Scars occur as a result of skin injury. “Injury” to the skin can result from: traumatic injury, surgery, burns, or inflammation of the skin (eg acne).
Some scars may be aesthetically displeasing. Some scars may be itchy and painful.
There are a variety of treatments that can improve the appearance of scars, as well as reduce the itchy and painful symptoms of scars.
There are different types of acne scars. They can be divided into:
Acne often leaves behind brown discoloration. This problem is common in individuals with darker skin tones and in people who repeatedly squeeze their pimples and manipulate their skin. Post inflammatory hyperpigmentation usually improves spontaneously over time but this may take many months or even years. It is important to avoid excessive sun exposure as this can aggravate the brown discoloration. Skin lightening creams and chemical peels can help to speed up the lightening of these scars.
Atrophic acne scars refer to depressed or “sunken” scars that occur post acne. These occur as a result of collagen damage caused by severe, prolonged, inflammatory or cystic acne.
To avoid development of atrophic scars, acne should be treated early.
Atrophic acne scarring can be improved with procedural treatments such as resurfacing lasers, subcision, filler injection, and scar revision surgery. Sometimes, a combination of the aforementioned treatments is required.
Hypertrophic scars and keloids are thick, bumpy scars. They can develop after surgery ( eg Caesarean- section), vaccinations, burn injury, acne, skin piercings or tattoos. The upper arms, upper back, chest and jawline are especially prone to hypertrophic scars and keloids. They can be red, itchy, painful or hypersensitive.
These scars can be treated with intralesional injections, lasers, medicated gels and silicon plasters. Selected patients will also benefit from scar revision surgery.