Acne Scarring

Before and After Photos

Acne is seen as a teenage rite of passage by many people, but unfortunately, this common skin condition can leave permanent scarring on the face and body. Acne scars are a major cause of distress, as they are difficult to cover with makeup and often get worse with age. All acne scarring is not the same and when selecting a treatment, one must first determine the type of acne scar. Different types of acne scars include ice pick scars (small deep pits), rolling scars (broader valleys), boxcar scars (craters with sharp vertical edges), and hypertrophic scars (raised hard scars).

Dr. Ort and staff specialize in many different types of treatment for acne scarring. CROSS treatment (chemical reconstruction of skin scars) is very useful to treat deep ice pick scars using pinpoint application of 100% TCA. Subcision is an effective, unique surgical method to undermine rolling scars and raise them up to a more natural level. Another option for isolated boxcar scars is simple surgical excision, which converts a crater scar to a fine line.

A final option for many different types of acne scars is laser treatment. Pulsed dye laser can be very useful to reduce the redness and improve the texture of recent acne scars. Alternatively, treatment with non-ablative lasers such as Q-switched Nd:YAG laser or Affirm fractional laser can improve acne-scarred skin with essentially no downtime. Another option is Portrait plasma resurfacing, which heats and peels the surface of the skin, resulting in smoother, healthier, and tighter skin. For the future, fractional CO2 lasers promise to allow very deep delivery of laser energy which may prove very beneficial for deep acne scars.