How To Treat Acne Scars – Advice from an Edmonton Dermatologist
Hi, and welcome back to Edmonton Dermatology Center YouTube channel. I’m here with Andrea. Hello. She’s a registered LPN here at the center. My name is Karen and we’re gonna talk today about how to treat acne scars.
Acne scars. Yeah. So turn those scars into stars. And that’s Robert h Schuler who said that. So of those surveyed a staggering, 96% of people with acne have reported feeling depressed over their condition.
Yeah, acne scarring is a very difficult condition that can lead to decreased self-confidence and lead to depression. We’ve helped improve many patients with acne scarring and help them feel better about their skin. So, Yeah. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, because that is, it’s important. It is.
What causes acne scarring?
So, acne scarring happens of course after you have a lot of acne. So this usually happens to patients that have moderate or severe acne. Severe acne, meaning it’s kind of covering the entire face. They’re large cystic or nodular acne. So those are the ones that are really deep set in the skin. They tend to cause pain, a lot of inflammation. And because they grow so large, it tends to pull down at the collagen, which collagen is the building block to our skin.
So, so you have the big cystic nodular acne that’s pushing aside the collagen or pulling it in awkward directions that actually makes the texture of your skin abnormal. So it’s not straight and flat, it’s kind of lumpy, bumpy mountains and valleys is usually what I call them. So also it happens when we poke and pick at our acne scars.
So the more, essentially the more we push and cause trauma to the area, the more the collagen has to try and heal itself, which collagen is pretty slow at it if you’re not feeding it properly with good skincare. So acne scarring of course can get worse and worse the more you pick at it. Oh, wow. Yeah.
So I know you kind of already talked about it, but is there anything else you wanna add to how to avoid the acne scarring?
Obviously aggressive exfoliation. If you really get in there and almost cause like an abrasion to your skin, like it’s at the point where it’s bleeding not good, that is again going to cause some more acne scarring. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds painful too. Yeah. That’s not fun. No.
So what’s the difference between keloid scars and acne scars?
So there are actually two different ways that your skin tries to heal itself. So with acne scars, like I had mentioned, when you get those big cystic or nodular acne into your skin, it kind of pushes and pulls at the collagen awkwardly. Whereas keloid scars actually is an overgrowth of collagen, so it continues to overlap itself. More collagen, more collagen, more collagen. So you end up with this really bumpy scar somewhere. It’s usually on the chest or back is most common.
I’ve also seen it on the back of the neck in the hairline. I’ve seen ’em on the arms legs as well. It all depends on actually, ethnicity is where keloid scars come in most often. So skin types three and higher tend to be more likely to get keloid scars.
So like I said, it’s that collagen that just keeps building up in your skin for some reason, just thinks it still needs to heal and it grows and grows and grows and gets thicker and harder and they actually can become very painful. Oh, wow. Whereas, like I said, with the acne scars, they’re kind of like these mountains and valleys on your skin. There’s several different types of acne scars. There’s ice pick boxcar those types of scars.
There’s also, you can get linear scars a little bit, especially if you have a line of acne and then you’re picking at it, stuff like that. So those, that’s the different type is collagen is being pulled down and awkwardly. An acne keloid is just going nuts up, going up. Yeah. Very different.
So does having acne mean you’ll have acne scars?
You may not have severe acne scars. Everybody does end up with a little bit of a change in their skin. Whether it’s noticeable or not is dependent on the person. Again, if you don’t poke or pick or if you don’t have cystic or nodular acne it tends to be a little less likely you’re going to notice having acne scars. Unless someone gets right close to you, then they might be able to see something. But some people are more lucky than others. Oh, okay. Yeah.
So are over the counter or drugstore products effective in minimizing scars?
Not necessarily. The reason why I say no is because it, it’s the collagen growth that we really need to factor in. And with over the counter products, they usually are, men are designed to for everybody to use. So they’re pretty minimal. They’re to reduce risk of having people not react to their products.
So really the best way to avoid having acne scars is of course getting your acne treated quicker. Don’t let it last too long where you get the big cystic nodular acne. As well as the picking and poking and stuff like that. Make sure you find a product or come speak to a dermatologist regarding on how to reduce the inflammation the se production, all that kind of stuff to avoid getting any sort of scarring. Okay.
What are some ways to minimize the acne scars?
Again, it’s pretty much coming to speak with a dermatologist. If you’re at the point where you have such severe acne that we really need to get that fixed right away, get that acne treated down, calm down before it causes any more damage to the collagen in your skin to really help rebuild the collagen is something that we need to try, try and get down once your acne is gone. So a lot of the times we really need to target the first problem and then we can start targeting the second problem, which of course is the acne scarring.
There are different ways to do that which again, you do need to come see a dermatologist to kind of speak a little bit further into and decide if it’s at the point where we need to do prescriptions or not. Okay.
So are any of the treatments that are used, do they cause discomfort?
Some of the treatments to treat acne scoring specifically? They can be a little bit uncomfortable because we’re trying to target the collagen in your skin, so that’s actually in the second layer of your skin. So collagen actually likes warmth and heat because it sends nutrients to it. So when it gets nutrients, the collagen is able to rebuild itself. So a lot of treatments actually do cause a bit of warmth and heat in the skin so that your collagen gets that food it needs to regrow itself and become stronger and thicker to avoid any more of that awkward pulling and kind of pushing off and those mountains and valleys again.
Okay. And how long did the treatments actually last for treating acne scars? So it
All depends on the type of treatment. Some of the treatments that we do use here are lasers, specifically the Fraxel laser. So that one we usually take about two hour procedure to actually do the treatment itself, and you may need about a minimum of four treatments. Again, it’s something that we would have to see you face to face to determine like how many exact treatments we would need to fix the acne scarring. Now with scarring, we’re not trying to completely wipe it out.
Unfortunately, scars are going to be there forever. But our goal is essentially to fix it to the point where it’s 50% improved, which is actually a pretty decent number. Yeah. 50% is really good. So getting that 50% improvement really helps kind of reduce that bit of mountains and brings up those valleys just so we can get somewhat of a plateau so that the, the look of your skin doesn’t seem so, like the texture seems better, it’s clearer and people won’t notice the scarring as much.
So yeah, it’s one of those things where you do need to come in to see us here at Edmonton Dermatology and sit down with us and kind of talk a little bit further about treatments and which ones would be best for you as well as skincare. Okay.
And how often should someone come in to have their acne scars treated?
So again, it depends on the type of laser that we use. Our favorite here of course, is the Fraxel laser. So that one is usually, like I said, four treatments. And it’s every four to six weeks that we like to do the next treatment. Sometimes some, you know, life gets in the way, so it’s not always every four to six weeks that a patient is able to come in and see us. So we do extend it a little bit longer.
The results just take longer in the end to really notice a difference. So we do like to keep in that little timeline there of the four to six weeks. But, you know, life gets in the way, so, yeah. But once acne scarring is treated it’s, and you, they’ll have good skincare that’s feeding the collagen properly. You skin will pretty much stay that way.Wow.
You actually just kind of answered my next question was will those acne scars ever come back?
No. Unless again, you get a big flare up of acne, you’re getting that severe reaction again because something is going on with your skin. Again, you need to come see a dermatologist to really figure out exactly what is going on. If you have that big flare up again and you have those cystic nodular or you’re picking, poking, you’re gonna scar your skin again. So it’s important to make sure that we keep that acne at bay and you don’t poke and pick and you’re using proper skincare so that you’re reducing the risk of flareups, of acne.
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Wow. Lots of great information. Yeah, thank you so much for joining us here on the Edmonton Dermatology Center’s YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe below and like this video. If you liked what you heard and you wanna hear more, we’re always giving out more great ideas and advice on treating your skin. Thanks, Andrea. Thank you. Okay, bye. Bye.