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For those who want to keep their skin clear and smooth looking, stretch marks are an avowed enemy. They show up resembling zebra like scars that vary in length and depth. They come out at different parts of our skin but principally in the abdomen, buttocks, breasts, upper arms, and legs. Weight gain and rapid growth are the usual culprits for the existence of stretch marks. The middle layer of the skin is called the dermis, and when stretched to a point that its elasticity breaks down, out comes a stretch mark.

Question is, what can be done about them?

Thankfully, there are options out there.

Stretch Mark Treatment Options

If you are willing to spend lots of money to solve the problem, surgery is the route to take. The stomach is where stretch marks can be removed surgically in what's called abdominoplasy surgery, or the 'tummy tuck.' It improves the appearance of the stretch marks by tightening and contouring the stomach walls which removes excess fat and skin. The negatives to this procedure are that it is expensive and painful with a long recovery time.

Laser treatment is an alternative surgical treatment. The objective of this treatment is to produce new collagen in the skin by shooting cosmetic lasers into the dermal layer. The collagen then thickens which leads to the plumping of the skin that fills in the stretch mark from below. The downside to laser treatment is that it is only mainly effective on immature stretch marks that are still red in color.

At best a 20 to 50% improvement using these surgical procedures is the most likely result from what would be successive trips to the doctor's office on top of shelling out a few thousand dollars.

If you automatically want to cancel out surgery, a great and effective alternative is microdermabrasion. This treatment can be carried out in a beauty spa or in the comfort of your own home with a microdermabrasion cream. The procedure involves using abrading microcrystals to wear down and eliminate the very top layer of the skin. It triggers collagen and elastin production to create a newer and healthier skin to replace to the original stretch mark laced one.