What Causes Acne Scars?

Intuitively, acne scars are caused by acne. But what exactly is the mechanism for forming these difficult to erase scars?

Firstly, an acne lesion is formed when a hair follicle becomes clogged. How do these follicles get blocked? When acne-causing bacteria react with the skin's natural oils, a very skin-irritating oil is produced and easily blocks pores. When plugged, debris and other elements begin to amass, which in turn, cause the acne lesion seen in the epidermis.

The human body responds to the collection of debris as it does to all infections. White blood cells are made and sent to the site of infection, in this case the clogged pore. The infection is resolved, however, a wound forms. In the process of healing the dermis wound, scarring occurs. Because acne scars occur deep in the skin, they are often more difficult to treat.

What are Rolling Acne Scars?

There are several types of acne scars. Acne scars are generally atrophic and result due to a loss in tissue but can also appear raised like keloid scars and hypetrophic scars. Ice pick scars, boxcar scars and rolling scars are the most commonly seen atrophic scars.

Characterized by its undulating appearance, rolling scars are wider and shallower than the other atrophic acne scars. The reason for this is due to the formation of bands of tissue between the layers of skin, pulling it down in some areas.

How Do I Treat Rolling Scars?

There are a number of rolling scars treatment options available. These include dermabrasion, laser resurfacing, subcutaneous incision and filler injections. Although these options will reduce some visibility of scars on the outer layer(s) of skin, remember that no solution is 100%.

Dermabrasion is skin resurfacing treatment that removes the several layers of skin. By doing so, dermabrasion increases the turnover rate of skin cells and gets rid of those that might exaggerate scars, this however is not the most effective procedure for deep scars.

Skin resurfacing treatments using lasers have similar results, working well with shallow scarring but not well with ice pick or deep rolling scars. Lasers are used to strip away the superficial skin layer and also damage that of the dermis. The healing that occurs afterwards is due to the migration of epidermal cells from adjacent, healthy skin. Because of the need for undamaged healthy skin cells in the healing process, deep or wide scars would not be effectively solved by laser.

A very promising rolling scars treatment is subcision, or subcutaneous incision. It is a solution that works from the inside out to lift the scar tissue. The local area is anesthetized and the fibers pulling the skin down are cut.

Get a consultation with your dermatologist on how to get rid of rolling scars based on your skin type; he or she might recommend combining acne scar removal procedures. Often, these cosmetic procedures are routinely followed with filler injections are done in conjunction with another resurfacing procedure. If a subcised scar does not rise to the same level of surrounding tissue, a filler injection might be the last step.