Acne Scar Treatment
Even after you’re clear of acne, you may still have to deal with the scars and marks left behind all the acne you once had. For many, acne scar removal is the biggest issue they face, but luckily, there are viable solutions out there. In general, the acne skin condition affects over eighty percent of teens and five percent of adults. Teens are stuck with a tough few years in dealing with acne and it can significantly affect their lifestyle. For acne, there are topical creams and oral medications that you can use. However, for acne scars, it can really be a tough getting them to disappear.
Once an acne region has cleared up, it would leave a mark on your skin. In some cases, this isn’t necessarily a scar, but an inflammatory area. The restructuring process for your skin will take anywhere from a few months to one year. As you can see, it really takes a long time for acne marks to go away, even with the use of medications and topical acne creams. You might have heard doctors say that if you have any scars after one year, they may be permanent. This is no longer always true, as there are physical acne scar treatments available, which work towards removing those skin marks.
Dermatologists have also recommended acne diets for people with mild acne conditions. These conditions are just starting up, so they are easily treatable with the use of creams and tablets. Hormonal activity plays a role in your acne scar treatment as well. If you are pregnant, acne scars will take an even longer time to heal, as your hormones are constantly fluctuating. If you have noticed that you are developing acne marks on your skin, you should take some initiative in curing it on your own. So, how do you treat early acne scars?
Believe it or not, but the sun actually does affect your acne lesions on your skin. The direct sunray will cause more damage to your skin and it will surely delay the curing time. So, when you are going outside of the home, make sure to wear a hat and possible some sunscreen. You can purchase sunscreen at a local pharmacy, and they usually come with their overall strength marked on the cover.
Tretinoin will be helpful in increasing the healing time, as well as building up your skin cells. Like we mentioned before, it can take your skin at least a year to completely rebuild to its original state, so tretinoin could surely help you out. This is something you can purchase over the counter without any prescription from a doctor. The types of food you eat will also affect the overall treatment process. Acne scar treatment works best if you can eat food products with high amounts of Vitamin A, such as carrots. If you have second thoughts about what you should and shouldn’t eat, then consult your dermatologist about an acne diet.
Before your acne scar can be treated with a procedural method, we need to first know the type of acne scar you have. There are three general types of acne scars and each one has a specific type of treatment for it.
Ice Pick Scars: Imagine you were to pick yourself with an ice pick and then examine that area from the side. Can you imagine what you would see? It would be a long narrow hole in your skin, which runs fairly deep. That is exactly what this type of acne scar would look like. On the outer skin region, you will simply see holes on the skin.
Rolling Scars: These types of scars don’t go far deep, but they are flattened out at the bottom, they are wide, but not as deep as their width. The tissue region at the bottom of the skin plays a role in the formation of these rolling scars. Treatment for acne scars like this are quite complex and could take some time. Laser acne scar treatment will not work with rolling scars, as there is nothing to resurface.
Boxcar Scars: This type of scar can be treated with the use of laser treatment, as it’s rounded at the bottom and the top is still quite vertical. These scars are about one tenth of a millimetre in depth, so skin resurfacing will not be a problem. However, if the boxcar scar is over half a millimetre in depth, it may need some extra treatment.
Several good acne scar treatments exist in helping patients with the removal of acne marks, but they all come with their own benefits and risks. A few of the treatments used are painful at times, but the least painful one is the laser treatment. With phototherapy, you will experience absolutely no pain as everything is done through a blue light that causes no feeling. Laser acne scar treatment works well with all sorts of acne conditions, while still being able to remove the scars completely.
Dermal fillers are used by dermatologists in order to fill acne scars, to give the skin a richer and smooth look. Injections are usually made of collagen and micro derivates. These solutions don’t harm your skin cells, and they work in a neutral fashion. Other types of acne scar treatments include punch excision, punch elevation and dermabrasion. With punch excision, your skin will be cured from ice pick scars and boxcar scars. When the procedure is being done, you will be kept under a local anaesthesia.
Lastly, let’s consider subcutaneous incision, which works best for rolling scars. Rolling scars cannot be treated with laser resurfacing, so this is the only viable method. Much like punch excision, this is also done under a local anaesthesia. Specialty tools are used to pick the skin and break the fibrous bands in the skin. These bands are what forms the rolling scars, so by removing them, your skin would be back to normal again. As you can see, the type of acne scar treatment you would require is highly dependent on the type of scar you have.
