Acne scar removal

Going through several years of your teenage years coping with the stress and discomfort of acne can be tough enough without having to deal with battle scars later on in life. Unfortunately, in a lot of cases, acne does tend to leave unattractive scars.

There are three types of acne: mild acne - white and blackheads, moderately severe acne - red inflamed pimples called papules and red pimples with white centers called pustules, severe acne which is the cause of nodules - painful cysts or lumps filled with pus, which appear underneath the skin.

Most of the scarring occurs with severe acne and there are various levels of severity. Although coping with embarrassing markings leftover by acne can be psychologically painful, some of them do eventually fade away on their own.

Macules: These are flat, reddish spots that can remain for up to 6 months after the acne lesion flattens. This isn't considered to be a true scar because once it has completely healed, no markings will be visible.

Post-inflammatory pigmentation: is when the skin becomes discolored where the acne lesion either has or is in the process of healing. While it occurs more frequently in darker skinned people, it does also affect lighter skinned people as well.

And then there are the scars that alter the texture or appearance of the skin like: ice pick scars, box car scars, rolling scars, and hypertrophic scars.

Knowing the type of scars you have probably doesn't make you feel better. What would really make your day is knowing how to get rid of the unsightly markings. Thanks to today's technology and the skills of dermatologists, it is possible to remove acne scars.

There are many types of acne removal. One of the most popular is laser resurfacing. The laser will remove the top layer of damaged skin and tightens the middle layer, returning skin to a smoother state. Recovery time is pretty short, giving about 3-10 days until your skin heals completely.

Dermabrasion involves using a rotating brush to abrasively wear down the top layer of skin. Once the scarred layer has been removed, a new smooth layer grows back to replace it. Skin recovery for this method is a bit lengthy, ranging from 10 days to approximately three weeks.

A new form of treatment is fractional laser therapy. Although it is quite expensive, it works on a deeper level of skin than the other two treatments, speeding up the healing time.

Regardless of which method you choose, your skin should be able to return to its previous state (or as close to it as possible) once one of these three treatments are completed.

Sometimes, when we watch a commercial many times over, we feel influenced by the advertising contained within. Being shown a model with perfectly flawless skin really seems to inspire our whimsical impulses. Soon, before we have a chance to reason it out, we begin to associate that product with that model and run off to the nearest shopping mall to add it to the cabinet above our bathroom sink. But a lot of skin products that are shown on TV aren't necessarily good for our complexion or our acne. In fact, many of them contain heavy oils that will suffocate your pores further, enticing acne to gather its forces for another attack. So before you hastily buy a product based on what you think it's capable of doing for you, do a little bit of research to make sure that it is indeed suitable for your acne prone skin.

Always check the ingredients on the back of the label, no matter how small, to make sure that you know what you're going to be putting on your face. Steer clear of unidentified chemicals until you are absolutely certain that there aren't any side effects and that they are safe to apply to your skin, including your acne scars. Scars are bad enough as is without unconsciously making them worse. The best is to play it safe and stick to natural ingredients in the beginning because you'll be reassured that they won't have any adverse effects on your sensitive skin. Go one step further and only choose products which match your skin type. That means, if you have sensitive skin, don't go rubbing in a lotion that was meant for oily skin. Trust me when I say you'll be making your scars and lesions much worse if you aren't careful.

Skip the makeup application whenever possible as well to give your skin time to breathe. Some natural light makeup brands are okay for using with acne because they don't contain pore-clogging oils. Even though, wearing them constantly does make your skin feel dry, oily, or tired so you should occasionally give it a break.

Some scars like macules aren't permanent and will fade away in good time. Prior to hyping yourself up about acne scar removal, you should decide if it's really worth the time and money. Make sure your scars really are permanent before considering something like laser treatment for getting rid of them. You don't want to throw away your life savings on some pesky macules after all. Go to your family doctor and get a referral to a dermatologist that will be able to tell you if your scars qualify as permanent ones and what kind of options are open to you for having them removed.

Don't forget to ask a lot of questions about what is causing your acne outbreaks in the first place too! By learning the triggers, you'll be more capable of fighting acne head-on to minimize or prevent future scarring. This is just as important as removing those scars because if you are a chronic acne sufferer, those probably won't be the last scars that you'll be seeing after you successfully have them removed. By stopping acne from re-forming, as well as clearing up your scars and improving your confidence and self-esteem, you'll be well on your way to a much happier, healthier lifestyle.