At Halloween people will often use plastic or painted scars as part of their costumes. The scars are scary. They represent injury, or damage and other than at Halloween, nobody wants to have one.
Scars can also remind us of bad experiences. A traumatic event, an emergency, a time of despair.
At this time in history, is impossible to completely eliminate an existing scar. However, we have many ways to minimize their appearance.
The first thing I do is try to determine what aspects of the scar are problematic. These can include the length, shape, color, location, width, height (is it raised or sunken in), vascularity (are there blood vessels within it), and skin texture of the area. Scarred skin can be different from the surrounding skin in each of these ways. For example, a scar may be dark, wide, raised, and smooth. Or, it can be light, narrow, shiny, and sunken in.
Then, we look at how to fix it. A wide scar can be made narrower. A dark scar can be lightened. A hollow scar can be lifted.
Sometimes, we need to address multiple aspects of the scar. A scar can be dark and wide. So, we need to narrow and lighten. This may mean more than one visit, and more than one treatment type.
Making a scar look the best it can may require a few trips to see us, but it can be done! You can assure your patients they can have absolute optimism in our ability to make things look better.
