Acne often leaves scars mainly on the face, but also on the body.
Acne scars are really a major aesthetic problem that can be frustrating, especially when they are located on the face.
Nevertheless, there are treatments to treat the scars, boost self-confidence and restore the person's self-esteem.
Acne scars are most often the product of an inflammatory wound such as a pustule or cyst that comes from acne.
These inflammatory conditions occur when the pore of the skin swells due to excess oil, dead cells, and bacteria.
The lesion is usually mild and heals quickly when the pore rupture occurs near the surface of the skin.
More serious lesions occur when there is a deep rupture in the wall of the follicle, ass the infected agents leak into the dermis and destroy the healthy skin tissue.
Most commonly, acne causes atrophic scars, but unfortunately it can also cause hypertrophic or keloid scars. (Here we refer to the section of Scars and their categories).
Atrophic scars develop when there is tissue loss.
Scar growth is proportional to inflammation. The greater the inflammation in the skin, the more likely it is to lead to a scar. Closed and open pores and other non-inflammatory lesions usually do not cause scarring, because these types of lesions do not injure the skin tissue. Often, what we might think of as acne scarring is actually post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. This temporary hyperpigmentation of the skin usually eventually fades on its own.
Prevention to avoid acne scars
To reduce the chance of acne scars, an effort should be made to reduce its inflammatory outbreaks. With the adaptation, to your needs, and timely treatment of acne with modern methods of dermatology and the avoidance of taking oral medications, the chances for the formation of acne scars are reduced.
In addition, finger pressure on the pimples, pustulas and cysts created by acne should be avoided, because the infected agents enter deeper into the skin, resulting in the spread of infection and worsening of inflammation.
But, when they are already installed and we cannot talk about prevention, then we have a wide range of treatments for acne scars that can sometimes be combined.
Such are:
- With injectable collagen: The appropriate type of collagen is selected in order to "fill" and lift the atrophic acne scar to be at the level of normal skin.
- Deep or medium depth chemical peelings: With their proper use, the texture of the skin is normalized, the production of collagen is activated, and the deep scars are softened.
- Dermabrasion (mechanical dermabrasion): Depending on how invasive the technique will be, we can reach deep enough into the papillary skin to deal with even the most persistent acne scars.
- Fractional lasers:
- With invasive Co2 laser. It is caused for the controlled tissue sublimation and activation of regeneration - it takes about three or more sessions for an optimal result.
- With non-invasive laser (FRAXEL, MOSAIC). Evenly removes surface areas of skin & dermis without severe thermal damage
- With dermatologic surgery: Rarely required, especially in the case of residual cysts that recur frequently
