Most people, if not everyone, has to deal with acne at some point in their life. Much of the time, acne becomes a problem during the teenage years.
While acne is not a life threatening problem, there are some side effects that can be quite unpleasant as this condition affects your physical health and your social health. Depending on how you treat acne, the acne may recede without leaving a mark, or it may scar and leave a mark for years to come.
Scars are very hard to encourage to disappear completely. The best way to get an acne scar to disappear, was to prevent the development of the acne in the first place.
Of course, some scars are much darker and disfiguring than other scars. The scars that are lighter and less disfiguring are easier to treat if they are developed.
There are some topical creams that can help reduce the severity of a disfiguring scar, but in order to truly remove a scar, it is best to undergo a surgical, skin peel, or skin resurfacing procedure. Some people confuse a scar with the change in color that may present itself as the acne heals.
Acne spots that have been picked at are especially prone to leaving a mark. As these wounds heal, they often turn bright red or pink.
Sometimes this is the beginning of a scar, but most of the time this area is simply inflamed due to picking. The change in color is completely normal and it generally goes away as the skin heals.
For the skin to fully heal, it usually takes about six to twelve months. Many people do not realize that it takes such a long time for the skin to fully rejuvenate and heal itself.
As a result, they often think they are plagued with many more permanent scars than they are actually plagued with. One of the common problems with these areas is that they may develop another acne infection before it has fully healed.
If it is not allowed to heal fully before another infection is developed, there is also a much higher chance that a scar will be developed. Permanent scars resulting from acne are the marks on the skin following the infection of acne that have been present for over a year.
There are many ways you can prevent the development of acne scars. The first way is to properly take care of your skin so that acne is not developed.
However, if acne is developed, there are several things you can do to aid the healing process while the area is inflamed. The first thing you will want to make sure you do is protect your skin from the sun.
The rays from the sun are actually quite damaging and they can cause healing to take longer. The best way to protect your skin from the sun is to wear a good sunscreen that does not contain too much oil.
In addition, you may want to consider applying tretinoin to affected areas of the skin. Tretinoin can help speed up the healing process and reduce the affects of the inflammation.
If these things do not work, you may also want to consider applying Alpha-Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) or Beta-Hydroxy Acid (BHA) to affected areas. Make sure you apply these acids with the right concentration or you could cause other skin problems.
You will also want to make sure that you are using the right pH as you do not want burns from the acid. Another thing that you should make sure that you do not do is pick at scabs.
When you do this, you increase the inflammation and interfere with the healing process. If you pull off the scab before it has fully healed, the inflamed change of color will stay much longer.
There are several types of scars that you may develop. These types include icepick, boxcar, and rolling.
Icepick scars are very narrow and very deep. They are hard to remove with dermabrasion treatments or laser resurfacing.
Boxcar scars are round or oval in shape and they usually leave depressions in the skin. These can generally be treated with skin resurfacing treatments as long as they are no deeper than 0.5mm in depth.
Rolling scars are below the surface layer of the skin and they make it appear as though it is rolling. Again, normal skin resurfacing treatments to not treat this kind of scars as they are too deep to fully remove through a typical procedure.
Terry Daniels has been a plastic surgeon for over 20 years and has written hundreds of articles relating to plastic surgery. He recommends plastic surgery Utah for your plastic surgery needs.
Contact Info:
Terry Daniels
TerryDaniels09@gmail.com
http://drstewartmd.com/
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