Acne Scar Solutions

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Thursday, February 5th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

The best acne scar solution is to never get the scars in the first place. You can do this by treating even mild cases of acne aggressively.

Although it’s always tempting to “pop” a zit, this often drives some of that junk you’re trying to squeeze out deeper into the tissues under the skin making the inflammation of the skin worse and increasing the chances of scarring.

Try to keep your hands away from your face, and at the least wash your hands frequently so that if you do forget and find yourself touching your face at least you’ll be less likely to carry bacteria to your face.

Sometimes despite doing everything right, a person winds up with scars after the acne settles down. (BTW discoloring may persist for months after an acne flair up. It isn’t considered a scar unless it persists for more a year or so).

In general there are three approaches to treating scars once they are there:

* Remove the superficial layer of skin with the expectation that a healthier smoother layer of skin will grow back

*Cut the scar out. Removing it leaves a scar, but usually is an improvement over the acne scar.

* Augmentation techniques which involve injecting something (a lot of substances are used) to plump up the subcutaneous tissues under the scar to smooth out the skin in that area.

Removing the superficial layers of skin, called ablation techniques, are the most commonly used. The removal of the superficial skin layers can be done with chemicals, mechanical abrasion (as unpleasant as it is to consider, think sandpapering) and laser.

Those approaches work for broader, shallower scars.

Smaller, deeper scars (the so-called “ice pick” scars) generally require an excisional approach. There may be a little scar left after the excision, but it is generally much less than before and can be further treated with one of the other approaches.

The augmentation techniques are less invasive, but also more temporary.

The good thing to know is that successful acne scar solutions are out there. It’s well worth seeking out the one that’s right for you.

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