For those who want to keep their skin clear and smooth looking, stretch marks are an avowed enemy. These marks are pronounced with different lengths and depths. 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 skin has a middle layer named the dermis, and after being stretched to a certain point, its elasticity breaks down which causes the stretch mark to appear.

This being the case, what can be done?

Luckily, there are options for their treatment and here listed are a few of them.

What Are the Stretch Mark Treatment Options Out There

Surgery is the route to take if you are willing to take the hit on the bank account. For the stomach there is abdominoplasy surgery, or better known as the 'tummy tuck.' Tightening and contouring the stomach walls remove excess fat and skin improving the complexion of the original stretch marks. 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. One can have it done at a beauty spa or use the at home method of a microdermabrasion cream. The method is to wear down and eliminate the top layer of the skin by using abrading microcrystals. This in turn creates a newer and healthier skin to replace the old and damaged one. It also makes your skin more resilient by triggering collagen and elastin production.