Treating Acne Scars

By Gail Jones

Acne scars are a sad reminder of the having suffered pimples or even acne. They are unbearable because of their apparent permanence and their non-complimentary look. Generally speaking, acne scars are rather difficult to treat, but tissue regeneration is not unusual these days with all the fantastic technological developments.

Generally speaking, when referring to acne scarring, we mean the healed lesions caused by an acne breakout. While most scarring is temporary and will probably disappear naturally over time, scars from the more severe forms of acne can be permanent.

Acne scars can be prevented if the patient sees a doctor when it is in the incipient stage, particularly if nodules or cysts accompany the red pustules on the skin's surface. If the breakouts of acne have marked your skin, you will have to approach the problem from a different perspective, which usually involves surgery.

Laser resurfacing is one possibility of removing the damaged skin parts and stimulating the organic regeneration of the tissue underneath. This procedure only requires local anaesthesia and can take between several minutes and an hour depending on the amount of the damage.

Fractional laser therapy is one of the most recent forms of removing acne scarring. It involves surgical intervention at deep skin layers. The therapy is better than both dermabrasion and laser resurfacing in terms of quality and involves a much reduced healing period. Nevertheless, fractional laser therapy lies within the reach of only those few fortunate people, who can afford it, since it is the most expensive acne treatment available so far.

It can happen that additional sessions are required to improve the condition of the superficial layers of skin, before they can start the deep level treatment of the acne scarring. The doctor may inject collagen into the scarring in order to elevate the existing skin level or she/he may recommend micro-dermabrasion for the same purpose. Trying to carry out chemical peels at home is a bad idea given the chance of aggravating the condition by irritating the scars even further.

As for the forms of acne scarring, they can be classified according to the formation pattern. Scarring can result because of an increase of tissue or due to a loss of tissue They both have an adverse impact on the way the face looks. Specialists' evaluation of the nature of the scars is a very important factor in deciding on the adoption of one type of treatment or the other. - 30292

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