Acne is like a rude guest who not only shows up uninvited but also leaves a mess behind.
That mess can come in a variety of forms, all of which are scars. Welcome to the different types of acne scars.
Both active acne and its scarring can negatively affect our self-confidence and self-worth. The very first step to dealing with your acne scars is knowing what they are.
If you’re unfamiliar with the different kinds of acne scars, no worries. You’ve come to the right place. Keep on reading for our full breakdown of acne scars, and how they develop in the first place.
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Going back to our rude guest metaphor, the mess they leave behind can take different shapes.
For instance, if they might have left some trash lying around, which is annoying, but it’s easy to deal with. Sometimes, they can leave a big mess that you have to call the professionals to deal with them.
It’s always preferable to deal with your acne when it’s active, so you can prevent it from leaving scars. You can neutralize your acne by using high-quality products like Neutralyze. You can find more information here.
Severe cases of the following types of acne scars would definitely require you to go to your dermatologist for help and advice.
Let’s start with one of the most common types of acne scarring, and those are atrophic scars.
Generally speaking, atrophic scars look like shallow depressions that tend to heal under the top layer of your skin. Even though they’re expected to show up after dealing with cystic acne, they can still occur with other kinds of acne.
Keep in mind that there are three kinds of atrophic scars, and they can vary depending on your genetics and history with acne.
Similar to its naming, those are narrow-yet-deep scars that can reach your dermis layer. They look like your skin has been pierced with an ice pick or a needle.
They develop right after a deeply inflamed infection, like severe cystic acne. In short, your skin gets destroyed in the process and leaves an empty verticle gap in your skin.
The most common way to treat ice pick scars is a punch excision, where your physician cuts out your scar and glues your skin back together to aid with its healing process.
Yet, you’ll want to keep in mind that this procedure will still leave you with a small scar. But, the remaining scars won’t be noticeable, as they’re level with your surrounding skin.
When you’re seeing oval or round depressions in your skin, with some deep vertical sides, you’re probably dealing with boxcar scars.
Those tend to be wider than ice pick scars. They give your skin a pitted and uneven look. Unfortunately, your inflammation has destroyed collagen, so your original tissue is gone.
Basically, your skin in the troublesome is left with no support, so the whole layer can take a depressed look. The depression can be mild or it can be severe in nature.
You’ll find that the most popular treatment for boxcar scars on the market is using a dermal filler.
In short, a filler is injected right into the scar, with aids with raising the depressed area and making it look more even with the surrounding skin.
Rolling scars are quite similar to boxcar scarring. However, it looks likes a carved valley, covering a wider expanse of your skin.
It’s not as sharply defined as boxcar scars, so it tends to leave your skin looking craggy and uneven.
Those tend to develop when your fibrous bands of scar tissue grow between your subcutaneous tissue on the lower level and your upper layer of skin.
Those bands tie your epidermis to the deeper layers of your skin, giving it a rolling appearance.
This one needs the help of subcision. It’s an effective method for treating rolling scars, as your physician cuts the fibrous bases of your scar that have been causing all of this trouble.
Once it’s removed, your skin will look smoother and more even.
This is the second category of acne scars, where instead of dealing with the loss of tissue, you’re facing an abnormal increase in tissue due to trauma.
For hypertrophic scars, you’ll see raised scars that look like it’s growing above the top layer of your skin. Yet, keep in mind that those scars are less common than your normal atrophic scarring.
They tend to occur in the torso area, especially for men. And, they’re more common to appear after the healing process of a deep wound.
The other type of scaring is developing keloids. The main difference between keloids and hypertrophic scars is that a keloid will grow even larger than your original wound or acne area.
Those types of acne develop because your skin overproduced collagen in response to trauma. When it comes to keloids, your skin doesn’t register that your wound has healed, so it continues to produce more and more collagen.
There are many options available to you and your healthcare provider. The best method will depend on your specific case.
Those include using silicone gels, steroid creams, tapes, cryotherapy, injections, and even laser treatments to remove to shrink your scar.
However, you’ll want to keep in mind that the reason why this type of scaring should up in the first place is due to trauma, so make sure the method used to remove the scar is as gentle as possible to lower the risk of your scars coming back.
Ready to Move On to Clearer Pastures?
We know how depressing and overwhelming it can be to deal with both active acne and the different types of acne scars that remain after the battle.
Hopefully, our little guide has shed some light on the different treatments. In addition to the quick explainer on how those scars came to be.
If you liked our article, you’ll want to check out our beauty section for all the skin tips and tricks you could possibly need.
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