The Story Of Acne . . . And How Laser Resurfacing Can Help

Mild to severe acne affects up to 80% of teenagers and young adults. Often acne causes permanent scarring. I can treat those scars here at Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center. For acne scars, the best treatment is laser resurfacing, Little Rock, Arkansas patients have found. Although some topical treatments can work on less serious acne, for treatment of deep scarring laser is required. To understand why laser resurfacing works, you must understand acne.

Your skin is composed of two layers: the dermis (composed of collagen and elastin fibers) and the epidermis (very top layer). The epidermis protects the dermis from the environment, while the dermis gives you skin support, strength and elasticity. It is in the dermis that acne begins. The dermis contains blood vessel and the nerves that nourish and allow for sensation on your skin. The skin also has pores, small openings in the skin from sweat glands, hair follicles, and sebaceous glands. The sebaceous glands produce sebum in order to keep your skin waterproof. This is obviously an important job. However, the pores can get clogged with dead skin cells, and the sebum can be trapped. When this build up occurs, bacteria can infect the clogged area. This is what causes acne. So it is the sebaceous glands that are attached to hair follicles that acne occurs within. It is not actually chocolate, soda, and greasy foods like pizza that cause acne. The clogged pores filled with dead skin cells, sebum, and finally bacteria then create the stages of acne.

When the sebum cannot be released through the pores to the surface of the skin, a process of keratinization occurs. This causes a plug, commonly known as a blackhead or a whitehead. Blackheads appear when the follicle is not completely blocked, and whiteheads when the hair follicle and sebaceous glad in completely blocked. The color is caused by either a hole in the skin (the blackhead) or a build-up of sebum that cannot escape (the whitehead). Papules (red, raised bumps) occur next due to hormones causing the sebaceous glands to produce more sebum. This is why acne often occurs during puberty. Now the follicle and sebaceous gland, and consequently the pore, become inflamed by bacteria creating pustules, the white, yellowish pimples many people are so unfortunately familiar with. Eventually these may rupture, and because your body sends white blood cells to fight infection, pus is seen. Finally, nodules and cysts deep beneath the skin’s surface because of severe inflammation and infection within the dermis. These are the structures that lead to permanent and deep scarring.

Ablative Laser Resurfacing works by vaporizing (ablating) layers of the skin to remove much of the acne scars. (Laser resurfacing is also used for wrinkles, skin laxity, and sun damage.) The laser treatments directly alter the structure and function of the sebaceous glands, which in turn prevents more scarring. The removal of the upper layer of the skin removes the visual scars, and the heat promotes collagen growth to fill in any remaining depression created by the scars. I believe the Sciton Erbium laser provides the best results. The Erbium laser is safer than and often requires less down time than the older CO2 lasers, and the Erbium is safe on darker skin because there is less potential for hyper?pigmentation. If you would like laser resurfacing for your acne scars, come see me, Dr. Branman, Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center for your consultation.

Feel free to call Melinda at the front desk for your consultation with me. 501-277-0707