What are the possible complications if both acne treatment and acne scar treatment are done in the same period? (photo)

Doctor's Answers 2

Acne scar treatment should be deferred until active acne is completely treated and when you are free from active acne for at least several months to years.

The reasons being:

  1. Active acne will cause more marks and scars, hence undoing the benefits of expensive acne scar treatments.
  2. Acne scar treatment e.g. fractional CO2 laser may be associated with acne flares especially when acne is still active, leaving new unwanted marks and scars.
  3. Treatment will be more painful if active acne is present due to ongoing inflammation.
  4. The cosmetic benefits: cost ratio of active acne treatment is generally greater than that of acne scar treatment, hence active acne treatment should be prioritized over that of acne scar treatment when both are being considered.

Acne scar treatment should be deferred until active acne is completely treated and when you are free from active acne for at least several months to years.

The reasons being:

  1. Active acne will cause more marks and scars, hence undoing the benefits of expensive acne scar treatments.
  2. Acne scar treatment e.g. fractional CO2 laser may be associated with acne flares especially when acne is still active, leaving new unwanted marks and scars.
  3. Treatment will be more painful if active acne is present due to ongoing inflammation.
  4. The cosmetic benefits: cost ratio of active acne treatment is generally greater than that of acne scar treatment, hence active acne treatment should be prioritized over that of acne scar treatment when both are being considered.

Similar Questions

For acne scar treatment, is there typically more improvement in the first or last few treatments, and how much % improvement can I expect after each session?

Acne scars should improve with each treatment session and personally I do expect to see a 20% improvement with each session. That being said, other factors that have to be taken into consideration would be whether each scar type is being treated optimally with the most appropriate treatment method as each scar type do respond differently to different treatment methods, machine settings etc.

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Answered By

Dr Rui Ming Ho

Aesthetic

How many acne scar treatment sessions do I need for mild acne scarring before I can achieve significant improvements? (photo)

Hi there, One session of Picosure will give you noticeable results of 5-10% improvement with no downtime. PicoSure utilities the Focus Lens which targets the laser energy at 20x the usual strength deep under the skin, WITHOUT removing the top layer of the skin. Therefore it has no downtime. It is also proven to produce noticeable collagen at the areas where the scars are. For moderate improvement, I suggest that you will need 5-6 sessions of Picosure.

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Answered By

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