If you’ve ever dealt with severe acne or chickenpox, you’ve probably been left with an atrophic scar – those deep, indented scars that leave your skin feeling imbalanced. This kind of scarring in particular can be challenging to heal, because it’s a result of your skin not being able to regenerate tissue to repair the broken skin. You might recognize this kind of scarring as sunken or “pitted” skin, not unlike pockmarks.
In our Nashville practice, we see many patients dealing with the self-consciousness that can come with carrying around these remnants of teenage years or chickenpox. While there are lots of great treatments to combat atrophic scarring, we’re feeling very encouraged by some new research that may have stumbled upon a great all-encompassing treatment.
In the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology last year, a study was published by researchers at Tanta University in Egypt investigating an interesting combination to combat this kind of scarring. Many may have tried microneedling or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) independently, but this study sought out to discover if combining them would help heal the scarring.
The study looked a 90 patients who had atrophic scarring and randomly allocated them to three groups: microneedling, injection of PRP and the final group had alternative sessions of microneedling and PRP between sessions, for a maximum of six sessions.
While the results showed that all groups had improved the appearance of their scars, the improvement was definitely more obvious in the group that received alternating sessions of PRP and microneedling.
You know what that means – come into our Nashville office or visit your Nashville dermatologist for a consult to see if this may be a great fit for you! We are 100% behind microneedling and PRP, and we love seeing what a difference it makes in our patients’ skin. With this combination, you definitely can’t go wrong!
Need help with your skin? Visit us at Skin Solutions Dermatology in Nashville, Franklin, Columbia, Smyrna, Hendersonville or Pulaski to chat with our amazing team of dermatology specialists! Take advantage of our online booking system and book an appointment today.
Source: Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology