What Options Do I Have for Treating My Acne Scars?

Celibre Medical has several options available to treat many different types of acne scarring.  The one(s) that is right for you will depend on a few things.  The kind of scarring you have, your skin type (or color), and your lifestyle (can you have some downtime?) will all help us determine which treatment(s) is right for you.

Just as every case of acne is different, so is every case of acne scarring.  Finding what will work best for you will require a face-to-face visit.  We can explain some of the different options that we have to you, ask you these important questions about your preferences and lifestyle and most importantly examine, touch, and feel your skin to come up with a custom-made plan that we think will help you the most.

Textured scars (those that are raised and that you can feel with your eyes closed) need different treatments than scars that are flat but discolored.  And discolored scars need different laser treatments depending on whether they are red or brown (dark).  Lastly, some brown or dark scars may respond better to topical treatments rather than laser-based ones.  Let us break down some of these different options for you so that you can better understand what’s involved with each.

Textured Scars

Celibre offers two different options for the treatment of textured acne scars.  The first is non-ablative laser resurfacing.  The upside to this treatment is that it has no downtime.  It uses heat to stimulate new collagen and it doesn’t remove or damage the outer layer of skin.  The drawback is that it may not be the best treatment for deeper scars.

Our second option is ablative laser resurfacing.  This is a more aggressive treatment program, and generally, we see better results with it for those who have this type of acne scarring.  It requires time away from school, work, and social activities (several days) to allow for healing since it does effectively remove layers of skin to stimulate new collagen and smoother-looking skin.

Pigmented Acne Scars

If you have dark, pigmented acne scars, we have a few different options for you.  Celibre has two different q-switched lasers that we use to treat all kinds of problems related to excessive pigmentation:  acne scars, tattoos, sunspots, birthmarks and other darkly pigmented skin issues respond well to these lasers.  They basically use heat to break up the melanin or skin pigmentation (ink in the case of tattoos), which is then naturally removed by your body.

In addition to our q-switched lasers, we also have two different topical treatment programs that use medications that help to block the formation of excessive melanin in the skin and fade the dark spots over time.  We have found these to be helpful in cases where we can’t use the q-switched laser, such as in someone with a darker skin type.

Maybe you have pink or red acne scars that you’d like to get rid of?  Celibre Medical has a different laser called a pulsed dye laser for this type of scarring.  They are usually the result of your body making more blood vessels or capillaries in the skin in the area of a previous acne lesion.  The pulsed dye laser specifically targets a component of the blood in these vessels and is quite effective at getting rid of this type of acne scarring.