Acne Scars Treatment ??

ACNE SCARS TREATMENT

Scarring results from the destruction of skin tissue from acne infection and often as a response to “picking” which most acne sufferers find difficult to resist.

Acne scars often being red or hyper pigmented, eventually they fade to a normal or near-normal skin color. Red marks of acne lesion are not really scars but small broken capillaries caused by acne inflammation. We use Gentlemax laser to reduce the redness. For brown acne marks – we can use Cosmelan, microdermabrasion or chemical peel to reduce and blend pigmented areas.

Before treating any acne scars, first you need to treat any active acne. It doesn’t make any sense to treat acne scars if the acne is still occurring. For deep acne scars (rolling acne scars, box scars, and ice-pick scars) our treatment of choice is laser.

There have been a number of exciting advances in laser medicine that have resulted in vast improvement in our ability to treat acne scars. In the early days of laser medicine, they used Carbon Dioxide Laser, which destroys the surface of the skin. There is a prolonged healing period, about a week to ten days, during which the skin is open and has to be covered with a dressing for a about 3 days. The risk of side effects is high: scarring, permanent whitening of the skin (hypo pigmentation).
We now use a non-ablative, effective laser resurfacing – Fractional CO2 – that is safe, tolerable and with minimal down time.

The Fractional CO2 laser delivers a precise matrix of micro spots that penetrates to the dermis and stimulates the formation of new collagen. At the same time, immediate shrinkage of damaged tissue is achieved.
The pain associated with the laser treatment is usually described as moderate sunburn, which can be easily controlled with ice and medication (Advil, Panadol).

Repeated treatments are sometimes required but this is determined on a case to-case basis.

PRECAUTIONS:
We do not laser people typically within 6 months of having Accutane. The reason for this is that Accutane can cause increased scarring from any kind of injury or trauma and laser can be perceived by the skin as a type of injury.