Best Treatment for Box Car and Ice Pick Acne Scars?

For your kind of scarring, I have had success with a combination of subcision and spot application of strong chemical peel solutions such as TCA or phenol. With subcision, you would expect bruising and with the spot chemical peel application, redness or pigmentation that can last for weeks to months. Microdermabrasion would not give you significant improvement in the kinds of scars you are describing. The fractionated CO2 lasers (Fraxel repair and Deep FX) can give you significant... more

Thank you for your question. For ice pick and box car scarring, you will need something more aggressive than Fraxel. In your case, I would consider microdermabrasion worthless as it does nothing to remodel the dermal collagen. I would strongly consider doing fractional CO2 laser as it is the newest technology for resurfacing, with minimal downtime, that would be the best at resurfacing your type of acne scarring. In addition, you can consider the traditional CO2 laser, but there is up to 2... more

Thank you for your question. At my practice, I have gotten excellent results for scarring with Fraxel. This treatment eliminates irregular skin discoloration, and stimulates new collagen production, tightening the skin without prolonged recovery. After a series of 2 to 4 Fraxel treatments, the cumulative cosmetic improvement is near more aggressive lasers, but unlike more aggressive lasers, redness and swelling eliminated within 2 to 4 days after each treatment. Fraxel is outstanding for... more