Whenever body suffers any injury, the body rushes its soldiers to protect itself. Acne infection is also an injury that needs repair and body sends white blood cells and other molecules that fight the infection and repair the infected site. After the repairing job is completed, a scar forms that is the sign of repair. Skin never becomes as smooth as it was before the acne. Some scar is always left. Let us find out more about acne scars and how doctors can repair them so that you get something similar to your earlier look again.
Types Of acne scars- before we discuss about the type of scars, let us also note that everyone has different tendency of scar formation. Some people develop very less scars, while others may have major scars for the same type of acne. Acne scars are of two types- scars that are caused by loss of tissue and scars caused by increased tissue formation.
Depressed Scars- these scars may be of different types such as Ice-pick scars, depressed fibrotic scars, soft scars and macular types. As the cyst expands with pus, bacteria, oil and dead skin cells it ruptures and attacks the dermis. to protect the dermis the white blood cells rush in. This rupture may cause loss of collagen giving rise to deep recess or depression. The skin above is left unsupported because of loss of tissue below it and a saucer shaped or jagged ice pick scar is formed. Ice pick scars are more common on face.
Keloids- In some people the scar forms in a reverse fashion. With the loss of collagen, body triggers fibroblasts that produce excessive collagen producing scar tissues called keloids. Keloids are more commonly found on male torsos. Other type of increased tissue formation scar is called hypertrophic scar. Hypertrophy means overgrowth.
Scar Treatment- scars can be treated by your dermatologist using different treatments. Before proceeding for scar treatment, you have to discuss your feelings about the scars with your doctor. The cost involved may also play a role in choosing the treatment. What results you desire is the third factor. The severity of the scar, the location and type of treatments that can be done are other factors that have to be used to treat acne scars. The common treatments for acne scars are- collagen treatment, laser treatment, dremabrasion, microdermabrasion, skin surgery, skin grafting etc. Keloids may be left untreated if it is felt that treatment will form further keloids. Injecting with steroid injections may also treat keloids.
This article is only for informative purposes. This article is not intended to be a medical advise and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor for your medical concerns. Please follow any tip given in this article only after consulting your doctor. The author is not liable for any outcome or damage resulting from information obtained from this article.
Acne scar removal, are techniques which most people who have had acne are very interested to know about and to see how affective the methods are. Though prevention would have been better than cure, if there is a positive method of acne scar removal, it would be very encouraging for most people who have scars left from acne.
The scars that are caused by acne vary from one to the other and some are deep while others have only superficial scarring. Acne scar removal will depend mainly on how deep they are. There are many different ways of removing the scars caused by acne. Some of the methods are discussed here;
The scars are usually deep pits that are formed in the region of the pimples and collagen injections help to fill these pits out so that the skin is stretched and smoothened out. This method can only be used for soft and superficial scars as a acne scar removal and not for the deeper ones. Another problem with collagen treatment is that it has to be repeated after a few months.
For deeper scars autogous fat transfer is a method where the fat is taken from another part of one's own body and injected into the scarred tissue. Here again as the fat will get absorbed into the skin after a year or so the procedure has to be repeated.
One of the most effective ways of treating scars is dermabrasion. The skin is removed with a high speed brush under localized anesthetic in the area. However this cannot be used for ice pick scars and for persons with a dark skin as they will show changes in the pigmentation of the area. Something similar to dermabrasion is microdermabrasion which again removes the skin on the surface but not with high speed brushes but with aluminum oxide crystals. This is not very effective in removing scars unless they are very shallow.
Recon-touring the scar with laser treatment is another method for removing acne scars. An invasive method of removing scars is skin surgery. In this method the scars are removed individually and the skin sutured or grafted to heal the holes that are caused when the scar is removed. Skin grafting and surgical removal of keloids is the most extensive method of treatment for scars caused by acne.
However, once a person realizes that they are suffering with acne they should start immediate treatment and preventive methods instead of allowing the scars to be deep and disfiguring. This way there are more chances of healing the scars completely with much simpler methods. If however, the scars have become very deep then it is always better to seek the help of a dermatologist instead of treating it with home remedies. The sooner the treatment is started the more effective will it be. So the moment you suspect that you might have acne get started on getting it cleared and do not wait for it to become a chronic condition of the skin. This way it will be much easier to deal with acne scar removal.
Both Cdmohatta & Trevor Mulholland are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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