Acne Scars

Acne scars are caused from an inflamed lesion. Inflamed acne occurs when the pore, becomes filled with excess oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. When the pore swells, it causes a the hair follicle wall to rupture . If it happens near the skin's surface, the lesion is usually minor and heals quickly without a scar. When you have a serious lesion where there is a large break in the follicle wall the infected material ends up spills out into the Derm al Papill , destroying healthy skin tissue. The following are different types of scaring that happens depending on the severity of that acne and solutions for each case.




















Ice Pick Scars - are deep scares, narrow and jagged edges, looking like a large pore or an ice pick has caused them. Ice pick scars happen after an infection. The infection could come from a cyst or a deep inflamed acne working the way to the surface. The skin tissue is altered, leaving a long deep scar. One the most common treatments for this is Punch Excision. Dermatologists have tool punches which work almost like cookie cutters. The cutter is as larger than scar. The doctor removes tissue that section from the patient’s skin. As long as the scar isn’t too wide, the area will be stitched together and the scar should heal on its own. Larger scars may need to be injected with collagen and or other substances.


Boxcar scars - dramatically change the pore to a round and or oval depressions with steep sides. The skin look has a pitted appearance and is wider than an ice pick scar. The Boxcar scar is caused when the pore is infected and is tissue is lost in a wide area giving the skin an enlarge round or oval impression. Some of the most common ways to treat this scaring would be to also do punch excision, laser cosmetics surgery and augmentation with fillers.


Rolling Acne Scars – are a result of tissue damage under the skin with curved indentations on the skins surface, and have the appearance of a rolling road. Rolling scars are best treated with Subcision. Most scars can be corrected using this facial acne scar treatment, also called subcutaneous incision. A local anesthetic is used The doctor inserts a beveled needle under the skin at a parallel angle to the skin’s surface. The needle is moved in and out to break up the underling fibers of the skin. This procedure destroys the scar.


Hypertrophic Scar – a raised hard mass that can be purple, red or pink. It seems to form after a lesion and sometimes ends up being larger that the area that was infected or damaged. These scars are not caused by a loss of tissue, they develop from an overproduction of collagen. The scars are best treated with cortisone creams or injections used to shrink and flatten the scar. Interferon injections are also used to soften scar tissue.