Acne Scarring
Acne Scarring
If you've experienced acne, be it mild or severe, you're likely familiar with the emotional toll it can take—leaving you feeling self-conscious and, at times, embarrassed, making it difficult to embrace your own skin. The relief that comes with the clearance of acne can be immense, but often, it leaves you with acne scarring.
The encouraging news is that a plethora of treatment options exists for effectively addressing acne scarring. However, before delving into these treatment choices, it's essential to understand why scarring occurs following episodes of acne.
What causes acne scarring?
Acne is a skin issue that mainly happens in the sebaceous glands (oil ducts) on the face, chest, upper arms, and back. Sebaceous glands role is to produce and secret sebum which is a group of oils: triglycerides and fatty acids. Sebum keeps your skin lubricated to prevent friction, makes it more resistant to moisture, and even carries antioxidants to keep your skin healthy. When sebaceous glands produce too much sebum, a bacteria called P. acne starts feasting on it. The bacteria builds up in the follicle causing the formation of a pimple. The body tries to fight this by sending in inflammatory cells to get rid of the bacteria. This process however, causes damage to the skin tissue resulting in formation of scar tissue.
Types of Acne Scarring
The nature of your acne scarring is contingent upon its severity. You might be acquainted with terms such as ice pick or box scarring. These variations stem from the degradation of collagen during the acne healing process, resulting in an uneven, pitted texture on the skin. Another form of acne scarring is post-inflammatory pigmentation, manifesting as either dark pigmented spots or red spots.
Treatment for Acne Scarring
Treatment for acne scarring will depend on the type of scarring. The aim for treatment is to breakdown the scar tissue and remodel new collagen and elastin.
Skin needling (microneedling), Fractional resurfacing laser, TCA peels have shown great results in reducing scar tissue. For best results a combination of treatments is recommended. Fractional resurfacing can be combined with peels or skin needling can be combined with peels.
When having treatments for acne scarring it is important to have realistic expectations of the outcome. For myself I have reduced my acne scarring by 90%, I still have tiny indents in my skin. However, it is not noticeable by people.