More than 90 percent of girls believe that a beautiful and healthy skin takes a significant share in their attractiveness. Fresh, supple, radiant and necessarily even dermis is the key to a successful career, personal life and many other achievements that our contemporary can be proud of.
Facial skin requires special attention: if defects in other parts of the body can be hidden under clothing, a haircut, or other style attributes, then the “visiting card” should be impeccable from the very beginning. Any flaws on its surface give a lot of experience, especially if they are the result of injuries.
Atrophic scar is one of such cosmetic defects. The reasons for its appearance are mechanical, chemical or other types of effects on the skin of the face, as a result of which the cover acquires this aesthetic disadvantage. Is it possible to deal with this phenomenon?
What are atrophic scars on human skin, their features
Skin scars are an inevitable consequence of various deep damage to the dermis, whether it be an open injury or surgery. If a noticeable cosmetic defect appears on the face that threatens to remain for life, then it is worth using the entire arsenal of modern means to improve the appearance of the affected area. In contrast to the hypertrophic formation protruding above the skin surface and the normotrophic scar merging with it, the atrophic scar is a depression with uneven edges, inside which young collagen cells form a colorless connective tissue.
Such skin lesions - soft, mobile formations - most often occur in areas with a lack of subcutaneous fat layer. The characteristic appearance of such scars is due to the chaotic construction of connective fibers under them, a deficiency of a strong “skin frame”, which is formed by protein compounds of collagen and elastin. Any atrophic scar on the face, even if it does not pull nearby tissues and does not violate the function of their movement, is subject to treatment, as it is located on the visible part of the body. Its reduced functional qualities are expressed in increased sensitivity to ultraviolet rays, as well as in the inability to restore hair follicles and sweat glands inside the tissues. A similar
scar on the face or body can be either completely depigmented or have a pronounced color in the center of the scar itself. Translucent vessels can sometimes be seen through an atrophic scar.
Characteristics of scars below the skin level
Atrophic scars differ in several ways. This is localization; scar age (immature - up to three months, moderately mature - from 3-12 months, finally mature, the age of occurrence of which is more than a year); shape (arched, curly, stripes, multiple point (post-acne) and others); sizes color (pale to dark, pigmented); the effect of the scar on neighboring, healthy tissues.
An atrophic scar on the face is aesthetically unacceptable for a patient of any age: from adolescent (most often, for those who suffer from acne) to the elderly, when a collagen deficiency provokes the appearance of the deepest and roughest scars.
Reasons for the appearance
Any damage to the skin that destroys its collagen fibers can trigger the occurrence of atrophic scars: traces after severe lesions of the dermis with acne (post-acne), burns, injuries associated with violation of the integrity of the skin (cuts, wounds, mechanical damage), individual medical procedures ( including surgery), infectious lesions (chickenpox, acne or furunculosis). In the area of the cheeks, on the cheekbones due to pregnancy, due to hormonal imbalance, dehydration or sudden loss and weight gain, microtraumas can also appear - striae.
How to get rid of the effects of trauma on the face? Treatment
A timely visit to a cosmetologist or to the clinic of aesthetic surgery will help to choose the most appropriate method for the correction of scars, after which the atrophic scar on the face will become less noticeable. The treatment methods for this skin lesion are aimed at restoring the altered texture of the dermis using both surgical and non-surgical methods.
The use of ointments, gels and creams helps to minimize the trace of an atrophic scar at an early stage, when it is finally formed (but no later than after 3-6 months). Of the professional methods of treating sunken scars (whose age is from 6 to 12 months), cosmetologists can offer chemical (median) peeling, mesotherapy or contour plastic surgery (filling the scar with a filler based on hyaluronic acid), microdermabrasion or laser resurfacing. Surgical methods include excision of an atrophic scar (using a scalpel or laser) with a further
cosmetic suture over the old scar, which makes it more accurate and less noticeable. Before aligning the atrophic scar, specialists determine its parameters and select the appropriate treatment, including complex therapy, which allows solving the aesthetic problem by several methods.
External cosmetic products for getting rid of scars: ointments, gels and creams
In modern cosmetology, there are several varieties of drugs that help to effectively deal with the effects of injuries on the skin of the face. Such aesthetic defects include atrophic scar. Its treatment may include the use of agents, which include petroleum jelly and silicone. These components prevent the deterioration of the affected areas of the dermis. Healing of fresh scars is more productive with the help of steroid or hormonal creams, which are prescribed by a dermatologist. In addition, the arsenal of facial care products with traces of damage to the dermal cover includes: scarring gels, silicone plates, moisturizing creams with SPF (protection against ultraviolet rays), which accelerate the growth of young cells and restore microcirculation in tissues. Such drugs include “Kontraktubeks” and “Mederm”, “Kelofibraza” and “Kelo-cat”, “Fermenkol” and “Dermatics”, “Zeraderm Ultra” and liquid cream Scarquard.
Atrophic scar, the treatment of which depends on the maturity of the scar and its size, can be made less noticeable in any case, only by increasing the duration of treatment. For example, with the help of transparent silicone plates "Spenko". The choice of cream should be carried out only on the advice of a doctor, since self-treatment of atrophic scars can lead to a worsening of their condition, the appearance of allergic reactions and a waste of money. The disadvantages of treating traces of post-acne, striae and other atrophic scars with the help of external agents are their long-term use and selective effect. The advantages of using ointments and creams are their accessibility and simplicity, relatively low cost.
Types of injection correction of scars
The most common intradermal methods of treatment and restoration of scar tissue today are: mesotherapy, biorevitalization, plasmolifting and contour plastic surgery (correction of scars with fillers). Mesotherapy, or the introduction of biologically active substances that improve the quality of the skin and affected tissues, contributes to effective therapy and stimulation of acupuncture points. It makes it possible to direct the medicine directly into the atrophic scar.
Biorevitalization helps to saturate the deeper layers of the skin with hyaluronic acid and in the early stages to avoid a lack of collagen fiber formation. Plasmolifting prevents the formation of post-acne scars due to the introduction of its own blood component (enriched autoplasma) under the patient’s skin. Stimulation of tissue regeneration processes using this procedure provides a safe and quick scar treatment.
Fillers
Intradermal implants based on stabilized hyaluronic acid help to solve the aesthetic problem of sunken scars, lifting the skin and giving the corrected area of the skin cover the necessary volume. How to align an atrophic scar with their help? To do this, you need to introduce a filler with a gel consistency (filler) directly under the surface of the scar and raise it to the level of the external epidermis. In addition, these drugs increase the ability of tissues to regenerate, which accelerates the processes of their natural renewal. The only drawback of this method is the need for regular correction in connection with the gradual biodegradation (decomposition) of hyaluronic acid, as a natural component.
Microdermabrasion - grinding of atrophic scars
For this procedure, special equipment is used that allows under pressure (through the tip) to transfer microcrystals to the surface of the epidermis. Diamond, salt, organic particles or aluminum dioxide, like sand, exfoliate the outer layer of dead skin cells, leveling its relief.
Some devices are equipped with a diamond tip with nozzles that grind the skin instead of crystals. The standard course of mechanical mechanical peeling is 4-6 procedures, but post-acne scars or deep atrophic scars are more often aligned with 10-12 sessions, each of which is performed no more than 1 time in 1-1.5 weeks.
Laser resurfacing of atrophic scars: modern methods
Laser peeling methods that are popular today can reduce the depth, size of sunken scars on the face or permanently eliminate the aesthetic consequences of injuries. By means of the action of an erbium or carbon dioxide beam, keratinized skin cells are removed layer by layer and stimulated, due to the formation of protein fibers, the process of renewing the dermis is neocollagenesis.
Laser resurfacing of atrophic scars of small depth and size is carried out by an erbium beam, which gently acts on the epidermis. This type of radiation is suitable even for dry and sensitive skin. A deeper and more powerful therapeutic penetration is provided by the fractional carbon dioxide laser. It also starts the regeneration processes in tissues, stimulates collagen synthesis, and the result of treatment becomes visible after one or two procedures, when the atrophic scar practically becomes invisible.
In order to obtain a guaranteed therapeutic effect, it is necessary when choosing a clinic to pay attention to its reputation and the qualifications of a dermatologist, since only specialists who have received training and received a certificate trust the work on expensive laser equipment.