Most scars caused by acne are atrophic, i.e. sunken, and the most common types are boxy, wavy and iceberg-shaped.
The classic treatment for which the patient comes to the clinic to treat their scars is «I want to treat my scars with CO2 laser» but the combination of treatments without using ablative lasers can have very positive results.
Normally the protocol we use at Clínica Dermatológica De Felipe consists of the following steps:
- Subcision. This consists of using a needle or a cannula to break up the adhesions that cause the scar to collapse due to the appearance of fibrosis.
- Carboxytherapy. CO2 gas creates a hypoxic environment that stimulates the creation of collagen in the scar.
Superficial injection with low cross-linking hyaluronic acid. By injecting with a 30G needle, i.e. a very fine needle, hyaluronic acid can be injected to stimulate collagen in the atrophic area and fill the depression. - Laser. Although the first option in our treatments is the use of erbium or CO2 laser, for patients who want to do the treatment in summer or who cannot afford to have a recovery time due to their work, there is an alternative which would be the 1340 prodeep laser, it is a non-ablative fractionated laser, that is to say, it will not produce a superficial wound or scab. The effect of the 1340 on the skin will be the stimulation of deep collagen, producing a remodelling of the same and an improvement of atrophic acne scars without the need for recovery time.
- Red LED phototherapy. We apply phototherapy for 15 minutes to reduce skin inflammation and redness.
In addition, other complements could be added to the treatment, such as exosomes or polylactic acid, which would further improve the final results.
Normally between 4 and 8 sessions are recommended depending on the severity of the scars, and these sessions are spaced by approximately one month between each session, in which each day the five steps described above are performed. The duration of each session is approximately 45 minutes and does not produce wounds or scabs, which means that it can be carried out perfectly well in summer.
