Resurfacing & Tightening
Scar & Stretch-Mark Treatment
Combines resurfacing and collagen-remodelling treatments, selected according to scar type, depth and skin type, to soften the texture and appearance of scars and stretch marks.
Scar & stretch-mark treatment in Vancouver
Understanding Scar & Stretch-Mark Treatment.
Scars and stretch marks are permanent changes in the way skin is built. Treatment can make them considerably less noticeable. It cannot return the skin to how it was before.
That is blunt, and it is meant to be. The difference between a satisfied patient and a disappointed one usually comes down to what they were told at the beginning.
What these treatments genuinely do is prompt the skin to rebuild the collagen in and around a mark, so it sits flatter, feels smoother and blends closer to the skin surrounding it.
How much change is possible depends on what kind of mark you have, how old it is, and how your skin heals — which is why we look before we recommend anything.
Concerns & Goals
Concern guides connected to this treatment.
Treatment options and technologies
Energy-based resurfacing and collagen remodelling is one of several clinically recognised approaches to scars and stretch marks. It is not a fixed answer, and it is not always the appropriate one — a very new scar is usually left to mature, and some marks are better left alone.
The options available here, selected according to clinical findings:
- Secret PRO — considered for depressed scarring and stretch marks where energy needs to be placed at controlled depth through the skin surface
- HALO Hybrid Fractional Laser — considered where surface texture and tone are to be addressed together across a treated area
- PicoWay — considered where residual colour, such as brown discolouration around an older scar, is a significant part of what you notice
More than one is frequently indicated, staged over several months rather than selected against each other.
The selection is a clinical decision, not one you are expected to make. Your marks are examined in person, including in side lighting, and their type, depth, colour, age and location are identified alongside your skin tone, your healing and scarring history, recent sun exposure and medications before any approach is recommended.
Concerns this treatment may help
Treatment may be considered for:
- Depressed acne scarring on the cheeks, temples and jawline
- Surgical scars, once fully healed
- Scars from injury, including some burn scars
- Stretch marks from pregnancy, growth spurts, weight change or muscle gain
- Colour differences — lingering redness, or brown discolouration around a scar
- Texture and firmness differences in scarred skin
- Raised or thickened scars, treated cautiously and case by case
Not every mark benefits enough to be worth treating, and some are better left alone. We will tell you which yours is.
Who it suits, and who needs caution
It tends to suit people whose scars or stretch marks have fully healed and settled, who want a real but partial improvement, and who can commit to a course of sessions spread over months.
Newer stretch marks respond better than old ones. While they are still pink, red or purple, the tissue is still active and more amenable to change. Once they have faded to pale, silvery bands, the realistic gain is smaller. If you are deciding whether to wait, waiting rarely helps.
Deeper skin tones can usually be treated, but not at the same settings. Post-inflammatory pigmentation is a genuine risk, so treatment is started conservatively and built up according to how your skin responds — which usually means more sessions, not fewer.
A keloid history changes the conversation. If your skin has previously formed thick, spreading scars, treatment that creates further injury can make things worse. This needs a careful, individual decision rather than a standard protocol.
Very fresh scars are usually left to settle. Scars continue to change on their own for many months, and treating too early can work against that.
Your consultation
Your marks are examined directly, including in side lighting, because that is how depressed scarring actually reveals itself.
We assess: the type of scar or stretch mark, its depth, colour, age and location, how far it has matured, and your skin tone and healing tendency.
We ask about:
- How the scar or marks came about, and how long ago
- Any history of keloid, thickened or spreading scars
- How your skin has behaved after previous injury, surgery or treatment
- Isotretinoin, current or recent
- Cold sores, if facial scarring is being treated
- Sun exposure, tanning and self-tanner
- Medications, including anything that affects healing or light sensitivity
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding, particularly relevant for stretch marks
Then we tell you plainly how much change is realistic. If the honest answer is that a particular mark will improve only slightly, you will hear that before you commit to a course, not after.
Getting that answer is free. The consultation carries no fee of its own, so you can find out whether a course is worth your money without spending any to ask. What is charged is a booking fee to hold the appointment, which covers the physician's time and reduces no-shows.
What treatment involves
Numbing first. The area is cleansed and a topical anaesthetic is applied, which needs time to take effect. Larger areas such as the abdomen or thighs take proportionally longer to prepare and to treat.
During the session. The device is passed over the marked area section by section. Expect heat and prickling. Cooling is generally used, and treatment over bone or thin skin is felt more.
A course, not a session. Treatment is planned as a series spaced weeks apart, because collagen remodelling needs that time between visits. The plan is reviewed as it goes.
Who performs it. Treatment is delivered by our experienced technicians, working under the medical direction of Dr. Gidon Frame.
Results, timing and honest limits
What it can improve: the depth and shadowing of indented scars, the roughness or firmness of scar tissue, the redness of newer scars and stretch marks, and how sharply a mark stands out against the skin around it.
What it cannot do: erase a scar or a stretch mark. It will not restore skin that has lost its normal structure, will not reliably flatten a keloid, and will not make mature white stretch marks disappear. Deep, narrow ice-pick acne scars are among the most stubborn of all.
When change appears: the first improvement in colour and texture is usually visible within weeks, but collagen remodelling keeps working for many months. The result you judge should be the one several months after your final session — not the one a fortnight after it.
Series and maintenance: this is treated as a course spaced weeks apart, with the number set against the type and extent of the marks. Once a course is finished, results generally hold, though some patients return for further sessions if they want to push the improvement further.
What influences the outcome: the age and type of the mark, its depth, your skin tone, how your skin heals in general, smoking, sun exposure, and how faithfully you follow aftercare.
Expect variation. Two scars of similar appearance on the same person can respond differently, and stretch marks on the abdomen may improve more or less than those on the thighs. This is why the plan is reviewed as it progresses.
Anti-Aging Medical & Laser Clinic
Looking for the right next step?
Anti-Aging Medical & Laser Clinic can help you understand this treatment, explore related technologies and concerns, and build a plan around your goals.
Recovery and aftercare
Recovery scales with how intensively the area is treated.
- Lighter treatment: redness and mild swelling for a day or two.
- More intensive resurfacing: redness, swelling, a sandpaper-like or bronzed texture, and some peeling or fine crusting over roughly a week.
What helps: gentle cleansing, generous plain moisturiser, loose clothing over treated body areas, and rigorous sun protection — which matters more here than almost anywhere, because freshly treated scar tissue pigments readily.
What to avoid: picking or scrubbing at crusts, hot tubs, saunas, swimming pools, and strenuous exercise that soaks the area in sweat until it has healed.
Body areas heal more slowly than the face. Stretch marks on the abdomen, thighs or upper arms typically take longer to settle than facial scarring treated at similar intensity. Plan for that.
Contact the clinic if you notice spreading redness, increasing pain, pus, blistering, or a scar beginning to thicken.
What most people experience
Usual and temporary effects include:
- Redness and heat in the treated area, like a strong sunburn
- Swelling for a day or two
- A rough, gritty or bronzed surface texture as the skin recovers
- Dryness, tightness, flaking or fine peeling
- Pinpoint bleeding or tiny scabs where needles were used
- Bruising, particularly over thinner skin or after deeper settings
- Itching as healing progresses
- Temporary sensitivity to clothing or friction on treated body areas
Less common but important risks
Less often, treatment can cause:
- Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation — darkening of the treated area, which can take months to fade. The risk is substantially higher in deeper skin tones, and is the main reason settings there are kept conservative.
- Loss of pigment, leaving pale patches that can be slow to correct or permanent. This is a particular consideration when treating stretch marks that are already pale.
- Burns and blistering, since these devices work by delivering heat.
- Worsening of the scar, including thickened or keloid scarring in those predisposed to it.
- Infection in the treated area while the skin barrier is disrupted.
- Reactivation of cold sores when facial scars are treated.
- Prolonged redness lasting weeks longer than expected.
- An uneven result, where some marks respond and neighbouring ones do not.
- Little or no visible change, which does happen, particularly with mature white stretch marks.
Risk rises on recently tanned skin, in deeper skin tones, with a keloid history, on larger body areas, and where aftercare or sun protection is not followed.
When treatment should wait or be avoided
Treatment may need to be deferred or ruled out if you have:
- A scar that is still new and actively maturing
- Active infection, an open wound, or a cold-sore outbreak in the area
- Recent sunburn, a fresh tan, or self-tanner on the skin
- A history of keloid or hypertrophic scarring
- Recent isotretinoin use
- Active eczema, psoriasis or dermatitis where treatment is planned
- Photosensitising medication, or a photosensitivity disorder
- A bleeding disorder or blood-thinning medication
- Poorly controlled diabetes or another condition that impairs healing
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding — and, for stretch marks, an intention to become pregnant again soon, since further stretching may undo the work
- Recent surgery, laser or another procedure in the same area
- Expectations of complete removal that cannot be met
This is not a complete screening list. Your scars, skin tone, healing history, medications and general health are all reviewed before a plan is agreed.
Your at-home skincare
Home care will not remodel established scar tissue, but it protects the work that treatment does.
Sun protection is the priority. Treated scars and stretch marks pigment easily, and a mark that darkens is more visible than one that was merely indented. Cover treated body areas with clothing where sunscreen is impractical.
Moisturise consistently. Well-hydrated skin is more comfortable through recovery, and scar tissue is often drier than the skin around it.
Pause and restart actives on advice. Retinoids and exfoliating acids usually stop before treatment and restart once the skin has settled.
If you have been given a scar gel or silicone product by another clinician, bring it to your consultation so it can be worked into the plan rather than around it.
Technologies Used
Technologies that may support this treatment.
Secret PRO
Secret PRO is a multi-technology platform combining RF microneedling, fractional CO₂ laser resurfacing, and a Surgi handpiece for different treatment goals.
HALO Hybrid Fractional Laser
HALO is a hybrid fractional laser that delivers both ablative and non-ablative energy to the skin within the same treatment to address tone and texture.
PicoWay
PicoWay is a picosecond laser platform that delivers ultra-short pulses of light across several wavelengths to target pigment and stimulate skin renewal.
Anti-Aging Medical & Laser Clinic
Why patients choose our clinic
- Honest limits, stated first. We tell you what a scar will and will not do before you book a course, not after you have paid for one.
- More than one platform, so the recommendation follows the scar rather than the single device in the room.
- Conservative settings for deeper skin tones, accepting more sessions in exchange for a much lower risk of pigmentation.
- A Vancouver clinic since 2001, with long experience in energy-based skin treatment.
- Delivered by experienced technicians under the medical direction of Dr. Gidon Frame.
- We will tell you when not to treat — when a scar is too new, too keloid-prone, or simply not going to change enough to justify the course.
FAQ
Questions about Scar & Stretch-Mark Treatment.
No. Scars can be softened, flattened and blended so they draw far less attention, but the tissue does not revert to normal skin. If your goal is that a scar becomes hard to notice, that is often achievable. If your goal is that it disappears, no treatment in this category will deliver it.
They respond less well than newer red or purple marks, and that is worth knowing before you spend money. Mature stretch marks have lost pigment and structure, so treatment aims at texture rather than colour, and change tends to be gradual and partial. Some patients find it worthwhile; others decide it is not. We will give you a candid view of your particular marks.
If you have the choice, yes. While a stretch mark is still pink, red or purple, the tissue is still actively remodelling and more responsive to treatment. Waiting for them to fade to white does not make them easier to treat, it makes them harder.
It can, and that risk is taken seriously rather than glossed over. Deeper skin tones are more likely to respond to heat and injury by producing pigment, so treatment starts at conservative settings and is built up according to how your skin actually behaves. That usually means a longer course. Sun protection afterwards is not negotiable.
Not immediately. Scars keep changing on their own for many months after they close, often improving without any intervention, and treating too early can interfere with that. The right timing depends on the surgery, the site and how the scar is maturing, so it is judged by examining the scar rather than by counting weeks on a calendar.
Yes, and body areas are commonly treated. Two practical differences: larger areas take longer to numb and to treat, and body skin heals more slowly than facial skin, so recovery after each session is typically longer. Sessions are usually spaced accordingly.
It needs a careful, individual decision. Treatments that work by creating further controlled injury can, in someone prone to keloid or hypertrophic scarring, provoke exactly the response you are trying to avoid. Tell us about any scar that has spread, thickened or stayed raised, including from ear piercings or minor cuts.
Unlike pigmentation, scar improvement generally holds once achieved, because you are changing the structure of the tissue rather than clearing something that keeps returning. Some patients complete a course and are done. Others choose further sessions to push the improvement further, which is a preference rather than a requirement.
No consultation fee — that assessment is complimentary, which matters here because a fair number of people are told their marks will not change enough to justify a course. A booking fee is payable to secure the appointment; it holds the time, reflects the physician's time and helps cut no-shows.
Reviews
What patients say about the clinic experience.
Reviews help show the human side of care, from the first consultation to comfort, communication, treatment planning, and follow-up.
Visit Our Clinic
Visit our clinic in Vancouver, BC.
Anti-Aging Medical & Laser Clinic combines medical assessment, individualized planning, physician oversight, and a broad range of treatment options in its Vancouver clinic.
Plan your consultation.
Bring your questions, treatment history, and goals. Your provider can help you understand appropriate options, expected recovery, and realistic outcomes.
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Use our consultation form below and the clinic can guide you toward the appropriate starting point.
Why Anti-Aging Medical & Laser Clinic?
- A medical clinic with physicians and experienced medical-aesthetic providers on the team.
- Science-informed assessment, treatment planning, and realistic expectations.
- Laser, injectables, skin, body, hair, wellness, and medical services available in one clinic.
- Complimentary aesthetic consultations are available for appropriate cosmetic and laser services.
- Personalized skincare and product consultations based on your goals and routine.
- Home-care guidance to support your skin between in-clinic appointments.
- Professional skincare products available through the Anti-Aging Vancouver shop.
- Clear guidance on treatment options, preparation, downtime, aftercare, and next steps.
- Ongoing follow-up so your plan can evolve as your needs and goals change.
