Make no mistake: most pimple scar skin care remedies and techniques are expensive, and they need to be undertaken for a long period of time before any results can emerge. Before you can understand how pimple scar skin care works, however, you need to know about pimple first and what can cause scarring.
Pimple vulgaris
Pimple vulgaris is caused by the clogging of skin pores by dirt, debris, or dried skin cells. This clogging causes pimples to form, creating the well-known cystic pimple that is common in teenagers or persons with hormonal imbalances. The underlying cause of pimple vulgaris has yet to be determined, however: some doctors and scientists propose that fluctuating hormonal levels contribute to pimple, while others surmise that pimple vulgaris is genetic in nature and can be inherited from one's parents.
Whatever the cause of pimple, dermatologists will always caution you to refrain from touching your face, removing the pimples yourself, and, more crudely, "popping your zits". This is because any manual force not exerted by medically-approved means can cause pimple scars to form.
Types of pimple scars
In general, there are two types of pimple scars, the pigmented scars and the pitted ones. Pigmented scars can be red or brown in color, and appear after the pimple has disappeared. Although they can be unseemly to look at, they can disappear after treatment, or they can vanish on their own after a few weeks or months.
On the other hand, pitted scars occur when damage is done to the skin tissue beneath the pimple. Such scars look like indentations on the skin, and are often referred to as pockmarks. Both kinds of pimple scars have their own methods for removal or concealment.
Pimple scar skin care for pigmented scars involves using lotions or creams that have whitening compounds. Such compounds can remove the pigment from the scar and even out one's pigmentation. For instance, exfoliating agents such as glycolic acid or alpha-hydroxy acids can remove dead skin cells from the area so that new skin can immediately be regenerated.
Pimple scar skin care is a little more complicated for pitted scars, as these scars are difficult to erase. Some dermatologists can inject protein stimulators that can induce skin cells to form the important proteins elastin and collagen. Once the cells surrounding the scars start producing these proteins, the skin can be plumper, and the depth of the scars can be made shallower, further reducing their pockmarked appearance.
Laser therapy
Laser treatments can also be used to combat pimple scarring. Ablative laser treatment, for instance, burns scar tissue off from the surface of the skin, which stimulates the underlying skin to tighten. Such a technique injures the skin and exposes underlying tissue, so that people undergoing ablative laser treatment have to likewise be protected from infection. Moreover, because laser therapy can be painful, doctors apply anesthetics to the skin before undertaking any laser procedure.
On the other hand, non-ablative laser treatment can induce changes in the underlying skin tissue without doing injury to the epidermis, or the surface of the skin. Such laser therapy is relatively fast: this time, it heats up the oil glands in the skin, preventing pimple from forming; it also tightens the underlying skin, so that scarring will be less visible. Another type of laser therapy makes use of the yellow pulse dye laser, a machine that operates using yellow light. Yellow light treats keloids, and can flatten or reduce inflammation of raised scars.
Fat transplant
There are other options for pimple scar skin care. A dermatologist may offer to inject the scar, or plump it up, with filler substances such as bovine collagen. Fat can also be transplanted from other parts of the patient's body and into the pimple scar. Some dermatologists may also recommend creams or lotions that can plump the skin temporarily and remove any sign of wrinkles, pimple scar depressions, or age lines. There are also excision and incision techniques that can be carried out on irregularly-shaped pimple scars.
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