Here’s everything you need to know about how scars form, what the different types are, how to treat them and how to lessen their appearance.
What are Scars?
They are a natural part of the way your body heals, resulting from the biological process of wound repair in the skin. Most wounds, with the exception of very superficial and minor ones, will result in some level of scarring. You can get them from a car accident, fall, surgery, acne or disease.
How Do They Form?
They form when the deepest, thickest layer of skin, called the dermis, is damaged. Your body will pick up the slack to form new collagen fibers to repair the damage, and what you see is a scar. The new tissue will look and feel different from the surrounding tissue. First, it has to completely heal, then it will form a scar.
Types of Scars
There are many kinds of scars, with most being flat and pale. But if you produce too much collagen after an injury, your scar can appear raised. In this instance, raised scars are referred to as hypertrophic scars or keloid scars – most common in younger, dark-skinned people.
Other scars look sunken or pitted, which happens when underlying structures that support the skin, like muscle or fat, have been lost. You’ll see these types of scars form after surgery and serious bouts with acne.
Finally, scars may appear as stretched-out skin. This happens when the skin stretches rapidly over a short period of time, such as during pregnancy or a growth spurt.
How are Scars Treated?
No one can completely remove a scar, but there are some ways in which you can treat them so they don’t appear as obvious. You can improve the look of scars with:
- Surgery may alter your scar’s shape or make it appear less noticeable. This isn’t, however, a good choice for hypertrophic or keloid scarring because you run the risk of having a recurring scar or even more severe scarring resulting from treatment.
- Steroid injections canhelp flatten your scar and ease itchiness and pain.
- Dermabrasion can remove the surface of the skin, blending the irregularities of a scar. Microdermabrasion is less invasive but is only good for the most superficial of scars.
- Laser resurfacing can remove the surface layers of the skin via laser.
- Topical treatments like cocoa butter cream, vitamin E and silicone gel such as Scarfade. These treatments are the least invasive and easiest to use.
Scarfade has an excellent track record of reducing scars’ appearance if used as recommended. Used best in conjunction with light massage twice daily, Scarfade can improve your self-confidence and appearance at an affordable price!