Treating Facial Scars
What Is Scars?
Scar is defined as a growth of fibrous tissue as a result of injury to the skin. Any trauma that involves the whole depth of the epidermis and some part of the dermis is likely to lead to scarring. This trauma can be in any form, physical like a burn or physical injury, chemical trauma by acids or alkalies and lastly disease included like acne, infection of viral, bacterial or fungal origin and even malignancies. As far as the face is concerned, the three most common etiological types of scars in descending order are post-acne scars, traumatic scars and post- infectious scars like post-herpetic or post-varicella scars.
Scarring, as well all know, is always associated with a lot of psychological trauma especially when it occurs on the face. An adolescent or even an adult with post- acne or any other type of facial scarring almost always suffers from low self-esteem, loss of self confidence and many other psychological ill-effects because of this condition.
What Are The Different Types Of Post Acne Facial Scars?
Post-acne facial scars are classified in many different ways. However, the classification system most commonly followed is the one given as under.
We basically divide facial scars into two main board divisions- hypertrophic scars and atrophicscars. As the name suggests, hypertrophic scar is one that extends above the surface of the normal surrounding skin because of abundance of fibrous tissue while an atrophic scar is one which lies below the level of the normal surrounding tissue. Atrophic scars are then sub -classified into different morphological types like the pitted scars, boxcar scars, rolling scars and lastly the linear atrophic scars.
What Is Micro needling?
Micro needling therapy or collagen induction therapy, as it is also known, is the name given to the treatment with certain hand-held devices known as dermarollers. These devicesemploy thinstainless-steel needles of variable length to achieve the therapeutic results, hence the name ‘micro needling’. There are some pathological as well as clinical studies now available in the world literature that have clearly documented the favorable clinical and histopathological response in the skin after micro needling or derma roller treatment
How Does Micro Needling Help in Treating A Scar? What Is The Mechanism Of Action?
Micro needling basically creates minute holes or columnar injuries to the dermis, and this is supposed to cause a collagen deposition at the site of injury. This collagen deposition is responsible for flattering of scars as well as an anti -aging effect. As the basic mechanism is collagen deposition, the treatment with dermarollers is also known as collagen induction therapy. Histopathological studies in mice and even in humans have confirmed these findings.
How is micro needling performed?
The treatment is performed as an office procedure by means of the derma roller after application of local anesthetic cream for about 45-60 minutes, This device is rolled gently on the skin in four different direction perpendicular to one another till minute bleeding spots are seen at the base of the scars to be treated. The Whole procedure takes about 10-15 minutes for the whole face. It is important to know the base of the scar needs to be treated during the procedure so the bleeding spots should be there at the base of the scar. To achieve this, the skin of the face, can be stretched by one hand while the other hand is used to role the instrument over in a direction perpendicular to that of the stretching force.
Treatment with derma roller is performed at 4 to 8-week intervals and multiple sitting are needed to achieve the desired effect on the skin. The number of sessions usually needed ranges from 3 to 6. Some people even advocate waiting for 3 to 6 months in between the two treatment sessions. It is important to remember that the result after derma roller treatment is ideally demonstrated three months after the last session. This is because the process of collagen the deposition does continue for many months after each derma roller on micro needling session