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Acne is a common skin problem that many face in their earlier years. For many people it is just a phase, however others still struggle with facial acne scars. These unsightly reminders can negatively affect many aspects of your life and should be well understood and taken care of. It is a good idea to know the causes, prevention, types and treatment choices for facial acne scars so you can be on your way to healthier skin.

Causes of Facial Acne Scars

Scars appear at the site of damaged skin tissue. Specifically, acne causes a response in the body when it causes pores to clog with dead skin cells, sebum and bacteria. During the healing process, at the site of the lesion, there is a number of white blood cells and inflammatory molecules that are sent to repair skin tissue and fight infection. Unluckily, the body is not able to do a flawless recovery job, and in each case of somewhat deep skin tissue damage there is some degree of scarring.

The white blood cells and inflammatory molecules that may remain at the site of the lesion raise the risk of scarring. It is important to know that scarring differs greatly between different individuals. However, it is known that the deeper the skin damage the more likely it results in a facial acne scar.

Prevention of Facial Acne Scars

The only one sure way to prevent facial acne marks is to treat facial acne in its early stages. It is important to prevent inflammation and tissue damage in order to stop the development of scarring. We know that scarring is most likely to result from deep acne cysts that reach down to deeper layers of skin, so this type of acne is the most important to work to prevent in order to abate facial scars.

Types of Facial Acne Scars

Some scars raise above the skin surface, called keloids or hypertrophic scars. These are effectively caused by the excessive amounts of collagen that develop at the sites of skin cell damage. This excess collagen is a raised skin mass that creates a firm, smooth, usually irregular shaped scar.

Scars due to the loss of tissue are called atrophic acne scars and include:

* Ice pick scars that are usually found on the cheeks where the skin is soft and thick. They appear as small and narrow with deep and steep sides as you could imagine in ice pick wound to appear.

* Depressed fibrotic scars which are often quite large with sharp edges and steep sides. These scars have a firm texture.

* Soft scars which can exist on the surface layers or damage deeper layers of skin. These are softer and have smoother edges that merge with surrounding skin. They tend to be small and can differ in form.

* Atrophic macules which are usually relatively small when they appear on the face. They have a soft texture and wrinkled base. They might be bluish in color due to blood vessels below the skin. Over time the blue color tends to fade to white.

* Follicular macular atrophy which tends to be seen more in body acne scars. They are small, white, and soft scars that barely rise above the skin's surface.

Treatment Options for Facial Acne Scars

Facial acne scar treatment depends on the type and severity of facial acne scarring. The option that you decide on should also be thought through in terms of the sensibility of your skin, the cost of the treatment, the outcomes you want as well as the risks that might be involved. Current treatment options for facial acne scar removal are collagen injection, dermabrasion or microdermabrasion, laser treatment, skin grafting, punch excision, or scraping techniques. With many of these more aggressive techniques, there are high costs and risks involved including the possibility the some types of treatment may result in more scarring. It is imperative that you talk to a trusted dermatologist about your options and that you truly feel comfortable with you chosen acne scars treatment.