As if acne itself isn’t enough of a pain to have on our faces and bodies, they also have to leave delightful little souvenirs behind after they’re gone.
Welcome to the world of acne scars.
Considering that acne affects up to 50 million Americans every year, you’d think that there are a plethora of options and treatments available, and you’d be partially correct.
One of the key methods of removing or camouflaging acne scars is using dermal fillers. If you’re unfamiliar with what dermal fillers are, no worries. You’ve come to the right place.
Keep on reading for our full breakdown of the source of acne scarring, how it forms, and the different types of dermal fillers that can treat and remove those scars.
What Are Acne Scars?
Before we start our deep dive into the different types of dermal fillers, let’s cover our basics.
In the simplest of terms, acne scars are the term used to describe permanent indentations that are textural in nature and show up as the result of severe acne. Generally speaking, those scars aren’t brown, they’re skin-colored. If there’s a discoloration, those are considered hyperpigmentation marks and are easier to remove than acne scars.
Acne scars will remain on your skin and would only improve in appearance by using the right dermal filler.
The Cause of Acne Scarring
More often than not, when someone is dealing with a severe acne outbreak, they’ll be dealing with a specific type of acne, which is cystic acne. This involves large pus-filled spaces, which are known as acne cysts.
Basically, those cysts will actively destroy the skin tissue around them, and once they’ve dried out, your skin has lost the ability to fill those empty spaces during the healing process. That’s how the scars form. If you’re noticing that the scars are lumpy, specifically the ones on your chest or back areas, these are known as hypertrophic or keloid scarring.
Acne scarring tends to show on the face. It has a different texture in comparison to your healthy undamaged skin, and it’ll be your normal skin color. On the other hand, if you’re seeing keloid scars, they’ll usually red in color.
Here are the major types of acne scars:
- Ice pick acne scars
- Red acne scars, otherwise known as macular scars
- Mixed acne scars
- Boxcar acne scars
- Lumpy hypertrophic and keloid scars
- Rolling, atrophic, and depressed acne scars
Regardless of the type of acne scars you’re dealing with, there’s bound to be a dermal filler that best suits your needs.
How Do Dermal Fillers Work?
When you treat acne scars using dermal fillers, you’ll be tapping into the benefits of a non-invasive cosmetic procedure. Simply put, the treatment is made of a series of injections of different types of fillers.
You get to immediately see the results of these cosmetic injections. Yet, some types of dermal fillers take a few months for the results to be seen with the naked eye.
An example would be treating atrophic acne scars. The treatment would involve doing a subcision combined with dermal filler injections. When you combine these two processes, you’ll be releasing old scar tissue, as well as stimulating new collagen production at the same time.
As time goes on, your dermal fillers themselves will cause an increase in your natural collagen production, which can immensely help with healing those depressed scars.
The Types of Dermal Fillers
As there are different types of acne scars and scarring, there are also different types of dermal fillers to best treat them.
A consultation is usually required (and definitely recommended) before starting the procedure to nail down the right dermal fillers to use for your specific case. Moreover, you might have heard about the comparison between dermal fillers and wrinkle relaxers, but you’ll want to check out these methods before making a decision.
For now, here are the main types of dermal fillers on the market.
The Juvederm
If you’re dealing with deep acne scars, your medical professional will probably recommend using Juvederm. It’s one of the most popular dermal fillers, and it’s made of hyaluronic acid. This acid is a stronger version of the natural hyaluronic acid that your skin produces deep within your dermal layers.
By injecting the hyaluronic acid into the acne scars themselves, you’ll be encouraging your skin to produce collagen and replace the loss that occurred in the depressed areas of your skin.
The Restylane
Whether you’ve heard about it under the name of Restylane L, Restylane Lyft, or Restylane Silk, all of those belong to the Restylane family of dermal fillers.
Each subtype has a different thickness level, which can be used to restore the lost collagen volume in your small depressed atrophic scars. These are considered to also be hyaluronic acid-based filler, but they tend to show immediate improvement, as well as promise lasting and long-term results.
The Bellafill Filler
This one doesn’t use hyaluronic acid. Bellafill is actually made of a mix of animal collagen and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). The actual combination, that’s FDA-approved, tends to be 80% collagen and 20% PMMA.
The PMMA comes in to extend the lifespan of the correction of the scar tissue, while the collagen itself single-handedly corrects the acne scars themselves. Those fillers won’t wait for your body to generate collagen by itself.
The Sculptra for Acne Scars
This filler is known for the unique benefit of lasting over two years after your cosmetic correction has been achieved.
Sculptra is a dermal filler made of Poly-L-Lactic Acid (PLLA), which works on stimulating your body’s natural collagen production, in addition to replacing the skin volume loss.
Ready for Some Concrete Healing Treatments?
We know how frustrating it can be to have to deal with the aftereffects of acne, nevermind the acne itself.
However, with the current dermatological advancements, you can take advantage of the different types of dermal fillers, and get that clear skin that you’ve kissed goodbye in high school.
Just remember to get in your consultation first, and ensure that you won’t be getting any major acne breakouts before starting your treatments.