Microneedling for Acne Scars

In an online survey conducted across 4618 people from the UK, France, Brazil, USA, Japan and Germany 33% of the respondents suffered from some form of acne scarring. For those who suffer from acne in earlier life, it can be incredibly detrimental to their confidence and if their acne is bad enough or they pick at the skin, it can leave behind scars that will potentially stick with them for life. This means they may never really get the opportunity to fully feel confident about their appearance and are often that there is a solution out there.

Dealing with active acne

One of the best solutions to acne scarring is to take preventative action earlier on in the lifecycle of active acne. Although microneedling is recommended for acne scarring absolutely not advised to be used for active acne. When trying to improve the appearance of active acne, it is worth noting that there are plenty of solutions to deal with it early on. We always advise consulting your GP first before undertaking any treatment, but some common solutions as advised by the NHS are

• Antibiotics
• Chemical peels
• LED light therapy
• Retinoids (always consult an expert before using retinoids)

Treating acne scarring

As the name ‘microneedling’ suggests, the treatment uses small needles to be used on the surface of the skin that only penetrates the very upper layers of skin. This means that the treatment is very superficial and virtually painless and doesn’t even require any numbing cream. The treatment causes mild trauma to the skin which creates a healing response from the skin which stimulates collagen and elastin production. It’s collagen and elastin production that makes the skin look and feel younger and firmer. Because the collagen plumps the skin and creates more even skin tone, the appearance of acne scarring is reduced.

What else does microneedling treat?

Microneedling as mentioned is incredibly effective in the treatment of acne scarring, but due to its elastin and collagen production it also aids in the aiding other skin concerns such as

• Pigementation
• Hyperpigmentation (blemishes)
• Stretch marks
• Scarring
• Surgical Scars
• Sun Damage
• Fine lines and wrinkles
• Melasma
• Enlarged pores
• Hair loss
• Sagging skin

Is there any downtime/side effects of microneedling?

As you can imagine, by using small needles on the skin, there will be some minor short term side effects of having a microneedling treatment. When you have a microneedling treatment, dependent upon your skin concerns, different lengths of needles can be used. For example, for more superficial skin concerns such as enlarged pores and blemishes a shorter length needle of somewhere between 0.25 – 0.50mm will be used. Whereas for skin concerns such as deep acne scarring a larger needle length of 1-1.50mm will be used. So, therefore the length of the downtime will be dependent upon the length of the needles used in the treatment. Larger needle times will have longer periods of down time. Immediately after the treatment, it is always advised that clients stay out of the sun and use a good quality SPF.

If you are interested in training in microneedling, take a look at our microneedling training page by clicking here.