How to Handle Stretch Marks

To begin with, a caveat: Stretch marks cannot be completely removed. They are a kind of scarring, and the only way to remove them entirely is by surgically cutting away the affected skin. That said, there are a number of things you can do that can help make your stretch marks less obvious.

Time Heals All Wounds

Early stretch marks are purple or red, since they indicate damage to the skin and there are broken capillaries beneath the surface. If the stretch marks are relatively mild, it may be the case that they will simply disappear with time as the capillaries heal, as long as the skin is not stretched any further. Deeper, more severe stretch marks will not vanish entirely, but they will eventually fade to a different color, generally a slightly lighter shade of the background skin color. People with darker skin often have more color contrast between their stretch marks and the surrounding skin, so keep this in mind.

Topical Medications

Retinoid creams such as tretinoin (the active ingredient used in Retin-A) are used for stretch marks that are still in the healing process (pink or red) to help reduce their appearance when they are mature, but they don’t have any effect on mature stretch marks.

Dermabrasion

Dermabrasion is a procedure where controlled wounds are created on the surface of the skin. This prompts the skin to renew itself by healing; the intention is that the abraded surface of the stretch mark will fill in with normal skin when healing in a controlled environment. Dermabrasion has a lengthy healing process and it is not fully reliable, but it is a very familiar treatment modality for many professionals and so it is often recommended, since the people offering the treatment have a great deal of experience in its use.

Laser Treatment

More recently, laser treatments such as fractional laser resurfacing have emerged. In a fractional laser resurfacing procedure, similarly to dermabrasion, controlled wounds are created on the skin. However, in the case of the laser treatment, instead of removing whole skin areas, the skin is honeycombed with microscopic marks, and the skin fills them in as it heals. As a result the healing process is much shorter than with dermabrasion and the risk of scarring or infection is significantly lowered. However, even this treatment is not 100% effective at removing stretch marks; it just causes them to fade dramatically, and it is the most expensive treatment option.

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