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Treatment corridor at Dear Clinic Cheongdam leading to the rooms where per-lesion scar work is carried out
Dear Clinic · Skin Concerns · Acne Scars
Worked one pit at a time — in Cheongdam, Gangnam, Seoul

Ice Pick Acne Scars

The narrowest scars on a face are the ones a broad pass reaches least. Here they are counted, quoted and worked individually, with the surrounding skin treated on a separate line and the ceiling stated before anything starts.

Charged per lesion, not per face Scar width and wall angle read at the scan Open 365 days
Have Your Pits Counted See What Is Offered
The short answer

Why ice pick acne scars resist a resurfacing pass

Geometry. An ice pick scar is a narrow shaft with near-vertical walls whose base sits well below the opening, and a treatment that spreads its energy evenly over a surface never reaches that base. Work that helps them has to be aimed down the shaft, one scar at a time.

Picture the two shapes side by side. A shallow saucer with sloping sides presents most of its area to anything applied from above, so warming the skin around it lifts the floor toward the rim. A shaft presents almost nothing: a tiny circle, with the length of the problem hidden underneath. Energy delivered across a whole cheek passes over that circle and lands on the skin between the scars, which was never the complaint.

Raising the setting is the wrong correction. Pushing a field treatment harder does not send more of it down a shaft; it puts more into undamaged skin, buying a longer recovery and, where melanin is abundant, a tone change that outlasts the scar.

So the plan splits in two. The shafts are addressed individually, and the skin around them is improved on its own line. The wider sequence this belongs to is set out on the acne scar treatment page; this page is about the narrowest member of the family.

Diagnosis

What the EVE Muse reading measures on an ice pick scar

EVE Muse 3D imaging captures the face under five light sources with AI analysis. Raking light is what makes a narrow shaft visible, and four readings come out of the capture.

Opening

How wide the mouth of each scar actually is

Width at the surface decides whether a scar can be entered and worked at all. The narrowest openings behave as shafts; wider ones with a visible floor belong to the boxcar group and answer differently once the capture is enlarged.

Depth

How far below the surface the base is sitting

A shaft can stop just under the epidermis or continue well into the dermis. The deeper it goes, the more of it sits out of reach of anything applied above, and the narrower the range given to you at the scan. Depth also decides how many passes one scar is given.

Wall angle

Whether the sides slope or drop away vertically

A sloping wall catches less shadow and softens with dermal work around it. A vertical wall keeps its hard edge under a ceiling light however well the surrounding skin is rebuilt. Angle often explains why one cheek improved visibly and the other did not.

Distribution

How many there are, and where they cluster

Shafts cluster on the temples, the outer cheeks and either side of the nose. The capture produces a count and a map, and the count is what the quote is built from, because this work is billed by the lesion.

Most faces that arrive asking about narrow pits carry two or three scar patterns at once. The capture separates them, and the plan names which scars are worked this season and which are left alone.

What is offered

The lines Dear Clinic runs around ice pick scarring

Three published lines touch this problem, and only one is aimed down the shaft itself. They are quoted apart, so a plan using one is not billed as though it used three.

Published lineWhere it actsWhat it does for a narrow pitListed rate
Focused carbon dioxide or erbium, per lesionDown the individual shaftThe only line aimed at the scar itself; each pit is entered and worked in controlled passes, then left to heal over a small scab₩10,000 (≈ $5)
Potenza RF microneedling, standard tipThe dermis around the shaftsThickens and remodels the skin between and beside the pits so the field they sit in carries less shadow; it does not close a shaft₩250,000 (≈ $180)
SubcisionBeneath a tethered floorWritten for rolling and tethered scars; offered here only when that pattern is also present on the same face₩500,000 (≈ $355)

Figures current for September 2026 in KRW, with a USD equivalent shown for orientation only; residents and visitors are given the identical line. The per-lesion figure is multiplied by the count agreed at your scan. What a diagnosis visit and any later review cost is confirmed when you book. Everything published sits on the price list.

Dear 10 Selection, Dear Clinic October 2026 event (prices in Korean won, VAT excluded, identical for locals and international visitors): Ultherapy Prime 400 shots ₩1,320,000 · Ultherapy Prime 500 shots ₩1,650,000 · Ultherapy Prime 600 shots ₩1,980,000 · Thermage FLX 600 shots ₩1,900,000 · XERF 600 shots ₩1,600,000 · Dear Total Face Care: Ultherapy Prime 500 + Eye Thermage 450 + PN eye booster 1cc ₩3,700,000 · Thermage FLX 600 + PN booster HB 4cc + CaHA collagen booster 1 vial ₩3,400,000 · Ultherapy Prime 400 + PN healer 4cc (LDM and numbing included) ₩1,900,000 · Eye Thermage 450 + PDLLA eye booster 2cc ₩2,100,000
Dear 10 Selection · October lifting event — tap to book
 Dear 10 Selection, Dear Clinic October 2026 event (prices in Korean won, VAT excluded): Skin Revital Care: Potenza pumping + PDLLA skin booster 5cc ₩500,000 · PN booster HB 4cc ₩750,000 · PN healer 4cc + PN eye booster 2cc (LDM and numbing included) ₩850,000 · HA skin-quality booster 2cc ₩700,000 · RE2O 1 session ₩700,000 · Defined Volume Care: Eye Light 1cc + PN eye booster 1cc ₩1,050,000 · Chin filler 1cc + jawline filler 1cc ₩850,000 · PLLA collagen stimulator 2 vials ₩1,500,000 · Directors' Picks (Dr. Woojae Jung · Dr. Daeun Jung): Density Alpha 300 shots + PN booster HB 2cc (both cheeks) ₩1,100,000 · Potenza pumping + PDLLA skin booster 5cc, 3 sessions ₩1,150,000 · PN booster HB 4cc with PDLLA skin booster 2cc (both cheeks) ₩790,000 · Onda 80 kJ + Titanium 60 kJ ₩990,000
Dear 10 Selection · October skin revital & volume — tap to book
The line aimed at the scar

How per-lesion work is run on an ice pick scar

01

The list is counted and agreed before the room is prepared

Each scar to be worked is identified on the map and counted out with you. Because the charge is ₩10,000 (≈ $5) per lesion, the figure is arithmetic you can check, and a scar you would sooner leave alone comes off the list before it reaches the bill.

02

Each shaft is entered on its own terms

Carbon dioxide or erbium energy is applied to one scar at a time, aimed into the opening instead of across the cheek, in passes judged against what the tissue does. A shallow shaft may take one pass; a deep one is worked more conservatively and revisited instead of forced in a single sitting.

03

Each treated pit heals under its own small scab

A worked scar carries a pinpoint crust for a few days and is left strictly alone while it lifts. Picking one is the commonest way a temporary mark becomes a lasting one. Around those points the untreated skin is left alone, which is the practical advantage of this approach.

No full-face ablative resurfacing pass is offered here as an alternative to that list. The reasoning is put plainly: the recovery and tone risk of resurfacing a whole face are carried by all of your skin, while the benefit is concentrated in a handful of shafts a field pass reaches poorly.

In the clinic

The devices and hands behind this treatment

Cross-section illustration of an ice pick acne scar showing a narrow shaft with near-vertical walls
A narrow mouth over a long shaft: the shape a surface pass reaches least.
Potenza radiofrequency microneedling console and handpiece at Dear Clinic Cheongdam
The line that treats the skin between the pits, on its own published rate.
A boundary worth stating

Why subcision is written for a different scar than an ice pick pit

Subcision passes a fine needle under a scar and divides the fibrous strands anchoring its floor to the tissue below. It earns its reputation on rolling and tethered scars, where a broad soft depression is held down from underneath and releasing the anchor lets the floor rise.

A narrow shaft is a different problem. There is no broad floor being pulled down and no anchor of that kind to divide, so the step that transforms a rolling scar has little to release under a pit. Offering it anyway would sell the more expensive line for a pattern it was not written for, and we decline that booking when the capture shows shafts alone.

Where both patterns share a face, subcision is quoted at ₩500,000 (≈ $355) for the rolling component and the shafts stay on the per-lesion list. The two are sequenced, and you are told at each visit which of your scars is being worked.

Two neighbouring routes are named for completeness without being claimed as pit treatments. CureJet delivers material across a field without passing a needle through the skin, and D-ARC Solution runs acne and its aftermath together. Both act on the field; neither reaches down a shaft.

The adjacent line

Where Potenza sits beside ice pick scarring

Mechanism

Radiofrequency released inside the dermis, not on top of it

Fine needles carry energy past the surface and release it from their tips within the dermis. Because delivery is needle-based, the epidermis takes far less load than a beam-based pass would give it, and melanin is not the target.

Design

Depth reset zone by zone across a scarred cheek

Needle depth is chosen against skin thickness and scar pattern and is reset at each zone boundary, so a thin temple never runs on a cheek setting. The standard-tip visit is published at ₩250,000 (≈ $180) and has its own Potenza page.

Honest limit

It improves the field, and leaves the shaft a shaft

Remodelling the dermis around a pit reduces the texture contrast it sits in, which is a real gain in photographs. It is not a mechanism for closing a narrow shaft, and nobody here should tell you it is. The shafts stay on the per-lesion line.

Published work supports that split, and the studies behind it are listed with resolvable identifiers at the foot of this page.

Dear, Knowhow

How an ice pick scar plan is staged and revised between visits

01 — THE FULL ARSENAL

Per-lesion work and field work are separate purchases

Because both lines are published, a plan can use one, the other or both, and the receipt names which. Nobody is moved onto a field treatment because the per-lesion tool is missing from the building.

02 — DIAGNOSIS FIRST

Width, depth and wall angle decide the order of visits

The first visit usually takes a subset of the list so the response can be read before the rest is committed, and the map is re-captured and compared before each later visit.

03 — DIRECTOR-PERFORMED

A pit is judged by hand, one at a time

Work this fine rewards a steady hand more than a preset. Your session is director-performed, each scar assessed as it is reached and the pass adjusted or stopped, instead of one fixed setting run across a zone.

Caution

Living with the days after a per-lesion scar visit

The treated points — each carries a pinpoint crust that darkens before it lifts. Leave every one of them alone and let it release on its own timetable.
Washing and cover — keep cleansing gentle and lukewarm, moisturise generously, and ask before putting makeup over a crusted point instead of testing it yourself.
Where subcision was also used — expect bruising and tenderness over the released zone, and plan the visit with a clear week ahead of you.
Across every step — sunscreen each morning, no deliberate sun, and saunas, pools, hard training and strong actives paused for the window your director specifies.
Call us if a point is spreading instead of settling, if blisters appear, or if the area feels hotter on day three than it did on day one.
Medical Team

Five doctors, one standard

Director-performed treatment is a Dear promise — your procedure is planned and performed by the doctors below.

Dr. Jemin Kim — Medical Director and Founder, Dear Clinic
Dr. Jemin Kim
Yonsei University College of Medicine
Medical Director · Founder
Dr. Sanghyun Lee — Director, Dear Clinic
Dr. Sanghyun Lee
Seoul National University College of Medicine
Director
Board-certified · Family Medicine
Dr. Seonhaeng Lee — Director of Aesthetic Medicine, Dear Clinic
Dr. Seonhaeng Lee
Chosun University College of Medicine · Residency, Samsung Medical Center
Director, Aesthetic Medicine
Dr. Daeun Jung — Director, Dear Clinic
Dr. Daeun Jung
Ajou University College of Medicine
Director
Board-certified · Family Medicine
Dr. Woojae Jung — Director of Aesthetic Medicine, Dear Clinic
Dr. Woojae Jung
Seoul National University — B.S. in Medicine
Director, Aesthetic Medicine
Patient Reviews

What our patients say

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The clinic was very professional from start to finish. Doctor Jung was excellent and gentle with the treatment. I felt well looked after and everyone was outstanding. Happy with my service!

Jen — Google review
Jen6 months ago
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I've visited clinic for LDM procedure. I don't speak Korean, so there was an interpreter who assisted me while consulting. The staff was very attentive, they asked me every time before applying products/covering my face during the procedure and it went smoothly. Planning to visit the clini…

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All the staff are kind, the doctor is professional. They recommended us the treatment that fit us best and last the longest. A very nice experience overall.

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I did a hydrofacial, white/black head removal, and 1 day lasers. Really kind staff and reasonable prices. The only thing I would advise is that your first consultation is with a salesperson and you don’t see the doctor until after you decide what you want and after you pay.

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Had a great experience here as a foreigner! The doctors and staff were knowledgeable, friendly, and not pushy. They made recommendations in my consultation and were happy to work within my budget.

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FAQ

Further questions about ice pick acne scars

How do I know my scars are ice pick and not something else?
By the opening. A shaft has a very narrow mouth and no floor you can see into, and it stays sharply visible when light rakes across the face from one side. A depression with a visible flat base belongs to a different group. The capture settles it.
Why does a broad laser pass do so little for a narrow pit?
Because it spreads its energy over the surface, and the surface of a shaft is almost nothing. Most of what is delivered lands on the skin between the scars, which helps texture and does nothing for depth. So the shafts are worked individually at ₩10,000 (≈ $5) each.
How much does treating ice pick scars cost in Cheongdam, Seoul?
Focused carbon dioxide or erbium work is ₩10,000 (≈ $5) per lesion, so the figure follows the count agreed at your scan. A standard-tip Potenza visit for the surrounding skin is ₩250,000 (≈ $180). Subcision, where a rolling component is also present, is ₩500,000 (≈ $355). Each is published separately and quoted separately.
Why is the focused work charged per lesion instead of per session?
Because that is what is actually being bought. Someone with a few shafts on one temple and someone with dozens across both cheeks are not receiving the same treatment. Counting makes the quote checkable and lets you take scars off the list before the room is prepared.
Can subcision fix an ice pick scar?
It is written for a different pattern. Subcision divides the fibrous strands holding a rolling or tethered floor down, and a narrow shaft has no broad floor of that kind to release. If your face carries rolling scars as well, subcision is quoted for those at ₩500,000 (≈ $355) and the shafts stay on the per-lesion list. Where the capture shows shafts alone, we say no to it.
What does Potenza actually do for this scar type?
It remodels the dermis around the pits, so the field they sit in reads smoother and carries less shadow contrast. Needle depth is set against skin thickness and reset zone by zone. It improves the surroundings and does not close a shaft, and both facts are stated before it is booked.
How many visits will my scars need?
No fixed course is sold on day one. Visits sit several weeks apart so tissue can rebuild between them, and how many you need depends on how deep and how numerous the shafts are and how your skin repairs. Your director gives a likely range at the scan and revises it against the re-captured map as you go.
Will the pit ever close completely?
Partial improvement is the target, because that is what the work supports. A shaft that is shallower, narrower at the mouth and less shadowed under overhead light is a change you see daily. Complete closure of a deep narrow scar is not something this clinic describes, and the range you are given is written in those terms.
Do you offer a full-face resurfacing pass instead?
No. Running an ablative pass over an entire face to chase a handful of shafts asks undamaged skin to recover from something it never needed, and in skin carrying more melanin it invites a tone change that outlasts the scars. The list is worked point by point instead.
Can I be treated while breakouts are still active?
Usually the inflammation is settled first, because each new lesion in the same zone can leave another scar behind it. Insulated microneedle radiofrequency is the route used for recurrent acne here, and the scar list is opened once the field has quietened. That judgement belongs to your director after the skin has been examined.
Does my skin tone change the plan for ice pick scars?
It changes the caution and the pace more than the method. Light absorbed by melanin calls for lower settings as pigment rises, and working point by point already spares most of the face any exposure. Needle-delivered radiofrequency does not read melanin the same way, and several of the published scar studies behind it were run in Asian patient groups.
Can this fit into one trip to Seoul, and do visitors pay more?
A first list can be worked inside a trip, provided your calendar can absorb pinpoint crusting for a few days, and the rooms run 365 days a year. Rates are identical for residents and visitors, settled in KRW with a USD reference figure alongside. Send photographs taken in side light, since shafts vanish in a flat selfie.
Consultation

Ask what your narrow scars can realistically give back

Your questions, answered in English as soon as possible.

Scientific Evidence

What the published record reports on needle radiofrequency for atrophic scarring

The split this page describes — field work around the pits, focused work down them — leans on the studies below. Needle-delivered radiofrequency has been trialled on facial atrophic acne scarring in Asian patients, compared against fractional carbon dioxide in a randomised single-treatment split-face design, set against micro-plasma radiofrequency in a further split-face study, and pooled in a meta-analysis covering acne and acne scarring.

Each reference carries a resolvable identifier and reports degrees of improvement across courses of treatment, which is why a range is discussed at your scan instead of a result promised in advance.

  1. Vejjabhinanta V et al. The efficacy in treatment of facial atrophic acne scars in Asians with a fractional radiofrequency microneedle system. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. 2013. doi:10.1111/jdv.12267
  2. Hendel K et al. Fractional CO2‐laser versus microneedle radiofrequency for acne scars: A randomized, single treatment, split‐face trial. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. 2023. doi:10.1002/lsm.23655
  3. Lan T et al. Comparison of Fractional Micro‐Plasma Radiofrequency and Fractional Microneedle Radiofrequency for the Treatment of Atrophic Acne Scars: A Pilot Randomized Split‐Face Clinical Study in China. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine. 2020. doi:10.1002/lsm.23369
  4. Li J et al. Meta‐analysis of fractional radiofrequency treatment for acne and/or acne scars. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2022. doi:10.1111/jocd.15348
  5. Ren K et al. Fractional microneedle radiofrequency treatment for enlarged facial pores: A real‐world retrospective observational study on 75 patients. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2022. doi:10.1111/jocd.15339

References are provided for information — outcomes vary by individual and are assessed at your diagnosis.

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