What is acne?

Acne

Waking up with acne on your face is not the sight that anybody wishes to encounter. Our teenage years may have left us, but our acne hasn’t. Modern lifestyle constitutes of inadequate sleeping hours, excessive pollution, unhealthy diet and many more such factors which contribute towards the appearance of acne. As much as we hate to admit it, but the truth is that acne doesn’t see age.While many of us feel that occurrence of acne is linked with ‘not washing our face enough’, it is not a fact to stand by. To be honest, there is not a concrete reason to the question ‘Why does acne happen?’

Even after it disappears, the problems doesn’t. Many times, as acne lessens, it leaves behind scars termed as ‘acne scars’. Acne scars poses a serious cosmetic concern to people and many are emotionally affected by the appearance of these scars. It is first important to answer a few questions before making any informed decision involving acne-

•        What is acne?
•          Factors that contribute towards occurrence of acne
•          How can it be prevented?
•          The science behind acne scarring and its treatment.

What is acne?

Acne is a very common problem among individuals of all age groups, especially teenagers. It is formed when the hair follicles on your skin gets clogged with dirt and oil. The body tries to repair to this damage by changing the collagen (protein) fibres in the skin. It can appear on the skin in the form of blackheads, whiteheads, cysts, pustules and red bumps.

Factors that contribute towards occurrence of acne

The smaller these acne look, wider is the rage of factors that lead to their occurrence. Few of these causes include-

1.  Hormones: During puberty, both male and female hormones trigger in their growth. The sebaceous glands are sensitive to such hormones. As their growth increases during puberty, the sebaceous glands produce more oil which in turn aggravates acne.
2.  Menstruation and pregnancy: In many women, a few days before their menstrual cycle begins, their skin gets covered in acne. While in pregnant women, the first three months usually bring with them signs of acne.
3. Physical stress: Physical factors like extreme weather, lack of sleep, illness, dehydration and exposure to environmental irritants can trigger acne.
4. Emotional stress: Emotional stress leads to the formation of stress hormone called cortisol which causes an imbalance in the skin. Such an imbalance may result in skin problems like acne.
5. Medication: Certain medicines result into the development of acne.

How to prevent acne?

• Get quality sleep: what is the first thing you feel when you wake up? Is it tired, restless or anything other than peace? Well, then it’s time that you ask yourself what the real matter is. Getting a good quality sleep which leaves you peaceful hand fresh when you wake up is very important to achieve a smooth and flawless skin.
•  Exercise: Exercising has been proved to solve a major spectrum of problems including acne. While exercising, make sure you don’t wear gear that rubs against your body. Apart from this, it is very important to bath after exercising because if the sweat rests on your body for long, it can trigger acne.
• Protect your skin against the sun: In people prone to acne, exposure to sunlight can worsen the breakouts. In order to avoid this, make sure you apply sunscreen before stepping out in the skin.
• Don’t touch your face continuously: Touching your face, again and again, can spread the bacteria and trigger acne. Apart from this, avoid popping your pimples as it can lead to scarring.
• Wash your makeup brushes: For people with acne prone skin, avoiding makeup proves to be great. However, if you do need to wear makeup, make sure that your brushes are clean otherwise it can lead to breakouts.

The science behind acne scarring and it’s treatment

Depending on how much excess collagen the skin has formed or lost, acne scars are formed either  Hypertrophic or Atrophic.

jb/Raised scars- These scars are caused due to excess of tissue and are raised from the skin surface.

Atrophic scars/Depressed scars- These are caused due to loss of tissue and are depressed from the skin surface. Further, they can be of different types- ice pick, boxcar and rolling scars.

Treatment of acne scars

In order to treat acne scars, topical creams are not the right choice because they are not powerful enough to improve anything other than discoloration. So, for their treatment professional help is always required.

Treatment for-

Hypertrophic scars & keloids- There are many different options for treating hypertrophic and keloid scars. These include silicon gels, cryotherapy and injections to reduce and flatten the scar. Co2 laser can also help to reduce hypertrophic scar & keloids caused due to acne.

Atrophic scars-

Chemical peels- Chemical peels can reduce the appearance of depressed acne scar and hyperpigmentation around a healed acne wound. It improves the texture of the skin.

Dermabrasion- This technique uses a high speed brush or other instrument to resurface the skin and reduce depth of scars. Afterwards, it takes the patient several days to heal completely.

Microneedling- In this technique, the acne scars are improved using a set of microneedles. The dermatologist may use Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections to improve the results.

Laser resurfacing – Ablative lasers like CO2 fractional or erbium yag can be used to remove the outer layer of skin & improve the scarring. This technique requires multiple sessions to produce visible results.

Non ablative lasers can also be used for milder scars and have a shorter recovery time compared to ablative lasers.

Soft tissue fillers – A substance such as hyaluronic acid, fat or collagen can be used to fill out certain types of deep, depressed acne scars. Since fillers are eventually absorbed into the skin, the patient requires repeat filler injections after a certain period of time depending on the product used.

Surgery – The acne scar can be removed by surgically cutting out the scar & then the cut is repaired with stitches or a skin graft.

Sulblative rejuvenation using Radio frequency waves – (MNRF) Micro needling radio frequency- This process causes the delivery of radio frequency waves at the tip of insulated micro needles which are injected into skin. The radio frequency pulses delivered to the skin activates the collagen regeneration/regrowth. The untreated tissues in adjoining parts support the healing process.

Make sure to take of your body inside out. What you put in your body is as important as what you apply on it from the outside.