Acne scars are a sad memento of the having suffered pimples or even acne before. They are unbearable because of their apparent permanence and their non-complimentary look. Generally speaking, acne scars are rather difficult to eradicate, but tissue regeneration is not impossible these days with all the fantastic technological advancements.

In general terms, by acne scarring, we are referring to the healed lesions caused by an acne breakout. While most scars are temporary and disappear naturally in time, those from the more severe forms of acne can be permanent.

Acne scarring can be prevented if the patient sees a doctor when it is in the incipient stage, especially if nodules or cysts accompany the red pustules on the skin’s surface. If the bouts of acne have marked your skin, you will have to approach the issue from another perspective, which usually involves surgery.

Laser resurfacing is one way of removing the damaged skin areas and stimulating the natural regeneration of the tissue beneath. The procedure requires only local anaesthesia and can take between a few minutes and an hour depending on the extent of the problem.

Fractional laser therapy is one of the most recent methods of removing acne scars. It involves surgical intervention at deep skin layers. The treatment is better than both dermabrasion and laser resurfacing in terms of quality and has a much reduced healing period. Nevertheless, fractional laser therapy lies within the reach of only those few fortunate people, who can afford it, since it is the most expensive acne treatment available so far.

It can happen that further sessions are required to improve the condition of the superficial layers of skin, before they can start the deep level treatment of the acne scar. The doctor may inject collagen into the scarring in order to elevate the existing skin level or she/he may suggest micro-dermabrasion for the same purpose. Trying to carry out chemical peels at home could be a bad policy because of the risk of aggravating the condition by irritating the scars even further.

As for the types of acne scars, they can be classified by the way they look. Scars can result because of an increase of tissue or due to a loss of tissue They both have an adverse impact on the way the face looks. Specialists’ evaluation of the nature of the scars is a very important factor for the decision of adopting one kind of treatment or another.