You can have long term improvement in some acne scars. For depressed scars, a strong chemical peel using a toothpick can help raise the depressed scars/pock marks. Also, this can be done with the co2 laser.

The other way to improve those scars is just to incise them and remove the scars and carry out a reclosure. This new incision can then be resurfaced with a chemical peel or laser to improve the appearance of the new incision. This can be done all throughout your face. It takes a lot of work but it can be done and a noticeable improvement can be accomplished.

Studies show that most resurfacing and peels can last 8-10 years.  This is the time it will take to return to what you had prior to the peel or resurfacing.

Peels and resurfacing with either chemicals or lasers do take away unwanted layers of your skin. But they usually create a layer of good skin that helps with the reduction of wrinkles. This new layer of collagen is newly produced to help your skin tone, decrease pore size, and improve texture. An additional benefit is that it decreases the chances of skin cancer by allowing new skin to rejuvenate your skin.

There is a thinning affect that adjusts over time.  But it doesn’t really change the basic anatomy of your skin other than increasing an organized layer of collagen underneath the stem cells within the skin.

Consulting a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon would be something that I would recommend. We specialize in the face and are highly qualified to help you with this.

I have a lot of patients with sensitive skin and they seemed to do well with resurfacing. Obviously, everybody is different and you would have to get a complete history and physical exam to make sure that you are okay to receive this particular treatment.

Here are some of the contraindications to having a resurfacing:

previous cancers or active skin cancers, on Accutane within the last 1-2 years, medications such as tetracycline, chloroquine, bleomycin, amiodorone, St. John’s wart, recent sun exposure within the last 4-8 weeks, recent skin procedure within the last 4-8 weeks, previous chemical peel or laser within the last 6 mos to a year, skin koebnerizing diseases, autoimmune diseases, hiv, active infections, herpes, lupus, hormonal/endocrine diseases, bleeding disorders, history of keloid and hypertrophic scar formation, pregnancy / nursing, porphyria, previous radiation to the face.

You can always start slow as well and do more superficial chemical peels first before progressing to more advanced and deeper peels.

In terms of whether they are permanent, this is a difficult question because permanent can mean forever and nothing lasts forever.  Studies show that after a resurfacing, and this depends on how it is done and how aggressive, the results lasts around 8-10 years and then you will likely want to do this again.

Consulting a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon would be something that I would recommend. We specialize in the face and are highly qualified to help you with this.

This is a question that I answered for someone who had a procedure by another physician.

Hypopigmentation from a chemical peel about a month ago is a little early for permanent hypopigmentation. This condition can and usually shows up months later. If this is permanent there are some special treatment light systems that can help with bringing back the pigmentation. But these do not always completely help the pigmentation. Some others have attempted skin grafts with siginificant recovery and problems. I would wait to do anything extreme. I would consider topical skin medications to possibly cut down on the inflammation if there is any. This will help with the inflammation continuing to hurt the melanocytes and preventing their migration into the skin areas.  Melanocytes are the cells within your skin that produces the pigment melanin that is dispersed throughout the skin cells in the area.

Consulting a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon would be something that I would recommend. We specialize in the face and are highly qualified to help you with this.