Lasers and acne scars

Before one plans to have treatment for an acne scar, the acute phase of acne must be treated. Lasers work best on a well-healed scar. If an acne scar is prematurely treated with laser, it can worsen the scar and cause serious discoloration of skin

What type of laser is used to treat acne scars?

Every single day there is a new laser, which is hyped up to be better than the ones used previously. All this tells the consumer is that there is no perfect laser. There are some lasers that cause less damage to surrounding tissue and thus limit the side effects. However, no matter what type of laser is used, there is always a risk of skin discoloration, worsening of scar or failure of laser to work. The most common complication of lasers used to treat acne scars is that the laser frequently fails to give the desired result.

What are non-ablative lasers?

All “non-ablative” means is that the laser is gentler to your skin. The laser beam is more focused and only affects damaged tissue- this is simply a theoretical point of view. Does anyone really believe that a laser beam knows what is normal and abnormal skin tissue? If you pour hot coffee on your hand, will the coffee only affect a certain part of your skin? Hope no one believes this BS jargon. Laser generates heat and this heat can damage both normal and abnormal tissue.

What is the big deal with non ablative?

Just the jargon used by doctors. The non-ablative lasers are non-destructive meaning that they do not cause much damage to normal tissues. Non-ablative is a big word in cosmetic surgery. Some of these lasers are less intense and will not even cause redness of skin from heat. One such non-ablative laser is the pulsed dye laser. It can remove reddish marks from the skin. Since many acne scars are red, the pulse dye laser can help improve the skin quality- in terms of both color and texture.