It’s hard to believe that pimples and acne can cause lasting damage to your skin. But if you’ve suffered from a pimple or two, then chances are you have some scarring as well.
If you’re looking for ideal acne treatments on the market, this article is for you! This blog post will talk about pimples/acne scars, ways on how to clear pimple scars, and ways to prevent pimples and acne in the first place.
What are Acne Scars?
Acne scars are a type of scar that is caused by pimples or acne. It usually appears as an indentation or pockmark on the skin. Acne scars can be superficial, deep, and pitted acne scars.
These acne scars can happen to a lot of people, even to those who are acne-prone. However, pimples are not the only cause of acne scars. Some other factors that may increase your chances of developing pimples or acne scars include genetics, stress, and inflammation.
Why do they Develop?
Our skin comes with many layers, and it is situated below the epidermis. The pimple or acne forms when your pores become clogged with oil, dead skin cells, and bacteria. This can happen due to some factors such as stress, puberty changes in hormone levels (which makes pimples more than likely to happen), etc.
Pimples form differently depending on what type you have – blackheads or whiteheads. Blackheads are actually tiny pimple that has already risen above the surface, while whitehead pimples still remain under your skin’s top layer, which explains why they’re not visible to people who look at you face-to-face since only those who see from a higher angle can notice their presence because of how small they are.
Acne scars can affect everyone of all skin types; however, those with dark skin might experience more severe acne problems. This is because the hair follicles on their skin are larger than other individuals due to genetics. Acne scarring can make you feel discouraged about your appearance, which affects how people view you as well as manifesting itself in the way that we carry ourselves; we end up feeling insecure or embarrassed about showing our faces every time we see someone new.
Here are some factors that can cause acne scars:
- Stress: Stress is a normal reaction to different situations in life. However, when it becomes chronic and unaddressed for long periods of time, we start seeing acne breakouts on our faces, which can turn into acne scars that last throughout the years.
- Genetics: One of the acne scar causes is genetics. You can have a family history of acne or acne scars which increases your risk of developing the same acne problems as well.
- Hormonal Changes: During puberty, hormonal changes occur in both boys and girls that may cause pimples to show up on our face as well as acne scars due to an increase in oil production on your skin pores.
- Inflammation: A lot of acne problems are caused by inflammation. When a pimple starts to develop, the body’s immune system responds to it and attacks it, which can cause acne scars due to a lack of collagen production in your skin that keeps acne from occurring again.
Types of Acne Scars
There are different acne scar types that you might encounter. However, not all acne scars are permanent and can be removed via acne scar treatments such as laser resurfacing or dermabrasion, especially if the acne scars have been formed recently.
- Superficial Acne Scars: These acne scars usually appear as pink indentations on the skin without any visible peak of a raised bump at its surface.
- Deep acne scars: Deep acne scars tend to change color from one area of your face to another because it is caused by cysts which often leave behind dark marks after they heal up.
- Ice Pick acne scars: This type of acne scar appears as an indented and narrow mark with a sharp peak at the surface that looks like it was carved into your skin using a blade.
- Boxcar acne scars: They look similar to ice pick acne scars but tend to appear rounder, wider, and flatter.
- Rolling acne scars: These acne scars can be any size with an uneven surface that has peaks and dips like rolling hills. They are often found on the cheeks, temples, upper jawline, chin area of your face.
How to Prevent them?
Thankfully, acne scars are preventable, which is why it’s important to start treating acne problems as soon as they appear. If you have a pimple/acne, then the best thing you can do for yourself is to stop touching your face, popping pimples on your own, and picking at acne blemishes until everything has gone away naturally. This is because it will only make all of our issues worse by leaving behind acne scars in their wake.
Cleanse twice a day to keep dirt build-up off of our skin while applying sunscreen or makeup primer underneath any foundation to not clog pores, thus creating even more problems down the road, including wrinkles if not treated properly beforehand.
How to Treat These Acne Scars?
If acne scars have already developed, it’s best to look for acne scar treatments to help you heal them up, so they don’t appear again.
- Scar creams: They can be used on all types of acne scars regardless of their depth or size because this just focuses its efforts onto your skin’s surface instead.
- Laser treatments: Lasers for acne scars are the most effective acne scar treatments to reduce their appearance, especially if they’re quite small.
- Dermabrasion: This type of acne scar treatment uses a motorized tool with rough edges or surfaces to scrape off any top layers of your skin while smoothing over its surface.
- Electrocauterization: This type of acne scar treatment is basically using a small needle or blade which will seal off any blood vessels underneath your skin during the process so that it doesn’t bleed afterward.
- Chemical peels: Chemical peels for acne scars work best on shallow acne scars just below our surface while helping to reduce their appearance without leaving out damage behind after they heal up.
