Thursday, December 01, 2005
My experience with Dr. Darm for rosacea treament
Thanks to Steve for sharing his results with Dr. Darm. It prompted me to post mine -- apologies for the lateness.
I traveled to Portland, OR, from the UK, to see Dr. Darm this past summer (of 2005). I had 9 tx as part of a 2.5 week treatment regime. I had IPL + N-Lite + Genesis treatments, the same protocol as was being discussed with great enthusiasm at that time by some folk.
I have seen no improvement in my condition with Dr. Darm. No improvement in redness, flushing, pore size, skin texture or sensitivity. I have seen minor improvement in previous IPL treatments in the UK, but nothing earth-shattering.
As Steve has pointed out, and Dr. Darm has also stated publicly, his Genesis settings are not unique, they are taken from Dr. Bruce Russel who developed and shared the Genesis "painting" protocol as part of his work with Cutera. These are widely used at cosmetic spas throughout the USA. This isn't a bad thing in of itself, however people may have gotten a different impression.
If you do a search for "genesis laser cosmetic surgery" in google you will find many people using the genesis laser with the painting protocol (although usually without IPL):
http://www.google.com/search?q=genesis+laser+cosmetic+surgery
Dr. Darm's IPL step is similar to that used by many other IPL doctors, the main difference being long pulse durations and delays, to try and impart maximum energy with minimum damage. His IPL equipment, contrary to some reports, is the original ESC photoderm machine with no special software modifications or filters. He uses an old-style cooling mechanism on the machine which pipes cooled liquid (alcohol I believe) around the IPL crystal.
I found Dr. Darm and his staff competent and friendly, and as a person Dr. Darm is a real nice guy who I got on well with. He took plenty of time to talk to me and was involved in every single treatment... I really appreciated that and am grateful for his hands-on involvement. He has a tendency to be very optimistic about the sort of results you can expect.
After detailed discussions with him and seeing my own results as well as those in his photo-casebook (which he was kind enough to review with me in some detail -- where those patients had consented to such) I personally do not believe his protocol, equipment, expertise or results warrant inter-state or inter-country (in my case) travel.
I remain sceptical about the gensis and n-lite portions of his protocol. While I personally didn't experience any adverse effects at the time, I am not yet convinced that the so-called "condensed protocol" is proven and believe it should probably be approached with some caution (despite its convenience -- which was the main reason I travelled to see Dr. Darm).
Had I known more about Dr. Darm, his equipement, protocol, etc. I probably would have saved my approx $10k I spent on the trip and treatments.
Don't forget to share your results with the rosacea community. It is community feedback rather than individual recommendations that really drives us to good laser doctors.
I traveled to Portland, OR, from the UK, to see Dr. Darm this past summer (of 2005). I had 9 tx as part of a 2.5 week treatment regime. I had IPL + N-Lite + Genesis treatments, the same protocol as was being discussed with great enthusiasm at that time by some folk.
I have seen no improvement in my condition with Dr. Darm. No improvement in redness, flushing, pore size, skin texture or sensitivity. I have seen minor improvement in previous IPL treatments in the UK, but nothing earth-shattering.
As Steve has pointed out, and Dr. Darm has also stated publicly, his Genesis settings are not unique, they are taken from Dr. Bruce Russel who developed and shared the Genesis "painting" protocol as part of his work with Cutera. These are widely used at cosmetic spas throughout the USA. This isn't a bad thing in of itself, however people may have gotten a different impression.
If you do a search for "genesis laser cosmetic surgery" in google you will find many people using the genesis laser with the painting protocol (although usually without IPL):
http://www.google.com/search?q=genesis+laser+cosmetic+surgery
Dr. Darm's IPL step is similar to that used by many other IPL doctors, the main difference being long pulse durations and delays, to try and impart maximum energy with minimum damage. His IPL equipment, contrary to some reports, is the original ESC photoderm machine with no special software modifications or filters. He uses an old-style cooling mechanism on the machine which pipes cooled liquid (alcohol I believe) around the IPL crystal.
I found Dr. Darm and his staff competent and friendly, and as a person Dr. Darm is a real nice guy who I got on well with. He took plenty of time to talk to me and was involved in every single treatment... I really appreciated that and am grateful for his hands-on involvement. He has a tendency to be very optimistic about the sort of results you can expect.
After detailed discussions with him and seeing my own results as well as those in his photo-casebook (which he was kind enough to review with me in some detail -- where those patients had consented to such) I personally do not believe his protocol, equipment, expertise or results warrant inter-state or inter-country (in my case) travel.
I remain sceptical about the gensis and n-lite portions of his protocol. While I personally didn't experience any adverse effects at the time, I am not yet convinced that the so-called "condensed protocol" is proven and believe it should probably be approached with some caution (despite its convenience -- which was the main reason I travelled to see Dr. Darm).
Had I known more about Dr. Darm, his equipement, protocol, etc. I probably would have saved my approx $10k I spent on the trip and treatments.
Don't forget to share your results with the rosacea community. It is community feedback rather than individual recommendations that really drives us to good laser doctors.
