Scars & Stretch Marks Specialist

NJ Vein Care and Aesthetics Center

Vein Care & Aesthetics located in Clifton, NJ & Oradell, NJ

Scars and stretch marks detract from the natural beauty of your skin. If you’d like to remove or reduce scars and stretch marks, Gary Nackman, MD, FACS, and the aesthetics team at NJ Vein Care and Aesthetics Center in Clifton and Oradell, New Jersey, offers state-of-the-art Icon™ laser treatments. Without surgery, downtime, or pain, the Icon safely and comfortably removes or reduces scars on your face or body. To resurface your skin so that it’s healthy and scar-free again, contact NJ Vein Care and Aesthetics Center by phone or book using the online form.

Scars & Stretch Marks Q & A

Why do I have scars?

When your skin is wounded, your first priority is cleaning the wound and then closing it as quickly as possible.

Your body’s healing process begins with inflammation that floods the area with blood to wash away contaminants and toxins and provide nutrients and growth factors to kickstart the rebuilding process. Your skin also produces long strands of collagen to close the wound.

Because the priority is speed and strength, not beauty, the collagen strands overlap haphazardly. That’s why the color and texture of scarred skin differs so drastically from your healthy, clear skin.

What are some different types of scars?

Your skin forms different types of scars depending on your injury. Common scars include:

Contracture scars — scars that tighten skin (e.g. burn scars)
Hypertrophic scars — raised scars
Acne scars — pitted, boxcar, or ice-pick scars
Keloids — extremely raised scars that extend beyond the injury

Keloid scars tend to affect people with darker skin and are the most difficult to treat.

Why do I have stretch marks?

When your body expands too quickly for your skin to adjust, your skin stretches and tears, creating stretch marks. Stretch marks are actually a type of scar, too. You could develop stretch marks if you:

Gain weight
Are pregnant
Have a growth spurt

You can even develop stretch marks if you work out with weights and build a large amount of muscle mass very quickly.

How do doctors treat scars?

At NJ Vein Care and Aesthetics Center in Clifton, New Jersey, the aestheticians treat most scars and stretch marks with the 1540 fractional nonablative Icon laser by CynoSure®. The team doesn't treat keloid scars but can refer you to a dermatologist who does.

How does treatment with Icon improve scars?

The heat from the 1540nm fractional nonablative Icon laser breaks up and softens the disordered strands of collagen that make up your scars.

The heat also stimulates collagen remodeling in your dermis. Your skin produces new, orderly strands of collagen to replace the disordered collagen or fill in the gaps of depressed scars.

The Procell Microchannelling system uses tiny needles to induce mild mechanical damage to your skin and application of stem cell-derived growth factors, resulting in collagen stimulation.

Over the next weeks to months, your skin rebuilds itself to be healthier, clearer, and stronger. After three to five treatments your scars look more like healthy skin.

To smooth scars and stretch marks with the Icon laser or the Procell Microchannelling system contact the NJ Vein Care and Aesthetics Center team today by phone or book your appointment using the online form.