Scars happen, but here's what you can do to help them heal!
I had some major surgery recently - and it has left me with lots of scars to manage! So I used some of my time off recovering to remind myself of the best way to treat scars early to get the best cosmetic results. I would also love to tell you what we can do to help you manage your existing scars.
We get scars every time our skin, a beautiful organ that protects us from the outside world, suffers injury. This can be due to surgery, injuries or inflammation such as that caused by acne, dermatitis and skin infections.
There are different types of scars:
Raised scars, which are further broken down into Hypertrophic and Keloid scars. The can be ropey and itchy and unsightly.
Depressed scars (ha ha, no they are not sad ones) which are usually from acne. These scars have deep tethered connective tissue anchoring them down. The way we treat these is different from a raised scar.
Stretch marks. These are not really scars, but skin that has been stretched thin over a relatively short period of time such as during pregnancy, periods of rapid growth during teen years and with weight gain. Many of our scar treatments will help treat stretch marks as well.
Prevention is better than cure
During recovery after your surgery be sure to follow your surgeon's instructions on wound care, avoid alcohol, don’t overdo the activity and ensure you are eating a good diet. Don’t smoke cigarettes!
After 2-4 weeks apply silicone gel or silicone scar tape. You can purchase these at pharmacies or order them online. Make sure to get the ok from your doctor or surgeon first.
Use of a medical grade LED light, such as a Healite. An increasing number of surgeons, particularly plastic surgeons, are offering Healite treatments to their patients post surgery. Why? Because it works! LED can reduce inflammation and promote fibroblast activity so that collagen is laid in an orderly way to help wounds to heal and not stretch apart.
For acne - don’t squeeze! Squeezing pimples takes acne from being something isolated and enclosed within the sebaceous gland, to something ruptured deeper under the skin causing inflammation which in time causes scarring, especially of the ice pick variety.
Get early treatment for your acne. One of the best things for acne is Vitamin A serum, cream or gel because it can gently exfoliate the skin, reduce the activity of the sebaceous glands, help remodel collagen from early scar formation and reduce inflammation. Not all vitamin A products are created equal so talk to your doctor before starting. There are also prescription medications that can help with severe acne, so it is important to seek medical help early to prevent severe scar formation.
Treating established scars:
Silicon tape can still be effective even over old scars, though they do work best as prevention.
LED light (Healite) can help with established scars, but is usually best when combined with another treatment
Skin Microneedling. The Skin is a clever organ. While scars are made with big trauma, when we make little traumas (which is what happens with microneedling) the skin goes about healing these micro injuries and in doing so the existing skin gets a collagen makeover. Cool isn't it?! Combined with a platelet therapy, these two tools are one of go to’s for treating superficial acne scarring.
Subcision and TCA (Trichloric Acid) can be used by an experienced doctor to treat deep ice pick scars caused by acne.
After numbing the skin, a needle is used to break up the deep scar tissue to release the depressed bit. Small amounts of the TCA (which is an ingredient in some skin peels) can be used to help stimulate new skin growth in the depressed regions after subcision.
Steroid injections into the scars. We mostly reserve this for keloid scars, which can be difficult to treat. The steroid helps to thin the thick collagen that has built up in the scar. It required many injections, a few weeks apart. We can then use some of our other therapies to help improve the appearance.
Laser Genesis is our new all time, hands down, favourite scar treatment. I will be getting one of our nurses to start treating my scars next week. We can use the Laser genesis to help with early scarring from 6 weeks post operatively. And it is also very effective in improving the appearance of old scars.
One of the reasons we also love the Laser Genesis for acne is that we can treat the active inflammation at the same time as preventing scars from forming AND treating the scars that may have already formed.
So that is my run down of scars, I do hope you have found it useful. As always, these posts are here for general information and you should consult a doctor or experienced aesthetic nurse to see which treatments are right for you. We love helping people achieve their best skin possible at CWM +S. You can book an appointment online, email or call us for more information.
