Acne is common, and almost 80 percent of the population gets acne for one reason or another. Teenagers are more prone to getting acne, but those in their adulthood are not spared as well if they get adult acne.
Some acne may not be much of a problem as it doesn’t leave behind any scars, while other breakouts can cause acne scars, and one may need acne scar removal treatments to get rid of them.
But do these treatments really work? Well, they do work, but one needs to figure out the right one for them and find a reliable provider for acne scar treatment in Singapore so that they may not end up wasting their money.
So, what factors contribute to the effectiveness of an acne scar removal treatment, and is it possible to completely get rid of the imperfections? Let’s explore the details and find out how different treatment options work.
How Do Acne Scars Form?
To begin with, you need to know how acne scars form before understanding how to treat them. The scarring starts with skin follicles getting clogged with excess oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria forming acne.
They may become inflamed and ruptured, spilling out pus. Though the body tries to repair the damage by creating new collagen fibers. Exuberant collagen formation causes hypertrophic scars, whereas too little collagen results in atrophic scars.
How To Prevent Acne Scars?
Most acne will fade away naturally, yet careless meddling predisposes to scarring. Therefore, take early measures to prevent acne scars without welcoming unnecessary troubles.
Treat Acne Right Away
First and foremost, treat acne as soon as it develops. Thereby, it can minimize sudden breakouts of pimples. If over-the-counter medications don’t work, consult your doctor immediately before it gets worse.
Minimize Inflammation
Discoloration and scarring occur as a result of inflammation. Large and more inflamed blemishes will cause severe acne scars. Therefore always try to soothe inflammation and avoid violent scrubbing or applying harsh skincare products. You can use topical spot treatments formulated to reduce acne inflammation.
Don’t Pop, Squeeze Or Pick At Your Pimples
Even though pimple-popping feels bizarrely satisfactory, certainly it will worsen it leaving taunting traces on your face. Squeezing acne, especially with dirty hands, introduces debris into deeper skin layers fanning the flames to spread the inflammation to other surrounding tissues. So let mild blemishes heal naturally and keep your hands off your breakouts.
Don’t Pick At Scabs
If the blemishes pop and form a scab, avoid picking it off. Scab plays a crucial role in the process of healing a wound, acting as a bandage protecting the underlying tissue. Picking at scabs prolongs the healing time and heightens the risk of permanent scarring.
Don’t Forget To Use Sunscreen
Dark spots in scarring occur as a result of the deposition of melanin produced by melanocytes. Use a safe sunscreen regularly to lower the number of active melanocytes. It will ultimately reduce hyperpigmented scars.
Get A Cortisone Shot From Your Doctor
Getting a cortisone injection from your doctor will help in minimizing the likelihood of scarring in deep cystic acne.
Despite these measures, you may not get absolute protection, and scars can still appear. But then again, stop worrying, as there are acne scar removal treatments to treat this.
Knowing The Type Of Scars Is Important
Preventing acne scars is important to prevent severe scarring. However, if the scarring has already happened, you’ll need to figure out the type of your scars to get the right treatment.
One treatment may not treat all types of acne scars effectively. Scars can have different sizes and shapes, and they may be depressed or raised, minimal or widespread, shallow or deep. So, it is important that one knows what type of scars they have and understand what treatment options are the most effective against those scars.
One may have raised scars, like keloids, that appear mostly on the chest or back. Or, they may get depressed scars, like shallow boxcar scars and rolling scars, or narrower and deeper icepick scars, which mostly appear on the face.
The severity and type of scarring is the key factor in determining what the type of treatment that will remove them effectively. For example, treatments that stimulate collagen production are not effective against the raised scars because such scars are already formed due to excess collagen. On the other hand, the treatments that aim to fill in the depressed scar site are not effective against raised scars.
Home Remedies To Treat Mild Acne Scars
Home remedies are commonly used for new and mild acne scars. On the other hand, raised and depressed scars are not suitable for a treat with home remedies. Take a look into several natural remedy options that you can do at home, as listed below:
ALOE VERA
The sap of the Aloe Vera plant contains many active compounds, such as glucomannan which helps to accelerate healing and collagen regeneration, thereby lightening acne scars. Aloe Vera also acts as a natural moisturizer that helps to rejuvenate your skin.
DIRECTIONS:
Simply get fresh Aloe Vera from the supermarket, peel away the external skin to uncover the gel, and rub it tenderly on your face. Gently massage the gel onto the skin for better absorption. For optimum results, allow the gel to rest on the skin for at least thirty minutes before washing it off with cold water.
HONEY
Honey is another natural remedy that helps to treat pimples and heal acne scars. It contains powerful antibacterial properties and antioxidants that calm the skin and heal damaged skin cells.
DIRECTIONS:
Simply mix 2 tablespoons of honey with 1 tablespoon of baking soda and apply it in a circular motion over your face, especially onto the affected areas. For optimum results, leave it on for 2 minutes, then rinse with lukewarm water and pat dry.
Can Acne Scar Removal Completely Get Rid Of The Scars?
In most cases, the acne scar removal treatments in Singapore improve the scar site by 50%-70%. While no acne scar treatment can completely remove the imperfections, how much improvement is observed generally depends on the type of the scars and the skin quality, as well as the scar’s response to the treatment administered.
Clinical Acne Scar Treatment Options And The Type Of Scars It Treats
The following are some common acne scar treatments that can effectively treat different types of scarring. Let’s find out how they work.
TCA Peels
TCA Peels use trichloroacetic acid or TCA that destroys the damaged outer layer of the skin when applied to the affected area in a specific concentration. This removes the damaged skin and initiates the natural repair process of the body. They are proven to be effective, especially for treating narrower and deeper icepick acne scars. As lasers can’t reach deep into the base of these scars, they are closed by dabbing TCA into the scars. Multiple treatment sessions may be required to see a significant improvement.
Microdermabrasion
Microdermabrasion gently removes the damaged outer skin layers to reduce the appearance of scarring. It is just like a mild chemical peel as it helps unclog the pores through skin exfoliation. This acne scar removal option uses very small crystals to break up dead and damaged skin cells and reveal softer, smoother skin underneath. This procedure is effective against a few specific depressed scar types that normally lie flat on the epidermis layer. It may not work for deeper or icepick scars.
Fillers
Dermal fillers containing collagen or hyaluronic acid can work effectively with other treatment options to reduce acne scars. However, these fillers only provide a kind of temporary “mask” to cover the depression of a scar. But some fillers last longer than others and help to stimulate collagen remodeling in the skin. Fillers can be a good option to temporarily disguise some depressed, shallow scars like rolling and boxcar scars.
Lasers
Just like other treatments mentioned above, laser acne scar removal treatment may not remove the imperfections completely. However, one can expect a significant reduction in the scars along with an improved skin texture. Most of the time laser treatment can significantly reduce the appearance of both depressed and raised acne scars.
There are different types of laser acne scar treatments available. These include:
- Ablative Laser Resurfacing
It uses CO2 or erbium YAG laser to resurface the scarred skin. It removes the top skin layer in the scarred area to initiate a natural healing response.
- Non-Ablative Laser Resurfacing
The non-ablative laser acne scar treatment relies on different wavelengths to reach different depths of the skin. The heat produced by the lasers helps stimulate the production of collagen and encourages the growth of new cells to replace the scarred, damaged tissue. Improving the appearance of depressions or skin discoloration.
- Fractionated Laser Resurfacing
This treatment uses fractional lasers (Fraxel) that help stimulate the tissue beneath the scar with the aim improve skin irregularities and depressed scars by stimulating collagen growth in the micro columns, which is controlled damage made by the laser. This type of laser acne scar removal treatment often works best for removing rolling and boxcar scars.
Subcision
Acne scar removal through subcision is aimed at breaking down the scars that have been tethered down in the deeper skin layers. It uses a special needle to reach the deep scars, breaking down the anchoring tissue that holds the skin to its deepest layers. It also stimulates collagen synthesis to promote the skin’s natural repair process. This technique works best for depressed scars and may not be suitable against raised acne scars and keloids.
Dermal Grafting
As the name suggests, dermal grafting uses the patient’s own skin tissues and grafts them into the affected area to level up any depression. This grafting procedure leads to improvement in the overall skin texture in the affected area. Dermal grafting is often considered the best choice for treating deep boxcar and rolling acne scars.
A Combination Of Treatments May Work In Some Cases
When considering a proper treatment plan for acne scar removal, one should always ask their dermatologist about all the possible options to make it work. Most times, doctors use a combination of treatments to achieve the desired results. For instance, they may bolster their laser acne scar removal treatment with non-laser treatment options to make the scars vanish. In fact, it rarely happens that the acne scar removal treatment plan uses just a single method. This is because different scars respond to different treatments. Hence, a multi-modality treatment approach should be required to address different types of acne scars one may have.
Conclusion
There are different types of acne scar removal treatments available today, and they do help to improve the appearance over time. What’s important is that one should consult with their medical doctor and choose an acne scar treatment in a reputable Singapore clinic that works best to get rid of the type of scars they have. Whether it is a laser acne scar removal treatment or a non-laser treatment option – or even a combination of both – only choosing the right treatment for the condition will help achieve the desired results.
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Bespoke surgical for cosmetic or medical reasons is what Dream covers to bring out the beauty in every individual. Going beyond the aesthetics and working on physical anomalies are what we value the most in leading our patients to cherish self-improvement and confident lifestyles.
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