Dr. Jennifer Pennoyer recently appeared in a WVIT-NBC feature about acne scarring. In this video, Dr. Pennoyer demonstrates one of the ways she helps to reduce patients’ acne scars by encouraging collagen growth.

Video Transcript

ANCHOR #1: Acne can be devastating for some young people, and the scars it can leave behind can be just as unbearable.

ANCHOR #2: We talked with a young woman who’s seen promising results, thanks to technology. Lisa Carberg is here with her story tonight. Lisa.

LISA CARBERG, REPORTER: She suffered for years until by luck she found a Bloomfield dermatologist who convinced her to undergo laser treatments.

MEGAN, PATIENT: For the laser, you could feel, really in my forehead and temples and my cheeks, some pitting…

CARBERG: Twenty-five year old Megan is now comfortable talking about her skin. Her “before” picture shows what she used to look like.

MEGAN: I was that person that didn’t mind being photographed, but if it was too close and you could really, you know, see the scarring or, you know, I didn’t like that. I would rather be farther away when I was photographed.

DR. JENNIFER PENNOYER, ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL: These are all the different hand pieces for the machine, and they can do a variety of things and target different structures in the skin.

CARBERG: Dr. Jennifer Pennoyer shows us the tools she uses on patients like Megan. Her fraxel laser gets skin to plump up, which moves out scars through a process similar to aerating a lawn.

PENNOYER: We’re poking through microscropic holes, about two hundred holes per the size of my thumbnail here, and having your body and your collagen stimulated to heal that.

CARBERG: She says treating acne scars in teenagers can bring very good results.

PENNOYER: Results are always better in younger people. They’ve got better collagen, we’re inducing new collagen growth.

CARBERG: Lasers have improved so much in recent years that doctors can now treat even small acne scars. This a “before” and “after” picture of another patient. You can see red indentations that are lighter and smoother in the “after.” Dr. Pennoyer said she gets best results after three treatments at a total cost of fifteen hundred dollars, which is not covered by insurance. And while topical numbing creams are put on in advance, Megan says it’s not painless, but all worth it for her new look.

MEGAN: My family and friends all think, you know, my results have been really great and I look like, you know, a whole new person. My skin’s smoother, and just so much better.

CARBERG: And Dr. Pennoyer, who is affiliated with St. Francis Hospital, says the laser technology is not as effective at treating the acne itself. She has to have patients return on a regular basis and that can get expensive. Lisa Carberg, NBC Connecticut News.