Acne Scars in Shenandoah, TX

What causes acne scars?

When your skin is damaged, your body produces new collagen fibers to repair the dermis—the deeper layer of skin. However, the resulting scar tissue often has a different texture and appearance than the surrounding skin.

Scars may appear sunken or pitted if there’s a loss of underlying fat or muscle. In other cases, they may become raised, such as with keloid scars, when the body produces excess collagen during healing.

At Vedas Medical Spa, we’d love to evaluate your skin and recommend the best treatment options tailored to your needs.

Types of Acne Scars

• Ice-Pick Scars – Deep, narrow indentations that resemble tiny puncture marks

• Rolling Scars – Broad depressions with smooth, sloping edges

• Boxcar Scars – Wide, shallow scars with sharply defined edges

• Atrophic Scars – Flat or slightly sunken scars caused by tissue loss

• Raised Scars (Hypertrophic or Keloid) – Thick, lumpy scars caused by excess collagen during healing

Lessening acne scars

Scars cannot be completely removed, so your goal is to improve their appearance. Some ways to improve the appearance of acne scars are:

Topical treatments like Vitamin E, cocoa butter cream, and skin care products can soften the feeling of tight skin, but don’t actually reduce acne scars.

Depressed scars—ice pick, boxcar, and rolling/atrophic

• Dermabrasion or physically removing the surface of the skin can help to blend in the scar’s irregularities.
• Microdermabrasion is less invasive than dermabrasion but minimally useful for very superficial scars.
• Laser Resurfacing also removes the surface layers of the skin. Newer types of laser may work on the dermis’s collagen without removing the upper layers of skin. Laser resurfacing will give you the most complete results for widespread scarring.
• Filler injections work on sunken scars by raising them to the level of surrounding skin.
• Fillers are temporary, so you will need to periodically retreat. Collagen, hyaluronic acid, fat grafting, and other fillers can improve depressed scars.
• Microneedling creates tiny punctures in the outer skin to stimulate collagen production that, in turn, makes the scars less noticeable.
• Subcision divides the fibrous band under the skin, allowing the skin to return to its normal position.
• Chemical reconstruction causes a local inflammatory reaction leading to the formation of new collagen fibers. This can help to reduce shadows on depressed scars, making them appear less deep. This is also called TCA CROSS, meaning trichloroacetic acid chemical reconstruction of skin scars.

Raised acne scars

• Surgery may lessen the appearance of depressed scars. Raised scars should not be cut out, because there is a risk of even more severe scarring.
• Steroid injections or topical steroids may help flatten a raised scar.
• Radiotherapy, used superficially and low dose, may prevent a recurrence of severe keloid scarring.
• Cryotherapy or freezing.

Do I have to choose a treatment method?

Dr. Nangrani will decide how best to treat your scars, with excellent effect.

Prevention is the best method

You know how noticeable acne is if you have ever suffered from it. First of all, caring for your skin early and thoroughly may keep you from developing scars. After your inflammation subsides, you can treat the scars that are left.

Anyone can get acne, even babies, but it is most common in teenagers when hormonal changes cause the skin to be more oily. Acne tends to run in families. Dr. Chaitali Nangrani, MD, will suggest treatments based on your individual needs. We usually recommend a combination of microdermabrasion, chemical peels, and skin care for active acne.