As acne heals, the skin around the hair follicle gets hyper pigmented and turns red. This red area slowly darkness initially and then over about 6 months time fades and gets same as the skin color. These types of scars are usually formed during minor acne outbreaks. These scars are preferably treated with Retinol or some hydroxyl acid to aid in fast healing of the skin.

But if the scars resulting from acne are deep, like the ones caused by nodular or cystic acne, the treatment is different. In such cases the severity of the outbreak and the type and sensitivity of your skin is taken into consideration by the dermatologist before suggesting any treatment plan. Such custom-made acne scar treatment plans are very effective in treating acne scars.

Chemical peels:

Chemical peels are used when the scars are mostly on the topmost layer and do not go very deep into the skin. This method involves application of chemicals on the skin to injure the acne scar. This helps in the development and regeneration of new skin. This process may need to be repeated a number of times to reap favorable results. There should also be adequate space between the sessions so that skin has sufficient time to heal and grow back.

Dermabrasion and laser resurfacing:

Acne scars which are much more deeper need different other treatments. Dermabrasion is one of them. It helps to eliminate light or shallow ice pick scars caused by acne. Dermabrasion means sanding away the layers of the skin, as the new skin grows back it does not have the scars the previous one had. This treatment is most preferred when there is no acne or acne infection on the skin. Dermabrasion has superficial as well as deep methods. Deep methods involve the sanding away of the topmost layer of the skin, the epidermis and treat the dermis. The recovery in deep method is a much longer process than the superficial method.

Laser resurfacing is another effective acne scar treatment method. This method uses high bean of light with carbon dioxide to burn the top layer of the skin. This layer has the most scarring and removing this layer will remove the scars too. But this method needs care and precaution during the healing and regeneration process to avoid infection.

Surgical methods

Some scars are embedded deep into the skin. It is not possible to remove them via the above-mentioned methods. These scars are the deep ice pick, boxcar or rolling acne scars. There are many surgical treatments to treat these kinds of scars. A few them are discussed here in brief. Punch excision method uses a punch tool to take out the skin from within a deep scar and stitch it up to make the surface of the skin at a same level. Another treatment called subcutaneous incision is used to break fibrous tissue which cause rolling scars. This treatment after it is completed and the skin healed helps a vast improvement in the rippled skin.

Treatment of acne scares is different for different cases. Every treatment has its own positive and negative aspects. These should be weighed properly and discussed with the dermatologist before opting for any one treatment option.