Fight back the acne attack
By Carley Sparks
Get the facts on post acne scarring
As if having acne wasn’t bad enough there are often lasting and disfiguring post-breakout scars to contend with. When it comes to treatment, prevention is the best medicine. According to Dr. David Eisen, an acne specialist at the Acne Treatment Clinic in Toronto, scarring is a complication of untreated acne and is very difficult to treat. If you scar easily and are suffering from acne—even mild but persistent acne—it is extremely important to treat the acne immediately and aggressively under the supervision of a dermatologist or acne specialist. For those already living with the reality of acne scars there are several options available that can help improve the appearance of your skin.
Glycolic acid peels, often referred to as the "lunchtime" peel because of its generally short downtime, are usually the least invasive. Glycolic acid is painted onto the face for anywhere between two to five minutes. The face may have some redness after that can last for a few minutes to a couple of hours, or even longer depending on the percentage of the peel. Vitamin A acid, one of the medications used for acne, is also effective on mild scarring.
Other procedures for mild scarring include microdermabrasion and silicone sheets. Microdermabrasion, not to be confused with dermabrasion, is a superficial treatment that involves running small beads over the surface of the skin and results in very little downtime. Silicone sheets are used more for large individual scars and often times are applied on the back.
Injectible fillers such as Artecoll®, collagen and Restylane® are quite effective for certain types of scars. Distensible acne scars—ones that plump up when you squeeze them—do well with these, but injectibles are not for ice-pick scars (scars that are very deep and narrow. Like some of the less-invasive procedures, injectibles involve little downtime. The face may appear slightly red and irritated for a day or two.
Punch excision and subcision are surgical procedures that are particularly effective on ice-pick scars. Punch excision involves taking a piece of skin from another location, behind the ear for example, and transplanting it into the scar. Subcision uses a needle to release some of the tissue holding the skin down underneath the scar.
For people with extensive acne scarring, invasive procedures will be necessary.
Sometimes aggressive procedures like dermabrasion and laser resurfacing are combined with injectible fillers or surgical techniques to achieve a better effect. Most of the procedures will improve scarring anywhere from 30 to 50 per cent. It is also very important that you shop around for an experienced dermatologist or dermatological surgeon. This is especially true for those people with darker skin, who are much more susceptible to altered pigmentation.
