Five Tips on How to Use Dermarollers in Treating Post-Acne Scarring

Do you feel bad about your post-acne scars? Having a scar due to acne is a one of the unfortunate things to happen to anyone. Carrying a scar for a lifetime is definitely not a good feeling particularly among young adolescent and younger adults.

Good thing, there are a lot of treatment modality used in treating acne scars. The conventional treatment method has its own efficacy and safety profile but it is also expensive.  Good thing a newer treatment approach called dermarolling therapy offers the same efficacy but on a much lower price.

One of the novel and promising therapeutic modalities in treating acne is dermarolling therapy.  It has now become one of the popular treatments used in managing post-acne scarring. Dermarolling therapy is a very popular because it is simple to perform, easy, very affordable, lesser side-effects and with minimal downtime.

Patients who underwent the procedure reported that the entire treatment process is generally tolerable with less pain compared with traditional method.

But first how common is acne?

Acne is common skin condition that affects almost 80% of young people and five percent of older adult. [1] In some people, severe forms of acne may cause an inflammatory response that causes textural damage on the superficial and deep dermis which causes post acne scarring. People who had post acne scars usually have three of the most common types of acne scars which are classified as:

• Rolling
• Boxcar
• Icepick

It is also common to see persons with more than one of the three types of acne. There are multiple methods on how to treat post-acne scars and one of the methods used is dermarolling therapy.

So, if you are planning to use a dermaroller to treat your acne scars, here are the five tips on how you can use dermaroller in removing post acne scars. Take note that the following tips are only applicable for home-care treatment dermarollers.

 

Tip 1: Know first how your device works?

Before trying any device on your face, you should know first how to use it properly.  Dermarolling therapy is also known as microneedling therapy or percutaneous collagen induction therapy, it is a new treatment modality used for removing post acne scars. The entire procedure is simple yet effective in treating atrophic acne scar.

In dermarolling therapy, the standard dermaroller used for treating post acne scars is a drum-shaped roller with 192 fine microneedles arranged in eight rows. The microneedles are 0.5 to 1.5 mm in length and around 0.1 mm in diameter.  [2]  It is used to closely puncture the skin.

When the microneedles penetrate the skin, the micro injury causes minor bleeding and localized damage that ruptures fine blood vessels. In dermarolling therapy, hundreds of fine needles prick the skin. In contrast with the ablative laser therapy, microneedling therapy penetrates the epidermis but does not remove it.

Thus, dermarolling therapy can be repeated safely as needed and it is also applicable to skin areas where deep peelings and laser treatments are not possible. 1

Tip 2: Cleanse your face first before using dermarollers.

Before using the dermarollers, make sure that you thoroughly cleanse your face first.  This is to prevent the spread of any harmful bacteria to gain entry into your skin.

 

Tip 3 – Do not use dermarolling on active acne and other skin infection.

More so, if you have any rash, open wounds, and or active skin infection such as acne, warts, herpes, and other bacterial infection, better to postpone your dermarolling therapy. Active skin infection may do more harm than good to your skin. It is better if you will let the skin infection heal first, before undergoing dermarolling therapy.

Remember, dermarolling therapy creates micro injury which can serve as portal of entry for the microorganism.

 

Tip 4 – Use topical agent for faster results

For a more effective and faster result, you can use a topical agent for treating acne together with dermarolling therapy. The dermarollers are used to effectively deliver topical agents into the skin for an enhanced result. There are many available topical agents used in treating acne.

The most common topical agents used in treating acne are adapalene, topical BPO, topical antibacterials such as clindamycin and erythromycin.[3] Before using any of these, you need a doctor’s prescription.  Do not self-medicate because these are antibiotics and you know very well the effect of prolong antibiotic used – it can cause resistance of the microorganism. If this happens, this will make the treatment more difficult and ineffective.

 

Tip 5-  Wait for your skin to completely heal

In treating acne using dermarolling therapy, you have to take note that you need several sessions before you can see the actual result. It will also take few weeks before you can have the next treatment schedule. So, it would take a few weeks to months before you can see a visible result.

But every after treatment, you could already notice some improvement.  It also depends on the areas treated and the severity of your post acne scarring. Take note that your skin heals slowly.  Complete healing doesn’t happen overnight, but the effects are seen on a long-term basis.

 

Bibliography

[1] Moetaz El-Domyati, MD,corresponding author Manal Barakat, MD, Sherif Awad, MD, Walid Medhat, MD, Hasan El-Fakahany, MD, and Hanna Farag, MD. (2015). Microneedling Therapy for Atrophic Acne Scars. J Clin Aesthet Dermatol. , 36–42

[2] Doddaballapur, S. (2009). Microneedling with Dermaroller. J Cutan Aesthet Surg. , 110–111.

[3] Anwar Al-Hammadi,1 Abla Al-Ismaily,2 Sameer Al-Ali,3 Rajesh Ramadurai,4 Rishi Jain,4 Lynn McKinley-Grant,5 and Tariq I. Mughal6,*. (2016). Topical, Biological and Clinical Challenges in the Management of Patients with Acne Vulgaris . Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. , e152–e160.