Acne, injuries, burns, and other forms of trauma can result in scarring. Facial and body scars can make you feel self-conscious, but there is a solution. If you have a scar reminding you of breakouts from your teenage years or break out from last month, we can help minimize the appearance of those scars to help you feel better about your complexion. At Manuel Gigena Plastic Surgery in McMinnville, OR, we offer scar revisions to help you achieve beautiful skin.
What Are Scar Revisions?
Scar revisions are treatments that address old and new scars by lightening, minimizing, and even eliminating them. This treatment uses different methods to treat scars and help them blend better with your skin. Once you undergo treatment, your scar will better match your overall skin tone and texture, making the scar that much less noticeable, which will positively impact your appearance and self-confidence.
How Scars Form
Scars are the body’s way of healing after an injury, but the problem is, scars can not only affect your appearance, but they can make you feel self-conscious, especially when they’re somewhere highly visible, like the face. Scars form from an excess of collagen and fibrous tissue, which is why they stand out from the rest of the skin.
The Different Types of Scars
All scars are not the same, which is why some scars respond better to certain treatments than others do. There are four primary scar types: acne, atrophic, keloid, and hypertrophic scars. Stretch marks also qualify scars; they’re just bigger and more prominent than most scars.
Acne Scars
Acne scars form as a result of acne. If you have acne scars, you’re probably well aware of just how hard they are to get rid of, especially if you’ve only ever used at-home methods. Acne scars can be light and barely noticeable or look like deep depressions in the skin. Acne scars can affect your appearance and your self-confidence in many ways, but luckily, scar revisions can help treat and eliminate these scars, helping you achieve beautiful, smooth skin.
Keloid Scars
Keloid scars are hard, dense growths resulting from excess collagen production after an injury or some form of trauma to the skin.
Atrophic Scars
Atrophic scars are deep and round scars and often result from bug bites, chickenpox, or other injuries to the skin.
Hypertrophic Scars
Hypertrophic scars are raised scars that result from trauma or injury, including burns or other wounds. These scars result when the skin produces excess collagen to heal and repair itself.
Stretch Marks
Stretch marks are technically considered a type of scar and can form during adolescence due to growth spurts or as a result of weight gain and weight loss. When the skin stretches quickly, as during pregnancy, or shrinks too quickly, like, after extreme weight loss, stretch marks often form. Scar revisions can help treat and minimize the appearance of stretch marks wherever they are on your body.
How Do Scar Revisions Work?
This process begins with an initial consultation at our office. Since different methods are used to treat different types of scars, we must see and evaluate your scars in person to determine how to best treat them. During this consultation, we will discuss your goals regarding your scars and then create a treatment plan that best helps you reach those goals.
Once we evaluate your particular scars, we can determine the best plan of action to treat that scar and describe the treatment process and what kind of results you can expect. Scar revisions can help eliminate and reduce the appearance of scars on both the face and body.
Lasers
Laser treatments are an effective way to treat many different types of scars. The goal of lasers is to reduce the overall appearance of a scar and potentially eliminate it. Lasers use light energy to penetrate the skin surface where the scar is located. They can stimulate collagen production below the skin’s surface to fill in depressions, which helps create a smoother and more even skin texture and tone.
Chemical Peels
Chemical peels exfoliate the skin using a combination of acids to dissolve the top layers to reveal a younger layer of skin. Chemical peels are a form of scar revision because they help lighten scarring by removing a top layer of skin. Once the old skin is gone, new skin cells replace the old ones. These younger, healthier skin cells can fill the gap between the scar and the top layer of the skin by reducing irregularities and improving skin texture.
What Kind of Results Can I Expect?
Lasers provide an effective way to reduce the appearance of scars, but results may take time since it does take the body up to 12 weeks to produce collagen want to be stimulated. Chemical peels vary in intensity based on their ingredients. We can choose the right peel for you during your consultation.
It may take several treatments to achieve optimal results. You can rest assured that you will see an improvement in your scars over time, but the improvement may be gradual. Results vary based on the patient and the type of scar undergoing treatment.
What Should I Know About These Treatments?
You may need multiple sessions to reach your goals, depending on the size or number of scars you want to treat. Additionally, when you undergo laser treatments, you will have to prepare for your treatment by avoiding excess sun exposure, avoid smoking for at least two weeks before your appointment, avoid blood-thinning medication and supplements, and avoid certain anti-aging products like those that contain retinoids or acids.
Taking the Next Step
You don’t have to live with scarring, especially if it makes you feel self-conscious about your appearance. Scar revisions provide you with the opportunity to remove scars from your face and body and achieve beautiful, flawless skin. All it takes is an initial consultation at our office to begin this process so that we can help you feel comfortable and beautiful in your own skin again. Contact us today to schedule your consultation.
