Using Flashlight and Mirror in the Dark a Good Way to Examine Skin?

I've had 2 fraxel repair for acne scars and when I look at my skin in normal lighting, my acne scars are very hard to notice (look more like large pores). But when I saw them in the dark with a flashlight, I saw depressions in the areas I know I have no scars, and my tiny acne scars / large pores looked a lot worse. Is using a flashlight with a mirror in the dark a good or bad way to judge your skin?

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face acne scars large pores

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1 Doctor Answer | Asked by brad76 in PA

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Probably not a great idea for judging your acne scars

My opinion is that it is a bad thing to do. I had a gentleman from Washington D.C. that came in for acne scarring treatments with silicone micro and he showed me a photo that looked really frightening. When he came in, it looked pretty close to ok. So it was an unfair representation of what was going on. In general, we can always look terrible with bad lighting and great with good lighting. I do, however, use both tangential light and direct lighting when working on acne scarring to get... more