Zits, Pits & Icks - Fixing Acne Scars

Published by admin on Tagged Body, Beauty & Health acne dermabrasion scars skincare

With technology today, there’s no excuse for living with acne scars. Radical improvement is out there for a price. Treatment falls into one of three categories:

1. Buffing down the skin to abrade the scar

2. Using a filler inside the scar to make it less noticeable

3. Physically removing a scar by surgically cutting it out (called excision)

The lightest form of buffing is Microdermabrasion which uses a fine blast of crystals to polish the surface and “sand.” Dermabrasion, done under sedation, is the oldest method of smoothing the skin and uses a large brush to remove the top layer. Recovery takes up to 2 weeks, but it may remove small and sometimes large scars entirely.

Whoever said beauty came easy? Laser resurfacing is extreme treatment with a longer recovery, but it offers results. As do newer soft touch, “non ablative” lasers which involve no downtime and stimulate the skin to produce new collagen over several months and fill in depressions. Cutting the scar out of the skin is typically used for deep ice pick scars and may help raise depressions. It can be used in combination with fillers or grafts.

Last, there are injections with filler material to plump out the scar. Your own fat may be used (autologous transfer) as well as Collagen, Dermologen, Gore-Tex, Alloderm, Cymetra, Infascian, or SoftForm. Typically injections will eventually be reabsorbed by the body, but newer fillers appear to stimulate the body’s own collagen to make some permanent corrections. A facial peel, performed under light anesthesia in a doctor’s office like Obagi or TCA, will probably not have an effect on deep scars. They can also take ten days or so to heal completely. To discuss all your options, based on your scarring pattern, make an appointment with a dermatologist.

May 20th, 2007