Hello everyone! Im new here but i've been a lurker on this website for months now.. after obsessively searching scar treatments and reading SO many posts on here, I finally decided to create a post. Im planning to get my atrophic scars treated once and for all. Ive tried just about every topical under the sun (ones that claim to get rid of scars) .. I'm done doing that, it's clear that topicals do nothing for ATROPHIC scars (maybe hypertrophic but not the indents). As far as scar treatments, I haven't done anything besides apply those "scar" topicals and i derma rolled myself maybe like 2 times (didn't see improvement i probably should've been more consistent or diligent with it but whatever i don't think it would've helped much anyways)

I am from long island and I have a consultation with Dr. Marotta (plastic surgeon located in smithtown, ny). I chose him because its near-by and his website claims that he performs scar surgery revision (subcision, fillers, punch float, etc). its so hard to even find a drs website on long island that even mentions subcision as this is what I'm particularly interested in. Ive done a TON of research on here, reddit, and real self and i think there is a general consensus that lasers are just a huge disappointment and huge waste of money, thus I'm going to clearly state that I do NOT want laser treatment. It seems that subcision has the best results.

Im trying not to make this post overwhelmingly-long (however it looks like it already is), i just don't know how to sum this up but i promise my future posts won't be this long i just want to give a background on myself:

So, Ive had scars on my face since I was a little kid. When I was like 9 or 10 I played man-hunt outside and fell and scratched my face. Back then i never listened to my mom telling me to "not pick" my scabs and I would pick that sucker off every time a scab formed. And what do you know it turned into a long, thin line scar thats slightly indented. It always bothered me but i learned to just deal with it and i guess i got used to seeing it over the years so i just figured whatever.

I also have 2 circle scars on my forehead, from burning myself with the curling iron when i was like 11 (idk why the heck I was using a curling iron at that age).. they are completely skin-colored (they look exactly like chicken pox scars although I never had chicken pox), they also never bothered me much because they were skin colored and they've been there for so long that I have also gotten used to them too.

As you can tell, I was pretty reckless as a little kid, and obviously didn't care about my skin. Fast forward to my teenage years and i started getting acne (not SEVERE, SEVERE but worse then your average teenage case of acne). I am olive-skin toned so every single time I get a pimple, it ALWAYS leaves a dark red-brown spot that takes months up to a year to fade (I've also used countless topicals that claim to fade the marks but also never work). Every pimple on my face leaves a hyper pigmented mark every. single. time. (whether i pick/pop it or not!) ... Acne runs in my family both of my brothers had pretty severe acne (one went on accutane for it), but my derm never agreed to put me on accutane because my acne "wasn't bad enough." She just prescribed me topicals that i was never consistent with and threw them out after like a week of not getting results (i wasn't a very good patient). So I stopped going to derms as i pretty much got my acne under control over the years via birth control and OTC spot treatments. I still had a lot of breakouts, but i was good at applying makeup so I just went on with life. Now as I've stated, I always get hyper pigmentation from acne (its annoying AF but i can cover it with makeup), but i NEVER used to get atrophic/indented scarring from my pimples. Until now.

Im 24 now and in March I had a super stressful event in my life occur that caused a horrible huge cystic outbreak. yes, CYSTIC huge pimples that took forever to go down. In May they finally cleared up and my skin is clear from acne (as I've been super diligent with my skin lately), but theres still a ton of red marks and now atrophic scarring from where the cysts were. So now I have like 2 boxcar scars (one in the middle of my 2 eye brows, and one right smack on the left cheek that looks like a dark gapping hole) and 2 rolling scars on my right cheek right next to the line scar that i got when i was a kid! I know some people probably have it way worse, I'm not trying to be insensitive or ungrateful that all i have are 4 indented scars from acne, but along with these scars, a million red marks, AND The scars from when i was a little kid, my face just looks like shit . I don't think ill ever get to the point when i can leave my house without wearing makeup. (And even With makeup it still looks really bad because of all the indented scars!) Its taken a huge toll on my confidence and after reading a ton on these forums, reddit and real-self, and watching youtube videos.. I'm ready to just consult with a surgeon and get some improvement. I researched a ton about specialists in acne scars and the best near me seems to be dr. novick in NYC. which I will consult with if dr. marotta doesn't seem like he's experienced enough. I haven't read any reviews on scar revision from dr. marotta but he has a ton of amazing reviews for other services he provides (so overall he must be a good doctor), and he's responded to a lot of questions on real self about acne scars, so as far as acne scar surgeons on long island, he seems to be the best. On my consult Im going to see when the last time he did subcision on a patient, ill find out how confident he seems on revising acne scars and ill obviously ask to see his patient before/after pics. If i feel the least bit unsure about his capability and expertise then I'm going to just make the trip out to NYC to see dr. novick, i just wanted to see what this guy is all about first. My consult is july 10th ill keep you guys updated!