How Soon Can I Seek Treatment for My Scars?
Scars are a part of life and have been since you were a kid. They can happen through a variety of different ways; some ways are through everyday mishaps or voluntary events, while others occur outside of your control. However you acquire your scars, they don’t always look sexy or distinguished. Severe injuries in the wrong place can leave you with scars that are large, bulky, or just plain obvious. You may feel less attractive or even disfigured because of your scars.
Fret not, because you don’t have to live with your unsightly scars if you don’t want to. Scar revision is a procedure performed by plastic surgeons to help improve the appearance of your scars so they are less obvious.
How Scar Tissue Forms
When your skin is injured, your body immediately reacts to repair the damage. Platelets are first rushed to the wound through the blood stream to stop the bleeding and cause a scab to form. The body then starts producing extra collagen fibers that are used to close the wound by forming new scar tissue. The tissue starts at the deepest point of the injury and works upward toward the skin surface. Once your wound has completely healed, you are left with the scar.
Types of Scar Tissue
Scars by nature do not match their surrounding skin tissue, but the appearance of the scar can vary. Most scars are paler than the rest of the skin. They are flat and blend in with the skin surface level. Over time, they might become paler and less noticeable. Some scars, however, don’t follow this norm.
Keloid scars are scars that are formed when the body produces too much collagen in an attempt to heal the wound. These scars are bumpy rather than flat and they have a clear margin that makes the scar more obvious.
Contracture scars occur when your skin begins to contract as it heals. You see this a lot with burn victims or patients who had a large portion of skin tissue removed. These scars are tight and pull across your skin as the muscles move.
Acne scars are commonly found in men and women all over. They can take on many forms, including deep pitted scarring and angular scarring.
How Soon Scar Tissue Should Be Treated
There is no clear-cut time frame for when you can get your scar revision surgery. There are just too many variables that have to be considered for a general rule-of-thumb. Things like placement, skin type, age of the patient, age of the scar, and the type of injury all play a part in how well a scar can be improved.
One general rule that all surgeons can agree on is that the scar tissue has to be soft enough to work with. Scar tissue by nature is much tougher and stronger than the rest of your skin to protect your injury and prevent it from opening again. Over time, it will soften and become more pliable so it’s easier to change, but that timeline will be different for each patient.
The best case scenario for treating your scars is to consult a plastic surgeon when you know you’re going to have one. If you are going to have surgery, or you’ve been in an accident, or are in any position to know that you have a wound that it going to scar, that’s the best time to talk to a surgeon. That’s because if they know about your wound ahead of time, they can work with you and your medical doctors to make sure the scar heals in a way that won’t disfigure your appearance.
Of course, most people aren’t in that position to know whether they will have bad scarring when they get injured or have surgery. Most of the time scars aren’t a problem until after your wound has finished healing and you see what the scar tissue looks like. Waiting until your wound heals doesn’t prevent you from having scar revision surgery, it just may require you to wait a little longer before the surgery can happen.
The bottom line is that scars can be treated once the tissue has softened. For some people, this can be as long as a couple years. For others, it might only mean a few months. Scars form at different rates and the tissue softens at varying times. But no matter where you are in the process, it’s never too early to consult a plastic surgeon.
Your Scar Revision Consultation
You really can talk to a plastic surgeon at any point during the scar tissue formation. If you can consult one before the scar tissue even starts forming, that’s fantastic. But whether you wait until you start seeing what your scar could look like, or you notice your scarring once the tissue has healed, or you’ve been living with your scars for years, you can always go talk to a plastic surgeon about scar revision surgery. Your surgeon will talk to you about your injury and how you got it to understand how the scar occurred. He will also examine the scar tissue and your surrounding skin to check their condition.
Surgeons may not always be able to hide your scars completely, but generally they are able to do something to improve or camouflage the scar’s appearance. That can happen through a couple of different methods, including cutting out the scar tissue and creating a fine-line scar in its place, adjusting your skin tissue to hide the scar better, or treating your scar topically with procedures like dermabrasion or chemical peels. Your surgeon will make a recommendation on the best treatment course for you during your consultation.
To schedule a scar revision consultation with one of our expert surgeons at Spalding Drive Plastic Surgery, contact our office in Beverly Hills at (310) 275-2467.