Acne Treatments Guide - Articles

Before discussing acne scars and their treatment, it's important to point out that reddish acne marks that may mirror scars are not actually scars because no permanent change has happened. In other words they are not real scarring and disappear in time, however, while they are visible they can cause uneasiness.

Lesions known as macules or "pseudo-scars" are flat, red or reddish spots that appear in the final stage of most inflamed acne lesions. After an inflamed acne lesion flattens, a macule may remain in the lesion's site for up to 24 more weeks. When a macule eventually disappears, no trace of it will remain, unlike a scar.

After the inflammation of an acne lesion has passed, skin pigmentation can become dark or discolorated. The lesion's color can range from light brown to black. Under sunlight exposure (UV rays), lesions may become darker. It occurs more commonly in darker-skinned people, but is sometimes observed in people with fair skin. Early application of a natural skin care product attenuates the occurrence of post-inflammatory pigmentation and also vanishes older marks. If untreated, post-inflammatory pigmentation can even continue for up to 18 months, specially with excessive sunlight exposure.

Causes of Acne Scars

Acne scars appear after inflammation or improper healing of some spots. While scarring for some people seems to depend on genetic factors or skin color, precautions can be taken to prevent scars along with treatments, which significantly reduce a scarred skin's appearance.

In the simplest terms, scars appear at the site of damage and are the evident reminders of injury and tissue repair. In the case of acne, the injury is caused by the body's inflammatory reaction to sebum, bacteria, and dead cells in the plugged sebaceous follicle. Two types of true scars exist:

(1) Depressed areas, commonly associated with pitted acne scarring or ice-pick scars, and

(2) Raised hardened tissue such as keloids.

When tissue suffers a lesion, the body sends in its 'repair kit' to the injury site. The skin activitates all its immune and repair systems, where elements such as leukocytes, inflammatory molecules, and regenerative elements have the task of healing tissue and controlling infection. However, when their mission is done they can leave a somewhat messy repair site in the form of fibrous scar tissue, or deteriorated tissue. It's not always that way.

White blood cells and inflammatory molecules may remain at the site of an active acne lesion for days or even weeks. In people who are susceptible to scarring the result may be an acne scar. More studies about the occurrence and incidence of scarring are needed. There is an important variation in scarring between one person and another, indicating that some people are more prone to scarring than others (ex. genetic factors or skin color). Scarring frequently results from severe inflammatory nodular cystic acne that occurs deep in the skin. But, scarring may also appear from more superficial inflamed lesions.