Acne Scars and Their Treatments

Acne scars are marks that appear on the skin in the form of brown pigmentations, red blemishes, depressions in the skin surface, or even raised scars in rare cases.

They occur due to previous acne breakouts.

Acne scars can affect the social and emotional well-being of people who have them, they can affect their self-esteem and can even cause anxiety or depression in some cases.

Certain factors increase someone’s risk of developing acne scars:

1. Having inflamed acne (more swollen, painful, red acne, pus, cysts, or nodules)
   

2. Having a family history of acne scars
   

3. Picking on acne
   

4. A delay in the treatment of acne
   

How are acne scars treated?

1. The best thing to do is to prevent them from developing in the first place. This is done by treating any active acne lesions as early as possible.
   

2. Microneedling
   

This can be done using different technologies that use tiny needles to create tiny channels on the skin's surface; this will promote healing and therefore help the skin produce newer collagen and elastic fibers.

Examples: Dermapen, skin rollers, Fractional Microneedling Radiofrequency. These can be done either with mesotherapy alone or with mesotherapy and platelet-rich plasma.

Mesotherapy is certain vitamins that are chosen depending on the case. Platelet-rich plasma is plasma taken from a blood sample from the patient.

1. Lasers
   

Fractional lasers, yellow lasers or PDL

1. Chemical peels
   

The kind of peel is chosen depending on the case

1. Subcision
   

This is done in the case of depressed acne scars and can be done with either a cannula or a needle

A sharp needle is passed under the skin surface to cut the fibers pulling the skin surface downwards

1. TCA CROSS peel
   

A strong acid called Trichloroacetic Acid is applied to the depressed pinpoint scars.