Our skin is pretty amazing! It grows, twists, moves with us, heels when it’s injured, and even stretches. That’s not to say it does all of this without damage, of course. If your skin has stretched a significant amount in a short period of time, you may have stretch marks.
Stretch marks are very common. Healthline tells us that data estimates about 90% of people have them. While these marks aren’t painful or bad for your health, many people don’t want their skin to look this way. In order to return to the skin they used to have, they consider cosmetic services. Is stretch mark removal an option for you and your stretch marks? Let’s dig a bit deeper to find out.
Table of Contents
- What Are Stretch Marks?
- Main Causes of Stretch Marks
- Stretch Mark Treatment Options
- Stretch Mark Removal
What Are Stretch Marks?
According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA), a stretch mark is a type of scar that develops when a person’s skin either stretches or shrinks too quickly. The abrupt change causes the collagen and elastin, which supports your skin, to rupture. Collagen is a fibrous protein that helps give your skin elasticity. Your skin heals, but stretch marks appear that look like bands of lines running across your skin.
Stretch marks can appear just about anywhere, but they’re most common on your:
- Stomach
- Thighs
- Under Arms
- Breasts
- Upper Arms
- Buttocks
Main Causes of Stretch Marks
Your skin is made to grow with your body. That being said, sometimes the rest of our body grows too quick for our skin to keep up. They are common after any type of rapid changes in your weight. Stretch marks commonly appear during pregnancy, especially in the last trimester. As well, rapidly growing adolescents might notice stretch marks as they go through puberty. Weight training when you have rapid muscle growth is another common time for stretch marks to appear.
Stretch Mark Treatment Options
Just because many people have stretch marks doesn’t mean you need to live in skin you’re not proud of. We want you to be comfortable and that may mean turning to stretch mark treatment. It is possible to minimize the appearance of stretch marks, and even make them disappear completely.
The AADA recommends gently massaging moisturizing cream into new stretch marks over the course of several weeks. Applying self-tanner to your stretch marks offers a temporary way to minimize the difference in color between your typical skin tone and the color of stretch marks. This doesn’t heal your skin, per say, but it does make the marks less noticeable for a special event.
Remember, stretch marks appear when the collagen and elastin in your skin can’t support your skin as it grows too rapidly. Tretinoin cream works by restoring collagen. It’s best to use this cream on recent stretch marks that have a red or pink appearance.
Stretch Mark Removal
By far, the best method to deal with stretch marks is laser therapy. Laser stretch mark treatment is a non-surgical procedure that provides remarkable results in only a few short treatment sessions.
The Icon™ laser utilizes fractional laser technology to deliver stretch mark removal via specialized pulses of energy into your skin. It targets your unwanted stretch marks without causing harm to the surrounding skin. Once the energy is absorbed into the skin your body’s natural healing process will begin creating new, healthy skin in the area that was treated. Over the next few weeks you will see continued improvement in both the coloration and smoothness of your skin. You will see results in both the tone and texture of your skin, leaving you with the skin you’ve been wanting.
Eye Care Professionals in Reno is pleased to offer cosmetic services to our patients. Beyond LASIK eye surgery and other eye care services, we also offer professional stretch mark removal! Contact our team to make an appointment and learn more about the Icon™ laser. It is FDA-cleared for the treatment of stretch marks. We can help get your clear, smooth, and touchable skin back.
