If you’ve been dealing with acne since your teenage days, you’re familiar with the unpleasant whiteheads and blackheads that come with it. But acne scars can be left behind after your acne has healed, and they can make you feel self-conscious well into adulthood.
Fortunately, there’s a treatment called fractional skin resurfacing that can help with acne scars and other types of scars. Patients dealing with acne scars and other skin conditions in the areas of Yuma and Tucson, Arizona, can benefit from the latest technology in skin treatment at Peach Skin and Laser. We use the AcuPulse™ resurfacing laser, which delivers amazingly effective results.
Here’s how skin and scar resurfacing treatment works and what it can do for your skin and your confidence.
What causes acne scars?
When your pores are filled with excess oil, dead skin, and bacteria, they create the perfect ground for acne, and if it’s bad enough, it can leave behind acne scars.
If the lesions left by acne are shallow, they heal quickly and are less likely to cause scarring. But deep infections in your pores can affect surrounding skin, causing deep lesions and lasting scars.
Acne scars come in two types: hypertrophic and atrophic. Atrophic acne scars are the most common type. They form when not enough collagen (a protein that helps in building skin cells) is created while your skin is healing. This results in depressed scars that sit just below the surrounding skin.
If you’re dealing with chest and back acne, you’re more likely to have hypertrophic scars. These scars form above the surface of the surrounding skin when too much collagen is produced while healing.
How does AcuPulse™ work?
Ironically, treatments that increase collagen production are commonly used to diminish acne scars.
Resurfacing treatments like the AcuPulse laser are designed to increase the production of collagen to help smooth the surface of your skin.
Fractional lasers work on the two outer layers of skin, the epidermis and the dermis, by using a laser that is divided into thousands of tiny columns of focused light that penetrate the skin. As a result, old skin cells are expelled, and new collagen forms and heals quickly to give you smoother skin.
What is the treatment like?
AcuPulse is an outpatient treatment, so you can go back to your regular activities on the same day.
The procedure can take up to a half hour, and we start by applying a local anaesthetic to the area to be treated. The AcuPulse device is then applied to eliminate old skin cells and stimulate collagen growth. You will experience a warm sensation during the treatment, but it is painless.
Once the procedure is done, the treated skin may be red and mildly swollen for a few hours, which can be treated with ice and over-the-counter pain relievers.
New skin will start to appear in a couple of weeks, and during this time, you should not use cosmetics, sunscreens, or any other products that can irritate your face. A single treatment can give you better, smoother skin that lasts for years.
There’s no reason to let acne scars affect how you see yourself. If you’re ready for change, make an appointment with Peach Skin and Laser today to see the new you.