Dr. Lindyberg vs. Dr. Ritchie

[Guest guest]

Tonight, 9pm, only on Pay-per-view. Call your local cable

operator or satellite provider for details.

Heh, too much coffee this morning. Anyway, I'll try to keep this

email short. This is mainly for the benefit of anyone considering

Dr. Lindyberg, and future members of the list searching the

archives.

Starting last October, I did three photofacial sessions with Dr.

Ritchie in Knoxville TN, and then followed that up with four

sessions with Lindyberg in Baltimore. I switched to Lindyberg due

to the fact that Ritchie is a 500 mile drive (one way) from my

home. Both are Bitter Sr.-trained, and I think both

are very good with the photoderm machine. I'm satisfied with the

results. I have a mild-moderate case of rosacea to begin with.

Redness and flushing on cheeks and nose, some telengectasia in the

middle of cheeks. No pustules/paules, no swelling, no occular.

I just looked permamently sunburned.

I think the largest difference between these two doctors is the

price per treatment... but I'll get to that later. Dr. Lindyberg

performs all the treatments himself, with the help of his nurse.

He follows the Bitter protocol very closely, so closely that I got

the impression he does exactly the same routine on all photofacial

patients... but I could be wrong on that. He did three passes on

me all four treatments: the 550 filter, then 570, then 590. Each

pass consists of roughly 8-10 zaps on the left cheek, then 5-7 on

the nose, then 8-10 on the right cheek. Very methodical. He did

tell me the exact settings he used (which I believe is Bitter's

protocol), but he trusted I wouldn't tell anyone, so I won't.

Lindyberg is not a fan of using the numbing cream

(lidocaine/elemax). Since Ritchie always uses the numbing cream,

I asked Lindyberg about it during the first session, he said he

didn't have any on hand, and doesn't use it, because it can cause

vasocontriction which can lead to big problems. During the second

treatment, he said he had the numbing cream and would be happy to

put some on for me. I thought it seemed odd, so I declined.

Interestingly, Ritchie did the 550 on me during only one of the

three treatments. He said he was worried about bruising and

damaging skin. Lindyberg seems to think the 550 is one of the

most effective filters, and showed me fancy graphs to prove such.

My first treatment with Lindyberg, the zaps seemed pretty painful.

But I think a lot of that was just not being familiar with his

rhythm. With Dr. Ritchie, he put on the cold gel over the entire

cheek, then started zapping away, at 3 or 4 second intervals.

Lindyberg's approach is put on a small amount of cold gel, then zap,

then put on more cold gel, then zap, etc. I asked him about this,

and he said it was very important to put on the gel right before

the zap to prevent overheating.

Lindyberg did the same three filters all four times, at the same

power (fluence), but did lower the delay in the final treatments.

Ritchie's approach seemed much more holistic... he just kind of

looks at you that day and does what he needs to do. Kind of like

a sculptor looking at a piece of stone. Each pass with Ritchie

was about twice as many zaps as with Lindyberg. Both doctors are

very nice, friendly personalities. Both have elegant offices,

friendly staff.

Ah, the money factor. As is well documented, Dr. Ritchie charges

$175 per treatment. Dr. Lindyberg's standard price is $475, which

drops a little lower if you buy a 3-pack, or a 5-pack. In

Ritchie's office, you pay after treatment, on your way out.

Lindyberg won't do treatment until you pay upfront. My original

idea was to do a treatment with Lindyberg, and if I was satisified,

buy a 3-pack. But no, I had to buy the 3-pack upfront ($1350).

Based on my treatments, Ritchie charged about $1.50 per zap,

Lindyberg charged about $6.00 per zap. I don't mean any of this

to suggest Lindyberg is a rip-off; From what I've read, it seems

Ritchie is the anomaly. If money is no object, I'd recommend

Lindyberg easily. If you're like me, just finished school and

starting out, it's a tougher decision.

In terms of redness and puffiness after treatments, the two

doctors are about the same. Neither one ever bruised or burned

me, and both were very concerned about side-effects, and making

sure I was happy. Ritchie didn't make a big deal about how long

I should go between appointments. Lindyberg stressed that 3 weeks

between treatments is very important to overall success.

To summarize, I would describe Ritchie as intuitive and confident

with the laser, and Lindyberg is " by the book " . I'll post again

in a couple months and report on what I feel are the lasting

effects of photoderm. All the telegectasia is gone. The

percentage of days where I am not self-consious of redness has

doubled. However, in the back of my mind, I wonder how much of

photoderm improvement is " placebo effect " . I compeltely agree

with Rick when he asks " where are the studies? where's the

proof? " . This is why insurance companies rarely cover photoderm.

Take care all,

-G

Washington Virginia land

__________________________________________________