What can fraxel, ipl, chemical peels do to help Acne? The patient who asked this question also mentioned that another doctor told him that the scars eventually all reform and recreate the past scars. What can be done for this patient.
Acne scars (Dr Young Bellevue Washington) can be improved through excisions, resurfacing, fat injections. It all depends on the type of scar you want to improve. If there involves a significant difference in the level of the scar you need to improve that mostly by excision. This is more so with depressed scars. There are many ways to try to elevate the scars including very strong chemical peels in the depressed scars which will elevate the scars. Subcision is a technique that can be used to incise around the depressed scar releasing the tethering component to allow the scar to rise up to the level of the surrounding skin. Or just excision which is the better choice because you make the ultimate incision smaller. Resurfacing after the subcision or excision comes next and this is where the incisions are made to look less noticeable. Sometimes through acne, scarring is extensive in the subdermal and subcutaneous plane causing large areas to be adhesed to the deeper tissue. Filler can separate this scarring but the best thing for this is fat injections. Injecting fat into this large layer of scar will soften the adhesions and allow the skin to become more free. The extra volume also allows the skin to be taken up more reducing more lines and wrinkles and a coalescence of scars to make larger scars. Also with the layer of fat, the skin can begin to heal and remodel itself to make the skin look better.
IPL can decrease any vascularity from the acne. Fraxel can shrink some parts of the scar. While chemical peels can remove some of the scars that are more superficial. But my preference is to excise and then resurface with a co2 laser. I also consider fat grafting underneath the skin to allow it to heal. I personally don’t think fraxel works well for Acne scars. IPL can help with the vascularity of the scars if they are new or possibly any pigmentation issues of the scars but that is the most it will do. Chemical peels can help like any resurfacing but can be limited without changing the depressed or raised nature of the scars.
Here is a live demonstration video of an Acne Treatment Procedure.
Thanks for reading, Dr Young
Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington