Patient Story 06
Procedure performed by Dr. Michael Gold (Nashville, TN, USA)
Patient Description
The patient presented here came to my office in January, 2018 at the age of 3 years with a history of a fall from a “hay-ride tractor pull” during a family celebration a year earlier. The fall off the tractor resulted in an asphalt “burn” scar on her left cheek as well as several hypertrophic scars on her left jawline area.
Treatment Performed
Due to her age, and the need to utilize an energy based therapy to her injuries, we proceeded with extreme caution and with the parents’ consents, decided to do several sessions of “test spots” with the Candela PicoWay laser system. The protocol we used for her included topical numbing with a tetracaine and lidocaine formulation which the family would apply and then occlude as they traveled to my office, which was a good hour to an hour and a half away. This allowed for us to have appropriate topical numbing which we felt was much needed in this case.
The other purpose behind going very slow in this case was to earn the trust of this child, who as one can imagine, was scared to be in a doctor’s office in the first place, and to have a laser treatment which required protective eye wear for her and her family, who were with her at all times. We decided that an every 3 month laser treatment would be appropriate for her, and also used a topical silicone gel, called Stataderm, daily, at home.
Treatment Outcome
As one can see from the case shown, we made tremendous progress in making the asphalt tattoo resolve and also, at the same time, with the same laser, reduced the hypertrophic scars to an acceptable level. Most important, after a period of several visits, she realized that what we were doing was really not painful, she knew she was getting better, and she eventually would just stroll into the office and say it was time for her laser treatment. In the end, she did great.
