How to Get Rid of Rolling Scars

Video Transcript

"Hello my name is Dr. Stephen Mandy, and I am a dermatologist associated with South Beach Dermatology in Miami Beach, Florida. Let's talk about how to get rid of rolling scars. This is a very unpleasant outcome of chronic acne. Now I would start out by saying that patients who have severe acne, which results in scarring should probably see a dermatologist early in the course of their problem, because that can be prevented with modern anti-acne therapy. And always an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. However, let's suppose you had bad acne, and the outcome of this is sort of hill and valley scarring, which we call in dermatology atrophic scarring. Some other people call rolling scarring. That scarring is very responsive to fillers. Fillers such as collagen, such as hyaluronic acid, and such as silicone can really dramatically improve the appearance of scars. Some of those things can be done on a long term basis. Although most fillers are temporary, and will need to be re-injected perhaps annually or semi-annually or a little less frequently. There is some new fillers that have been used in scarring that have been recent, and are in approval such as Sculptra and Radiesse, and those also will need to be repeated though they last a little long than the previous fillers. The other thing you can have is treatments again with light based or laser based technology. That is a method of generating new collagen, and smoothing the skin. There are a variety of laser technologies that can be used such as Fraxel, fractionated CO2 lasers, and there are a variety of other lasers that can general collagen, and improve the way scarring looks. Dermabrasion, not micro-dermabrasion, but real surgical dermabrasion is also effective in improving the appearance of scarring. However, micro-dermabrasion probably won't do much, and acid peels are not very effective either."