Acne Scars

If you've read any of my other articles i think you already know what i feel the best method for getting rid of acne and acne scars is: prevention. A healthy, well researched diet, proper rest, and regular skin cleansing can do wonders toward curing your acne problems and preventing scars from ever becoming an issue. With that said, let's look at why I feel like prevention is so important. What might you have to go through if you acne is taken care of carelessly or rashly? What are some options available to you if you were unable to prevent it with diet, sleep, and washing? It can get a bit scary, but let's talk about it. Acne scars can get really ugly. You probably know that already because you've seen what havoc acne can wreak on your face while you have it and even a long time afterwards. Over the years, several methods have been developed to help lessen the degree of acne scars and, when possible, even remove them.

That doesn't sound too nice does it!? In the not it's not quite as bad as it sounds, but it's still not something I'd like to go through if i can avoid it. Chemical peels are one of the most popular and more available acne scar treatments on the market, particularly because you don't have to get a licensed medical professional to administer it for you in most cases. With chemical peels, a specially formulated chemical compound is applied to the affected area (or to the whole face) to make the skin blister and then peel off, hence the name.

As grotesque or scary as the method might sound, it's actually quite effective. The ‘new' skin that replaces the skin that was peeled off is much younger looking and less scarred. The whole treatment takes a few sessions - about four to six - but the end result is usually excellent and very visible.

The side effects of chemical peels aren't very serious and will usually clear up in a few days after the treatment. Such effects are also, in most cases, limited to just skin dryness, a little redness or some mild skin irritation. Still, a beet red face is not nice to deal with. Remember, with proper prevention this can be avoided altogether.

One of the most common types of acne scars is the kind that leaves big holes on your face, so much so that they can't be covered up with simple makeup or cosmetics. Get a load of what some doctors are recommending. Dermal fillers, another acne scar treatment technique, were designed to solve just that type of problem. I don't recommend this at all. Now as I've said before I'm not an official expert. Please don't take my recommendations for or against anything as official. In fact, just to be safe, I'll come right out and say you should not listen to me. I'm just a person who dealt with acne, and was able to clear it up without scarring by following some simple principles. I think those principles can work for you too.

Dermal fillers usually make use of fat or collagen, sometimes from other animals like cows (!). The filler substance is injected into the scarred area to raise the surface of the skin and thus smoothen it out. When used on the right kinds of acne scars, dermal fillers can yield some very noticeable and very immediate results. This just sounds gross to me!

One problem with dermal fillers is that they're not permanent; you'll have to get another treatment session every six or so months in order to keep up the benefit from the initial treatment. You can relive the magic again and again! This maintenance can get pretty expensive, but using dermal fillers is still an option if you intend to just lose the scar temporarily.

Always consult a dermatologist or a professional before you sign on for any sort of treatment. They can identify the type of acne scars you have and then recommend the best option to get rid of them. It's also very possible that some treatments will have adverse effects on you, to the point that the effects will seriously threaten your health. And even a perfect face isn't worth that.

As if the craterous marks that acne left behind in your face weren't enough, the lesions also commonly leave behind hyperpigmentation or post inflammatory hyperpigmentation. What on earth is hyperpigmentation, you may be asking yourself. Well, those are the incredibly annoying, and often embarrassing, color discrepancies that acne leaves behind. Depending on your skin color, these unflattering marks can turn up in any shape and hue. They can be brown, red, tan or black. In most cases, hyperpigmentation will resolve itself, just as soon as your skin finishes healing itself. However, depending on the rate in which your skin regenerates, this could take up to several months! If those marks are hideously noticeable or cause you to feel self conscious, then maybe you need to speed up the healing process in order to get rid of them.

One of the cheapest ways of speeding up the process of removing the mismatched condition of your skin is to exfoliate. Exfoliating removes dead skin cells and unclogs pores so that new skin cells will have a chance to break through. So the quicker you get rid of that strangely colored skin, the quicker a fresh, normally-hued patch will be able to grow in. But exfoliating can only do so much and you may not have the patience to wait around for results. You can also try melanin-production inhibiting medications like hydroquinone, or maybe chemical exfoliants like Tretinoin. Vitamin C aids in lightening the skin, and Copper Peptides enable your body to heal wounds much faster to get back your normally radiant skin.

When all else fails, pigmentation problems can be cleared up with Intense Pulse Light

Treatment. This involves exposing the affected area of skin to a very bright light, which normalizes the skin color in that area and improves the skin's elastin.

To treat pock-like scarring and other unsightly shapes left in your face, as mentioned earlier, you can consider dermal fillers, or you might want to think about laser resurfacing. Laser resurfacing involves removing the top layers of skin in order to smooth the surface and get rid of dents and raised portions of scar tissue left on your face (or other parts of your body). Although laser surgery of any kind can be quite costly, it does tend to yield the best, consistent results.

If your acne scarring is severe, you may want to talk to a medical professional about the option of punch graft treatment. This is only suitable for very deep scarring that doesn't include hyperpigmentation. By deep scarring, I mean those ice pick type acne scars that stubbornly refused to cooperate with any other treatment that you desperately tried. Punch graft treatment involves the removal of the acne scar by excision, and then the wound is closed with sutures. This doesn't paint a very pretty picture, which is why only people suffering from extreme scarring would take it into consideration.

Regardless of the type or severity of your acne scarring, don't lose hope because the number of treatments available are vast and promising. If you can't heal up those wounds with over-the-counter drugs or products, you'd definitely be doing your skin a favor by making an appointment with a dermatologist or laser surgeon in order to discuss further options.