Acne scarring is hell.

It was already bad enough that you had to suffer through a condition that transformed your skin a bacterial free-for-all to be left with the aftermath - ice pick scars, enlarged pores, textural changes, indents, redness, pigmentation issues and so on. So you go to your dermatologist. You can trust your doctor right? They'll know how to fix those scars for sure. So you try some medication or procedure your dermatologist recommends, and you're hopeful that things will go well. If you're one of the lucky ones, you'll see an improvement or nothing happens. But more often than not, it gets worse. So you go back to your dermatologist to emphasize your concerns, then they recommend something else. You try it; same results. Then you begin to realize the pattern of experimentation. That for your dermatologist, try as they might, there is unfortunately no surefire way to address your condition. So then you turn to the internet, to realize the treatments you've tried don't work, for some it makes things worse. Now you even begin to question the medication or treatments you used while you had acne before the scarring. Then issue compounds further when you realize even your OTC regimen could be doing more damage. Thus begins the cycle of trial and error - and desperation - that seems to never end.

I've see it all to often on this forum. The lucky few that find a "cure," something that has work "miraculously" for them - be it a retinoid, chemical peel, pill or ablative laser resurfacing. And somebody else will go out, try it and make things worse. It pains me to no end.

The degree of risk taking involved with these treatment options available today is TOO HIGH. No one will know how their skin will react until after the damage has been done. I'm referring to procedures that are designed to strip away layers of your delicate facial skin in order to rebuild it. In most cases, the skin of an acne scar victim is already distressed or severely compromised, thus the act of stripping away more tissue in hopes that it'll repair itself almost feels counter intuitive. The reviews for laser resurfacing and peels on this forum should speak for themselves.

I'm not saying that these procedures haven't helped people; they have. But there was still that component of risk involved that things might not have gone so well. Thus, in the end is it worth it if there is a negligible guarantee that there will even be an improvement, coupled with the fact it may further exacerbate the issue? I'm going to have to say "NO."

It's time we started focusing and demanding authentic solutions to debilitating cosmetic issues that needlessly ruins lives. Simply because an ailment is cosmetic in nature does not make it any less important. "You'll just have to live with it" is unacceptable.

Thus, enters regenerative medicine! Over the past decade, an increasing amount of research and products that address dermatological maladies at the cellular level have been appearing left and right. Organizations such as Avita, Replicel and Gemstone are a few pioneering research that could very well offer viable solutions to such issues.

So, please join the conversation on the thread.

This thread is a platform where we can compile research and discuss matters regarding regenerative medicine that can be applicable to dermatological issues such as acne scarring. Additionally, we can work together to make our voices heard by making a collective effort to reach out to these organizations. We need to start asking questions. We need (and deserve) real solutions.