Options for acne scars:

Otto Joseph Placik, MD answers: Dermabrasion didn't help my deep acne scars. What else should I try?

I had dermabrasion done at the beginning of this summer. My dermatologist said my scars were deep enough that the laser would not make enough of a difference. I am still healing (it's August), just redness. I still have my ice pick scars and am disappointed by this. The dermabrasion did improve my scars but not the deeper ones. I would like to try something else, laser.? Any advice?


Otto Joseph Placik, MD
7 months ago

There are many different options for managing ice pick scars:

Consider these other procedures:

  1. Fillers or autologus fat grafting
  2. Skin needling
  3. Fractionated laser
  4. Excision and puch grafting

Acne scarring is a difficult problem and realize that any improvement that achieves a 30% correction is considered maximally successful.

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A: Deep scars need deeper treatment, like excision or Fraxel

Gregory Turowski, MD, PhD
9 months ago

Microdermabrasion is not effective enough for ice pick scars. However, when the skin is pre-conditioned with prescription based skin care prior to Fraxel laser resurfacing procedures ( you will need 5-6 treatments), you will get nice improvement and great reduction in appearance of your scarring.

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