Skin atrophy due to cortisone injection

[goldngrl1611]

I am an 18 year old female who received a couple of cortisone injections for some stubborn blemishes exactly a week ago from my dermatologist. I was not informed of the adverse reactions that could possibly occur from this injection, and although not all of the injection sites caused indentations, the ones on my cheek did.  After some reading, I have heard that the longer the blemish had persisted the greater the likelihood of atrophy occurring.  Ironically, these blemishes on my cheek were present for a long while, and this was the exact reason I had them injected.  I have had injections before though not often and my last one was about a year ago, and have never had this type of reaction.  I am lucky in comparison to other stories I have heard in the sense that though I have multiple, the indents are fairly shallow and are slightly red, though I believe this discoloration is not due to the shot but rather post inflammatory hyperpigmentation.  There is one indentation however, which I believe is at the site of my longest lasting breakout, that I just noticed yesterday and seems to be a little larger in diameter, though also shallow.  The indents can only really be seen when the light is shown directly onto them or from my own scrutiny in the mirror, though in the light they do seem noticeable to me, and having just controlled my breakout issues and because I have great skin other than that, this has caused me a fair amount of distress.  I have a couple of questions:

1. Although I realize it is difficult to say anything because you cannot see me, how long does this typically take to disappear and fill in (assuming it is temporary and not permanent which I hope)? Does the more shallow= faster healing time?

2.  Is there anything I can do to speed up the process?  I have a product by the skincare line Lucrece that contains collagen copper peptides, and I have heard that might help in improvement.  Is this true?

3. What about a saline injection?

Thanks.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Indentations after cortisone injections can take up to 6 months to fill in, but shallow ones take much less.  The fact that you have to look so hard to see what you're describing suggests to me that these really aren't atrophy, just intensified redness from the cortisone.  That take a couple of weeks to go away.  Either way, it's best to just wait things out.  Time's on your side.  By the way, I'm not familiar with the idea that atrophy is more common with older spots.....

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff

[goldngrl1611]

That was helpful, thanks, but what about my last two questions?

[Kwilkes06]

A related discussion, saline injection for cortisone induced atrophy was started.