Best Scar Treatment for Skin Trauma
Cuts and scrapes shouldn’t have to mark you for ever that’s why I’ve decided to talk about the latest method for old scar removal and preventing new ones.
If you’re like most people, you have a few battle scars: lifelong mementos of the time you wiped out on your bike at age 6, the knee surgery you had in college, a latter run-in with a paring knife. “Any skin damage that’s more serious than a simple cut or scrape will leave a scar,” says David J. Leffell, M.D., a professor of dermatology and surgery at Yale School of Medicine and the pen behind Total Skin (Hyperion, 2000). Composed mainly of collagen, a protein fiber normally found in the skin’s middle layer, these marks are the body’s method of repairing itself.
Fortunately, many scars will disappear in time. For those that don’t, new procedures like laser therapies can minimize them considerably. But your best bet is prevention. According to Dr. Leffell, treating wounds quickly and properly will go a long way in decreasing the appearance and development of scars.
A scar is a mark left on the skin after a surface injury or wound has healed. The human organism was created to withstand and survive a variety of wounds by surrounding them and protecting the body from further infection. All of these incidents set into motion an orderly sequence of events that are involved in the healing process, in which the normal functional tissue (skin) is replaced by connective tissue (scar).
When the skin is wounded a variety of different cells come immediately to the aid of the wound. This is the body’s natural way of protecting itself from harm. However this innate protective process usually leaves behind scarring evidence.
Dos and Don’ts for Keeping Scars Controlled
DON’T cleanse wounds with hydrogen peroxide. “The bubbles make it look like something good is happening, but hydrogen peroxide is known to destroy the new skin cells that immediately start to grow,” says Dr. Leffell.
DO cover a wound. If you don’t, healing will be delayed by as much as 50 percent; wounds doesn’t need to ‘breathe’, as some people says. “Moisture prevents the formation of a hard scab, which acts as a defense to the development of new tissue,” says dermatologist Bruce Katz, M.D., an associate clinical professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of Juva Skin and Laser Center in New York City. He recommends treating the damaged area daily with an antibiotic ointment like Neosporin (which will prevent infection, another hindrance to healing) and keeping it protected with a bandage. After 7 days, switch to plain Vaseline petroleum jelly, and continue using it below the bandage until new skin appears over the wound.
DON’T treat with vitamin E. No matter what your grandmother may have said to you, vitamin E has been demonstrated in a University of Miami study to impair wound healing. (In addition, one-third of the patients tested also suffered an allergic reaction.)
DO maintain constant pressure on the injury with special bandages or silicone sheeting pads. According to several studies, coverings like these help to flatten scars-including keloids, scars with hard tissue that grows uncontrollably over their natural boundaries. (Though it’s not known why, darker-skinned individuals are more prone to this type of scar.) To try: Scar Fx and Syprex Scar Sheets, ReJuveness Pure Silicone Sheeting, Curad Scar Therapy Cosmetic Pads.
DON’T expose new scars to the sun. UV radiation can slow the healing mechanism and, since they activate melanocytes (the cells that produce pigment), can leave dark coloration. When you’re outdoors, always slather on a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.
Scars are a part of everyday life. No one is free of having fallen off their bike when they were learning how to ride or having lived their entire life without having to submit themselves to some sort of cut or surgery, and let’s not forget acne scars which are a common result of acne breakouts. The problem isn’t the scar itself. If you really think about it having gone through life without a single scar might just mean that you haven’t lived at all. The problem is scar treatment. So don’t be afraid to live just because you may get a “battle wound”, treat it, investigate and trust products that aid your skin’s natural repair mechanism with safe ingredients.
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- Angelique Jodein