Dermabrasion in the Treatment of Acne Scars

Dermabrasion is a common treatment employed for most types of acne scars, mainly medium depth acne scars. Dermabrasion, as the name denotes, abrades the superficial layers of skin. This is done, with the help of a brush with a diamond tip or brush that rotates at high speed.

Dermabrasion helps in removing shallow scars and reduce the depth of deep scars.

Microdermabrasion  is a process which peels of the superficial skin layers, but this is done with the help of aluminium oxide crystals passed through a vacuum.

Indications:Dermabrasion can reach deeper layers of skin than a chemical peel and hence can be used to treat both deeper and hypertrophic scars. Dermabrasion alone is not advisable for ice pick scars, as removal of superficial layers may result in opening up of the waider base of the scar and the scar may actually look larger than before! A technique whereby, dermabrasion is combined with punch excision of ice pick scar tissue has been found effective by some dermatosurgeons.

Caution: Dermabrasion also, if not done properly, can cause extensive scarring. Dermabrasion is contraindicated in keloidal acne scars, as any stimulation of the dermal layers can result in further keloid formation.

Back from Dermabrasion to Acne Removal Scar