Treating Acne & Acne Scars

​Maintaining a clear and smooth skin complexion is an often difficult, but always important issue for most teenagers, especially teen girls.
No active young girl wants to be saddled with visible acne or acne scars from past flare ups. It helps to understand more about acne in order to figure out what to do about the different types of acne and acne scarring: Acne lesions or pimples usually occur when the hair follicles and pores on the skin get plugged with oil and dead skin cells. A plugged follicle is the optimum place for bacteria to grow and create the bumps and lumps known as pimples.

Acne comes in different forms ranging from mild acne, like whiteheads or blackheads, to moderate acne, which can include red pimples with white centers called pustules, to the most severe form of acne that causes painful lumps to appear under the surface of the skin. Most acne scarring is caused by severe acne because the nodules are more likely to leave permanent scars than other types of acne. Obviously, it is important to get treatment for acne as soon as it appears to prevent severe acne and scarring. When nodules are present, it can be serious and a doctor or dermatologist should be consulted for treatment.

If you’re lucky, acne marks left behind from prior pimples will eventually fade away and will not require special treatment. Be warned that the old adage that picking or squeezing acne can increase scarring is quite true. If you do get acne scarring it will occur as either scars with gradual dips or depressions, or scars that are deep and narrow. Any case of acne needs to be under control before the scars can be treated, and the treatment depends on how severe the scars are.

Acne Scar Treatments:

Laser resurfacing is a procedure that can usually be done right in the doctor's office. The laser removes the damaged top layer of skin and tightens the middle layer, leaving the overall skin surface smoother. Treatment takes about an hour and it takes between 3 and 10 days for the skin to heal completely.

Dermabrasion  is an acne treatment that uses a rotating brush or other spinning instrument to sand down the surface of the skin. After the skin heals, a new and smoother layer of skin should replaces the old scars. A dermabrasion treatment usually between 10 days and 3 weeks.

Fractional laser therapy works on deeper levels of the skin than laser resurfacing or dermabrasion. Because the effects of fractional laser therapy do not affect the top layer of skin, the healing time is shorter and there is little visible evidence of the treatment. At most, a person may look a bit sunburned for a few days.