Health Blurbs

Acne can leave you scarred.  But it doesn’t have to be for life.  Acne scar removal treatments are gettable, just don’t get taken in the process.

Acne scars are caused by your body’s inflammatory response to acne. Ideally, acne scars can be prevented by early acne treatment and restraint from picking or squeezing them after their deployment. Easier said then done!

Not all of what you view as acne scars are permanent.  Those reddish or brownish acne marks that are neither raised nor depressed are called macules.

Macules are not scars.  Just temporary skin discoloration caused by acne’s inflammation. Macules will fade away without treatment.  Albeit it might take a while.

However, severe acne can cause a bit of skin unevenness.  Generally, there are two types of acne scars.  One is a scar caused by increased tissue formation, known as a keloid or hypertrophic scar.

The other is caused by a loss of tissue, similar to those pockmarks or pit-like scars left behind after a bout with chickenpox. Acne scars caused by tissue loss leave you with a skin depression and are the most common form.

Because tissue loss scars vary in the nature of their scarring, treatment differs for their removal as well. Here’s a blurb about each kind of acne caused depression scars:

• soft scars ~ small, superficial or deep, soft to the touch, sloping rolled edges, circular or linear
• depressed fibrotic scars ~ quite large, sharp edges, steep sides, firm base, may evolve from ice-pick scars
• follicular macular atrophy ~ chest or back, small, white, soft, barely raised, like underdeveloped whiteheads, may persist for years
• ice-pick scars ~ usually cheek, small, somewhat jagged edge, shallow or deep, hard or soft, soft improved by stretching skin, hard cannot be stretched
• atrophic macules ~ fairly small on face, larger on body, soft, slightly wrinkled base, may be bluish, change from bluish to ivory white, become less obvious over time

Now that you have some idea of the cause and effect of acne, next up is what you can do about it.

Frankly, acne scar removal treatment probably won’t achieve restoration to the look before acne, but it will dramatically improve appearance of your scars.

Paying a visit to a skin health care professional is your best course for acne removal treatment. Individuals qualified in the skin health field are called dermatologist.

A dermatologist may offer up treatment for your acne scars via a variety of methods. Some scar treatments currently available include:

• skin grafting ~ may be required under certain circumstances
• fractional laser therapy ~ works on deeper skin than laser or dermabrasion, healing time is shorter
• skin surgery ~ ice-pick scars removed by cutting out & repairing with sutures or small skin graft, subcision elevates depressed scar tissue
• dermabrasion ~ brush removes surface skin & new skin comes back smoother, superficial scars may disappear, deeper scars may reduce in depth
• collagen injection ~ injected under skin to fill certain types of superficial & deep soft scars, not used if you have an autoimmune disease, temporary fix
• microdermabrasion ~ uses aluminum oxide crystals to remove thin layer of surface skin, multiple procedures often required, scars may not improve much
• autologous fat transfer ~ your own fat is injected beneath skin to elevate depressed scars, corrects deep contour scarring, repeated procedure achieves longer lasting results
• laser resurfacing treatment ~ recontours scar tissue by removing damaged top layer & tightening middle layer, reduces healed acne redness, may cause redness for few months

Acne scars causing keloids would not be treated by any of these methods.  If you’re highly susceptible to hypertrophic scarring, then no scar removal treatment may be advised.  Other options include:

• topical retinoic acid applied directly on acne caused keloid
• injecting steroid drugs into skin around acne caused keloid

The mildest treatments for depression scar removal are chemical peels and microdermabrasions.   Scarred area improvement done right in your skin health doctor’s office.

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