Featured Dermatologists
Nelson Lee Novick, M.D.Improving Scars
Scars, which are a part of the body's natural healing process, are formed when skin is damaged deeply by trauma, surgery, or disease, such as burns and chicken pox. The more layers of skin destroyed, the more widely extensive the damage, and the longer a wound takes to heal, the greater the likelihood of developing a noticeable scar. Acne is arguably the best known cause for scars, which may result from either the severity of the disease itself or undue delay in obtaining appropriate treatment. Acne scarring is estimated to affect, to a greater or lesser extent, some 95 percent of sufferers.
Abnormalities in color, shape, contour and texture are the reasons that scars are visisble. Although each patient and each scar must be treated individually, it is generally the type of scar and its location that most determine the specific treatment.
Broadly defined, scars fall into three main categories: elevated, depressed, and atrophic. Hypertrophic scars and keloids, which result from an exaggerated healing response, are elevated scars that stand like mountains above the skin surface and cast broad, unsightly shadows. Both are composed of an overabundance of dense fibrous tissue. Hypertrophic scars, also called "proud flesh," sometimes shrink on their own over time. Keloids, which develop in genetically prediscposed individuals, typically do not and require treament.
A depressed scar, as the name suggests, is sunken below the skin surface. It is especially visible due to the "craters of the moon" effect, where wide shadows are cast across the base of the scar making it stand out from the rest of the skin. While generally level with the remainder of the surface or only slightly depressed, atrophic scars have an ivory-colored or a crinkly, off-color, cigarette-paper like appearance that stands in sharp contrast to its surroundings.
Although all scars are permanent, many that are disfiguring at first become much less visible after several months and require no further treatment. For those that do not, however, we are fortunate to have a variety of miniminally invasive, office techniques for improving their appearance significantly. These include intralesional injections, surgical scar revision and punch-excision or punch grafting, dermaspacing, microneedling, fillers, buffing (manual dermasanding), chemical peeling, microdermabrasion, and lasers and intense pulsed light (IPL). All are non-invasive or minimally invasive lunchtime beauty fixes that require topical or local anesthesia and engender little or no downtime.
Learn more about Improving Scars from Nelson Novick, M.D. of New York City.
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