Overview
Some 85 percent of people in their teen and young adult years suffer from acne, a sometimes disfiguring skin condition, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Acne lesions can hurt, and they often heal slowly. When they’re particularly deep or become infected, they can leave scars that look like ice-pick marks in the skin. Dermatologists offer several treatments that can improve the appearance of these acne scars.
Significance
Acne appears when the skin produces too much of its own oil, known as sebum, and when skin cells die off too fast, causing irritation in the delicate hair follicles at the skin’s surface, according to the Mayo Clinic. When sebum combines with dead skin cells, the resulting pasty substance can clog up pores, causing whiteheads. Bacteria then grow in the clogged pores, potentially leading to infection and swelling. The result is a pimple that, once it clears, can leave behind an ice-pick mark.
Function
It’s not known why some people get scars from acne and others don’t, but the AAD says the severity of your acne and your genetic heritage both play a role. If one or both of your parents had severe acne with scarring, then you’re more likely to suffer the same fate. Depressed acne scars–such as ice-pick scars–occur most frequently, but you potentially can have a combination of different scar types from your acne. Treatments can make the scars look better but likely won’t erase them completely, the AAD says.
Surgical Treatments
Dermatologists might offer surgery to people with acne ice-pick scars, the AAD says. The surgeon uses a punch to remove the ice-pick marks, then replaces the missing skin with a skin graft, or raises the remaining tissue so that it’s level with the surrounding skin. The surgeon might also perform a subcutaneous incision, which levels the skin and scar area by separating the depressed scar’s tissue from the skin itself.
Nonsurgical Treatments
Dermatologists also have found that physical procedures, such as dermabrasion or laser resurfacing, work reasonably well in smoothing out the skin and diminishing ice-pick scars, the AAD says. For example, a 2008 study in the “Journal of Cosmetic Laser Therapy” followed 35 patients treated with a carbon-dioxide laser for their depressed acne scars. All 35 showed clinical improvement with minimal adverse effects.
Considerations
Because everyone has a different mix of acne scars, dermatologists generally recommend a different mix of treatments for each individual patient, the AAD says. Ice-pick acne scars can be tricky to treat and may require two or more different therapies, such as surgery combined with laser resurfacing. Your health insurer may consider the procedures to be cosmetic and refuse to cover them. But treating acne ice-pick scars can improve your self-esteem and possibly your social and professional lives, the AAD says.
