The human body scars when it’s injured or when it suffers a wound. Acne scars usually result from inflammation of a lesion, like when a person gets a cyst, papule or pustule. This inflammation happens inside the hair follicle or the pore. The follicle or the pore becomes engorged as it fills up with oil, bacteria and dead skin.
This leads to the follicle wall breaking. If this happens closer to the surface of the skin, the lesion should heal fast. The problem comes when the break is deeper in the follicle. Infected material leaks out and starts to damage the dermis, destroying otherwise healthy skin tissue.
The body then reacts to this damage by injecting the damaged area with a bunch of collagen fibers. Collagen is one of the building blocks of our skin. It is a protein that makes your skin strong and flexible. Unfortunately, the body’s repair job is never as good as how the skin looked prior to the injury.
As the wound caused by the acne starts to heal, there is the chance that the body will make too much collagen. This leads to raised tissue on the skin surface. Terms like hypertrophic or keloid scarring are used to describe this condition.
It is more common for individuals with acne scars to experience atrophic scars. This is where the damaged tissue is actually lost. An example of this is ice pick or boxcar scars. You will see individuals who have little pock marks all over their face as a result of their acne.
There is a connection between inflammation and scar development. The more inflamed the skin is, the higher chances there are that scarring will develop. The deeper the breakout, the longer it is going to take for the damage to heal. This also increases the chance that acne scarring will occur.
There are certain things that you can do to minimize the chance that your acne is going to result in scarring. First and foremost, try to reduce the inflammation as much as possible. The best thing that you can do is to get your acne under control as quickly as possible.
Whether you are dealing with acne or the resulting acne scars, the team at Estetika Skin & Laser Specialists can help. We have various treatments available that aim to treat both of these conditions. Contact us today to schedule a consultation at our office in Delafield or Milwaukee.
