Acne scars begin with the appearance of acne. This skin ailment starts when the skin is irritated by excess sebum, the oil that is usually produced by the sebaceous glands to moisturize and protect the skin. Outside factors to sebum production include hormone imbalance and high stress levels.

With increased sebum output, the delicate cells lining the hair follicle can be damaged as it makes its way to the skin's surface. Other contributing factors can alter the state of the sebum, making it even more harmful to the skin. These factors include a lack of essential fatty acids, which cause the sebum to become less liquid and acne causing bacteria.

This change in the state of sebum makes it more prone to blocking pores, trapping dirt and debris within the follicle and causing the already existent bacteria population to multiply. The body's immune response to fight off these foreign bodies and protect the skin includes an inflammatory response that actually wounds the skin matrix. In their efforts to remove the antigens, immune cells destroy healthy, surrounding tissue. Furthermore, the injury to the dermal layer also affects the amount of collagen found and produced, ultimately leaving a scar.

Body acne scars can have the appearance of hypertrophic and atrophic scars. Hypertrophic and keloid scars refer to those that protrude from the skin, the second not staying confined to the wound's original boundaries. These scars are typically found on the chest or back. The more common scars that result from facial acne are depressed or atrophic acne scars. Ice pick, box car and rolling scars are bound down because the injury is found at the dermal layer, also making these types of scars very difficult to remove.

Facial Acne Scar Treatment Options

To rid facial acne scars, normal scar procedures won't cut it. For example, injecting steroids (like it is done in hypertrophic scars) to make them flat will not help. In fact, it is quite difficult to bring depressed skin up to its original level.

In order to raise skin, one must generate new and healthy skin cells. Facial resurfacing for acne scars is a way to raise your lowered skin. Resurfacing methods differ in the removal of skin but all have the general idea of a controlled removal of skin to encourage healthy skin cell growth.

Laser resurfacing for facial acne scars uses non-ablative lasers on the skin, sending quick pulses of high energy light. The light is converted into heat energy that systematically vaporizes one layer after the next of skin. This process does more than just laser face acne scars away. Scar tissue is eliminated and new skin is encouraged to grow, replacing the tissue that was done away with. For a precise, safe method, laser skin resurfacing acne scars causes little outside damage to surrounding skin. For these reasons, it is often the preferred method for treating scars on the face.

There are other resurfacing options but are not as effective. Dermabrasion for acne scars is a less precise way of regenerating new skin. Dermabrasion entails a high speed rotary instrument with abrasive fixtures to remove the layers of skin. Chemical peels on facial acne scars use similar thinking but peel away skin layers with a chemical solution that first causes the skin to blister.

These methods are typically applied to the entire face with lengthy recovery periods.

You might also consider facial surgery for acne scars. Subcision detaches the lower levels of skin so it is less depressed. The various punch techniques are used for deep scars, especially ice pick. These techniques that remove the tissue with the contained scar include punch excision, punch excision with skin grafting and punch elevation.

For a temporary solution, dermal fillers can be used to treat facial acne scars.