Acne Scar Treatments

Most teenagers and many adults experience some form of acne in their lifetime. For some it is a temporary and annoying time in their lives trying to control their acne breakouts but usually by their 20′s or 30′s the condition mostly goes away. However, for many people the ravages of their acne leave behind permanent acne scars and they have to deal with them for the rest of their lives. I would like to review some older treatment options and the newer ones to remove or at least improve acne scars.

Types of Acne Scars

Some scars are wide and shallow and tend to disappear when the skin is stretched taught while others are “ice pick” like or bound down in irregular shapes. Obviously the shallow scars are easier to treat. Treatments range from chemical peels, microdermabrasion, dermabrasion (manual or powered), lasers, and filler materials to surgical removal.

Chemical Peels

There are many types and strengths of peels but the medium or deep chemical peels can be used to improve acne scars. The TCA medium peel can be used for the shallow, rolling type scars and the healing time is usually a week with the final results seen many months later. For deeper scars, the Phenol peel has been used but healing times are longer and results less predictable.

Dermabrasion

The classic treatment for acne scars of all types, this technique also has a week healing time and new collagen/smoother skin takes a few months to be permanent. You can dermabrade on top of a chemical peel for even better results. Micro-dermabrasion sounds similar but only works on the superficial parts of our skin and does little for acne scars.

Laser Resurfacing

Since 1994, this treatment has been used successfully for acne scars. It largely replaced the deep dermabrasion for all lighter skin patients. Side effects can include skin lightening. Healing times are similar to deep dermabrasion but newer laser systems, called fractional lasers, have recently attracted much interest. With four monthly treatments, these lasers can give similar results to deep laser treatments and have virtually no downtime.

Fillers

For over 20 years, dermatologists have been filling-in acne scars with collagen and other filler materials. These injectables can last up to a year and look great the next day. The choice of which filler to use depends on how deep the scar is.

Excisions

Deep acne scars can be removed or made shallower by using a punch removal method followed by superficial abrasion.

Subcision

This technique is not used too often but can be very effective for areas of deeper acne scars. Under local anesthesia, the area under the scars is undercut with a needle loosening the skin above.

Summary

Your dermatologist can pick from one or more of these treatments for your acne scars depending on your particular problem. No one treatment plan fits all.

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