45 replies to this topic

[SweetandSour]

Hi, I was just wondering if anyone could suggest a treatment that would be suitable for these types of scars. They are very deep and pretty bad. Every day I feel kinda depressed about them, some days more than others. There are few lighting situations that don't highlight them and make them obvious. I sometimes avoid people just because of them. I've had them for a long time now, but they've been bothering me more lately...

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[DudleyDoRight]

That looks like a very deep scar on your right cheek and I think your first step should be a plastic surgeon.

[Minty Peas]

I second Dudley's suggestion that you should make a consultation appointment with a doctor. Although in my experience, having visited four different doctors about my scarring, they ALL recommended laser treatment, and when I asked about other options a few doctors even went so far as to tell me that laser was the only possible treatment I could do. So just don't believe it.

Anyway, the deep scar in the right photo looks like it would respond well to subcision and fillers.

[Lapis lazuli]

No woman worth dating is going to give a **** about those scars man. So if that's on your mind, just let it go, yeah? Just go out, meet women, and be happy. haha

Anyway, a plastic surgeon might tell you that they won't be able to do anything seeing that it may be so that cutting the scar out and doing a skin graft is impossible seeing the fact that the shape/direction of the scar may be at the wrong angle in relation to what are referred to as the natural lines of your face. Google it. You'll see.

Why would you want a skin graft, anyway? A plastic surgeon once told me that people who had gotten those looked like rag dolls. Which isn't an improvement. In fact it's the opposite. Now, you've got a cool looking scar... No one is going to care. It's not going to lower the quality of your life, so to speak. So why do anything like getting a skin graft? Besides if you get one, they'll have to take skin from another part of your body to be able to make it work. So you'll just be transporting the scar...and also, like I said, the result won't be cosmetically pleasing anyway. They can't turn back time.

Lasers may improve things a bit. Smooth out the texture a bit. Every bit helps, right? They may also produce collagen build up which may decrease the indentation (it seems like an indented scar to me) but this might not give the same effect as fillers. It's not as dramatic an effect.

But fillers and whatnot... *sigh* Why do that? They are temporary "solutions" which cost a lot of money and won't make you feel better in the long term. You need to focus on accepting your scarring, in my opinion. That's the best thing you can do, in my opinion; improve the look of your scar the best you can, if you can, and then work towards acceptance. That may be a long road. But then again maybe it's not. All depends. Everyone's different. It took me a long time. But once you have accepted your scarring, you'll find that all the things you might be worrying about are only real to a degree. Having a scar like yours is not the end of the world.

Edited by Lapis lazuli, 28 August 2012 - 11:29 AM.

[mr. matt]

If you look at my baseline photo of my right cheek from February 2009, you'll see that I had a similar compound scar on my right cheek which was very deep and quite visible under all sorts of lighting.

After four rounds of subcision, four laser treatments, multiple dermarolling sessions, and numerous chemical peels, it has improved to the point that it doesn't bother me anymore.

See if you can locate a doctor who performs subcision and see if you would be a candidate for this type of procedure. The first time that I had subcision done on my right cheek, my dermatologist told me that the scar tissue was so fibrous and dense that the Nokor needle that he was using was bending. He was very careful not to let it break inside of my cheek which would have resulted in a further complications.

You are very fortunate that the rest of your complexion appears to be scar-free.

Any type of scar revision procedure will require patience on your part as the collagen remodeling process can be a slow and laborious process.

I also found tremendous success using the subcision/suction method with my last round of subcision - the fibrous bands did not re-attach themselves to my epidermis and left my cheek looking relatively smooth - not perfect but tremendous improvement. I would not pursue fillers until you know if subcision might help you. The underlying problem needs to be dealt with before having your face injected with fillers.

I saw my dermatologist last week since it had been about nine months since my last subcision treatment and he was thrilled with how my skin had responded.

Hang in there - you're on a journey. You'll find a lot of support on this site because we've all suffered from the effects of acne scarring.

Please keep us posted - you'll be glad that you took photos as you'll be amazed at how your skin can improve over the course of time when you undergo various modalities to improve your scarring.

Matt

[wrongtiming]

i'm a girl, and honestly, you don't need to be depressed about those. it's no big deal. they look cool. it's better, imo, than active inflamed acne. don't stress !

[SweetandSour]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, you're all very kind. I just want to say that when those photos were taken I had been needling those scars individually since October 2011. From Oct '11 until Aug 2012 I actually did see noticeable improvement. When I needled I did hear the "popping" sound of the scar tissue breaking up. Clearly, though, my scars were still looking harsh under the worst lighting (directly overhead) in August '12. Since these photos, I have started doing a sort of self "subcision" in which I needle the scar in a horizontal approach I guess you could say...where it goes underneath the scar as opposed to poking the scar from above. This method has given me MUCH more improvement in the two months I've been doing it. I can still hear that popping sound. My worst scar is looking so much better I'm very happy about it. I will continue to do this occasionally and post photos in a few weeks.

[Lilly75]

Honestly, if I were to meet you, or anyone, with that sort of scarring it wouldn't bother me at all!

Of course though, it's all about how we feel about ourselves and improving our confidence etc - so, glad to hear you're seeing improvement through what you're doing at the moment and feeling better about it! Please be careful in doing it yourself though- I'd be worried about making it worse than it really is.

[sanjoseskin]

You know what, you are really lucky, I honestly think you can completely change that scar around to be completely unnoticeable. The reason I say you are lucky is because it appears you don't have craters and pits all over your face. Your skin looks great and you just have that one noticeable depressed area.

Gosh I bet you can walk into a doctors office right now, and have them inject a yearly filler to plump that right up, and go on with your life. Trust me, you have the type of scar that will yield excellent results with either a filler or subcision or a combination of both. No one would even know you had a scar there. The story would be much different had you had craters and pits all over. Honestly, you have nothing to worry about at all. Go see a good doctor, that can be corrected in 5 mins.

[SweetandSour]

Hi

I just wanted to update how my scar is looking lately. I'm going on my third month of doing the technique I described above. I've gotten great results so far. The scar has leveled a lot and has stayed that way (after the swelling has gone down). This is me under the same light in my room which before made the scar look awful. Now it's MUCH better. I'll update in a few weeks for anyone who might be interested. Thanks for your kind words!

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[DudleyDoRight]

Keep doing what you are doing. That is a very noticeable difference.

[michi31]

Um. Wow. How soon after the needling did you take those pictures?

[sanjoseskin]

Wait, so you are performing self subcision? What needle are you using?

Results look fantastic. Is that immediately after, swelling? Or real results?

[Nyla]

thank you so much for the pictures and for giving me such hope! i have rolling scars too but a lot less shallower than yours. you've had GREAT improvement.. i'd say almost 100%, wow. i'm bookmarking this thread! i'm going to start dermastamping soon.

[rentedname]

those are amazing results. can you describe your technique in detail?

[Nyla]

^ yes, please!

[SweetandSour]

Hi

It's been a month since my last post so I would like to update how things are going for those who are interested. My skin is soooo much better than it used to be. The scar stayed pretty level which is amazing. I was also doing the left side of my face, which has improved a lot too. I do however have large pores, particularly on the right side, but I'll take the appearance of large pores over the deep scar anyday. Hyperpigmentation can last awhile, but will eventually fade. It can be covered with makeup (yes I've used makeup sometimes but not a lot). Maybe someday in the near future I'll do a peel to help even things out. I've only needled once since my last post, and just a little bit. I'll be the first to say doing this to myself was a bit risky, and there are things that you should be aware of before trying it, if you ever decide to try it. Ask if you have questions.

x

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[SweetandSour]

those are amazing results. can you describe your technique in detail?

What I do is use a very thin sewing needle (I know, I'm sure there's thinner, better needles out there, but it's what I had readily available haha).
I pull the skin taut (don't do this technique without doing this) and beginning at the outer edge of the scar, I insert the needle underneath it (somewhat horizontally). You can try inserting it at different directions, although it can be a little difficult. Don't keep inserting it repeatedly from the same spot.
Anyway, this technique may or may not draw blood. It could be a drop or could be a trickle of blood and you'll have to apply a little pressure to stop the bleeding. About four times I had a trickle of blood and the area swelled up a lot, like a large bump and this kinda scared me LOL. But I did this before bed and in the morning the swelling had gone down to normal and this apparently really helped in filling the scars. Just be careful and don't do too much at once. Once you get comfortable you can figure out how often you want to do it, etc. This is kind of hard to explain like this....ask if you have more questions

xx

[pursuit of happyness]

congratulation man , you get great results and i happy for you ,,from your previous explanation , i think you are making something like subcision,is this right?

[Nyla]

that is AMAZING. i would say you've had a 95% improvement. wow. and a sewing needle?? i thought you were using one of those proper needles you get from dermarolling websites.. i'm not sure about the safety of that, but i guess if it works... congrats.

Edited by burgundyfunk, 12 December 2012 - 07:37 PM.