Posts Tagged ‘deep acne scars’

An Acne Scar Primer

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

Before we get too carried away with the ways of removing acne scars, we should know a bit more about them!

No matter how careful we are with our skin, zits can happen, and leave their marks behind!

Not all acne scars are created equal. Generally, acne scars can be divided into two categories: Atrophic, or scars where tissue is lost; and hypertrophic where too much tissue is grown. There are four types of acne scars in those categories: ice pick, boxcar, rolling and keloid scars.

Ice Pick Scars

  • Appearance: Ice pick scars are characterized by “pitting”. The skin looks as if it has been pierced by an ice pick or sharp instrument. Ice pick scars seem to make a small, deep “hole” in the skin. Some may look like a large, open pore.
  • Development: Deep rooted infection making its way to the surface cause ice pick scars. Skin tissue is destroyed, leaving a long column-like scar.
  • Common treatments: Ice pick scars can be treated with punch excision or punch grafting.

Boxcar Scars

  • Appearance: Boxcar scars consist of roundish low spots, with steep sides. Wider than ice picks, boxcar scars make the skin appear pitted as well
  • Development: If a breakout destroys collagen in the skin, tissue is lost. In the area where the tissue was lost, the skin no longer has the necessary support. This creates a depression. Boxcar scars may be superficial to severe, depending on the amount of tissue lost.
  • Common treatments: Treatments for these scars include dermal fillers, laser resurfacing, and punch excision or elevation.

Rolling Scars

  • Appearance: Rolling scars have that name because they can look almost like waves rolling across the skin.
  • Development: These scars develop because fibrous tissue grow in bands between the skin and the layer under it. These bands pull the epidermis, binding it to deeper structures of the skin. The tension from being attached to lower structures, pulls on the skin and the pulling creates a “rolling” effect on the outer skin.
  • Common treatments: Rolling scars are best treated with subcision.

Hypertrophic or Keloid Scars

  • Appearance: As you recall, hypertrophic is a way of saying “too much tissue”. Thus they look like a firm, raised mass. Very often, these scars are actually larger than the wound that caused them. These scars are most often found on the torso.
  • Development: Unlike ice pick or boxcar scars, hypertrophic scars are not caused by a loss of tissue. Rather, they develop because of an overproduction of collagen.
  • Common treatments: Cortisone (steroid) ointments, tapes, or injections are used to smooth and reduce these scars. In some instances, interferon injections are used to soften the scar as well.

There you go, now you know. “And knowing is half the battle”!

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Remove Acne Scar by Preventing Acne

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Removing acne scars can be very troublesome and expensive but not many people realize this until they see deep acne scars on their own faces. Especially when acne problem forms white heads on the face, the tendency for most people is to pick or squeeze their acne. Although making those blemishes less obvious this way is effective, the results are only for the meantime. More often than not, this habit will bring you the consequence of dealing with unsightly, deep acne scars that are very troublesome, if not impossible, to erase.

To remove acne scar, you will usually have to go through very costly treatments that may drain your wallet dry, since these treatments often require multiple sessions with a dermatologist thereby snowballing the cost up to ten thousand dollars just to remove acne scar. This is a very expensive ordeal especially when dealing with deep acne scars. Many people just cannot afford these treatments for removing acne scars, also considering that each treatment require at least a couple of weeks out of work for the recovery. It stands to reason, therefore, that letting a whitehead heal on its own is way better than spending thousands of dollars, if not a lifetime, on trying to remove acne scar.

Treatments for Removing Acne Scars

If in any case you actually end up with the need to remove acne scar, there are several treatments that are very effective not only for removing acne scars but also for getting rid of other skin problems. Among several others, augmentation and punch techniques should be part of your choices in trying to get rid of deep acne scars.

Collagen growth that will eventually fill in the deep acne scars is the primary objective of augmentation. This will smooth out the scarred area and level the skin surface in order to remove acne scar. Augmentation is very expensive, running up to three hundred dollars per cubic centimeter of collagen and requiring repeated treatments every three to six months.

To remove acne scar by means of punch techniques, you may consider a variety of approaches. The deep acne scars may be removed altogether and the wounds will be allowed to heal, or the scars may be filled in by a skin graft, or the underlying skin on the affected area will be cut in order to generate skin growth and fill the grooves. Despite being effective in removing deep acne scars, punch techniques can cost up to fifty dollars per scar and the healing can take several weeks.

Dermapsion and laser resurfacing are also very effective but rather very expensive techniques for removing acne scars. In dermapasion, the top layer of the damaged skin will be scraped by machines to encourage skin regeneration. The patient will have to be induced with anesthetics during the treatment as this method of removing acne scars is very painful, and pain relievers should come in handy during the recovery period that usually lasts up two weeks. Dermapasion also requires multiple treatments in order to completely remove acne scar, with each treatment running at least fifteen hundred dollars.

Laser resurfacing is even a more expensive way of removing acne scars than dermapasion, running at around three thousand dollars per treatment and requiring repeated sessions. While laser resurfacing basically follows the same principle in eliminating deep acne scars with dermapasion, this method stimulates the collagen underneath for a smoother and quicker result.

Dealing with deep acne scars can indeed be very difficult. More often than not, you have to shell out quite a large amount of money to successfully remove acne scar. So that you do not have to worry about removing acne scars in the future, focus your energies on preventing the formation of acne scars. Quit the acne-picking and whitehead-sqeezing habits and you will not end up with all the hassles of trying to remove acne scar. As always, prevention is better than cure.

 

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