face was very successful…and I have two friends who tried electrolysis and found it not only to not be successful, they got scarring and unpleasant effects on their skin. My understanding is that the risk of stimulating hair growth with LHR is there for some people, but not for all? Not sure about that but that was my understanding.
When I settle down next week, I think I need to have a talk with my laser doc. If she’s not willing to talk wih me in detail about settings she is using, etc, I need to can her. The eye thing I dont even know what to do. It cant be undone, but I will go to my eye doc to see what can be done about it.
When someone doesnt follow basic procedure , such as giving you the safety eyewear to use during laser I would just flat out can it. That lack of awareness can create serious problems
But here is the thing: was it a one time mistake or a lack of awareness? I’m just trying to make sure I’m proceeding correctly here…what I mean is, I had already passed on three docs for different reasons…what if she’s done lots of good procedures and she just botched me for some reason? Is that a good reason to jump to another doctor, who might very well have something wrong with him/her as well? I’m starting to feel like there is no “really good” laser doc around here, and no one who is perfect for sure.
It’s somewhat possible that because of her mistake, she could be extra careful next time? I dont know. She did sound very apologetic and somewhat concerned, she had her assistant call me three days after I called her to check up on me (I was still pissed, of course).
As you have heard from several people on this forum this was an egregious lack of regard for your safety. Eye protection is the most basic requirement when doing lhr. I wouldn’t allow this doctor to do any further treatments/DAMAGE.
If you have to pursue this doctor in a civil action it will not play out well if you have any further treatments after this. The individual’s lawyer will try to use this against you.
Any laser uses electricity to operate whether it be a lower or higher setting, there is little difference in the cost to operate the machine.
As for long term treatment, electrolysis is the only true permanent hair removal, as you will see by searching this forum. The most important factor in getting treatment is to find a highly skilled practitioner who will ensure you are well looked after and will not cause skin, eye or any other damage along the way.
Well, if it’s anything like my search for LHR, finding a good electrologist should be an interesting quest :o It’s a shame that two friends I know personally were very unhappy with their electrolysis experiences.
I agree that a lawyer could try to use it against me, although they shouldn’t, because logically, if I ensure the goggles are on me, I am not at risk the second time I go in, unless I presume her negligence on this count translates to overall lack of skill and caution.
Electrolysislady, you made this comment earlier: “Group buying discounts treatments are often done on very low settings. The old adage “You get what you pay for” holds true.”
But then you said: “Any laser uses electricity to operate whether it be a lower or higher setting, there is little difference in the cost to operate the machine.”
These two statements sound contradictory…could you or someone else please comment/clarify? Thanks.
If I plug in and turn on the laser machine, my electricity bill goes up because I’m using electricity. If I use really low settings or if I blast the hell out of you, my electricity bill will be approximately the same (there will be a small difference but so it’s easier to understand, let’s approximate them as equal). So regardless of whatever settings they use on you, the cost to your laser tech will be about the same.
So laser techs can make more from you if they use low settings to keep you coming back. If they have a cheap groupon, they can get a lot more people to come in, and even though each person is paying less, the total money they will earn is more.
I had laser treatments on the face in the past, much closer to the eyes than yours too. And I was always given protective eyewear. In fact when you’re treated on the face you’re supposed to get better ones that are custom made, they have like a double layer and completely cover your eyes and eyelids. There are no excuses for a technician who doesn’t provide them for his/her patients. I hope you haven’t been harmed.
Brenton thanks for clarifying, that is precisely my point.
Aaatina, I don’t believe those two statements are contradictory as Brenton has clarified.
My impression from your posts is that you want to continue with your treatments regardless of what has transpired. To do this is foolish in my opinion. This individual has shown reckless regard for your well being and you are willing to give another chance?? Did this individual wear eye protection herself? You say that she blamed her assistant, did the doctor do the treatment?
Electrolysis lady what you need to understand is that in most places it is VERY hard to find decent electrolysis or laser . In that case we put up with all kinds of mistakes because if you want treatment there may be no choice. Ive had electrolysists who didnt use gloves, didnt clean the area before or after and all kinds of other lousy practises. So far in my area I have found no “professionals” in either catagory . This board gives a false impression of whats really out there and the success rate in either can be dismal because of that fact There are Bonos, and Jossies etc but they certainly are NOT found easily.
Thank you Danika. 
That is exactly my point. My fear is that if I dont just stick to the treatment schedule, I will spend half the year looking for the perfect practitioner. That would be great, but I have been putting my life on hold because I need to effectively resolve this chin hair problem. Who is to say the next one I try won’t do or say something goofy?
To clarify, I’m not by any means saying I defnitely want to continue with her, but I am also not willing to dismiss her out of hand. Luckily, I have some time to decide. (Although strangely, she wanted me to come in only 3 weeks after first treatment…I won’t return surely for another 5-6 weeks as that will give me more time to decide, also I have heard the ideal interval is 4-6 weeks for face).
So Electrolysislady, I guess you meant that lower settings would be more ineffective and therefore your assumption is that we as the patients would need more sessions beyond the 6 that the voucher allows? Sorry for the misunderstanding on my part. I did not pick that up from your original post…all you said was “you get what you pay for” and I was trying to understand (as a layman), how the doctor is saving or making money by using “very low settings.” All I could come up with in my mind was electricity. Because honestly, the assumption that I would continue with THAT doctor is not really a solid one, I wouldn’t think. I could always choose to go to someone else after the discounted treatments, especially if I felt the doctor was ineffective.
Thank you, although I have floaters and cloudiness when I look at the computer screen which is not good.