Scars are bad enough on their own. But there are many side effects that can come with scars, such as pain, sensitivity, itchiness, and more. It’s important to understand those issues so you can enjoy comfort in daily life, even after developing a scar.
Many scars can bring painful symptoms, as well as itching, swelling, tightness, skin color changes, restriction of movement, and hypersensitivity to touch. Scar tissue pain usually results from nerve damage or compression. Early on, scar tissue isn’t necessary painful because the nerves in that immediate area were likely destroyed in the injury, as well as healthy body tissues.
Over time, though, scar tissue can become painful as your nerve endings start to regenerate. The amount of pain you experience will depend on the initial wound’s severity as well as its location on your body.
Symptoms of Scar Tissue Pain
Scar tissue typically has a thicker texture compared with the rest of your skin, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be painful. Here are some common symptoms of scar tissue pain:
- Inflammation
- Redness
- Itchiness
- Throbbing
- Sensitivity to touch
- Reduced range of motion
Sometimes scar tissue forms in areas you cannot see, such as internal wounds, underlying diseases, or surgeries. If the scar tissue affects the surrounding joints, you may experience pain, such as with knee or spinal scar tissue, or scar tissue formed from medical procedures like hysterectomies.
Pain from scar tissue isn’t always immediately noticeable; in fact, it can manifest itself years later. Sometimes nerves develop after the injury heals, or a severe burn can affect underlying bones and joints.
In the case of internal damage, pain can result when scar tissue takes place of healthy tissue, such as with liver and lung diseases. Pulmonary fibrosis and cirrhosis of the liver may become painful after the fact, due to accumulated scar tissue causing jaundice, bruising, and fluid retention.
Sensitivity
In most cases, scars will simply cause some itchiness and other minor sensitivities as they heal. Itchiness occurs as part of the wound’s natural healing process. Histamine happens to be one of the top causes of scar itchiness. When it is released, histamine activates your skin’s nerve fibers that then signal your brain that there’s an itch to scratch. Tight and itchy scars can also come about during the third phase of the wound healing process, which is proliferation.
This is when the surrounding cells start rapidly multiplying and uniting at the center to attach together. As a result, they contract and pull the wound shut, which causes stress on the nerves.
Treat Your Scar Side Effects With Scarfade
Scarfade has a variety of products for sale that can help minimize scar appearance as well as relieve side effects such as pain and sensitivity. We suggest using our products in conjunction with daily massage to break up scar tissue.