Scars Formation Process

2007-11-28 Word Count: 710 Category: Beauty

Cuts and scrapes don't have to mark you for ever. In this article I've decided to mention the latest treatments for the removal of old scars and prevention of new ones.
If you're like most people, you have some 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," states David J. Leffell, M.D., a professor of dermatology and surgery at Yale School of Medicine and the pen behind Total Skin (Hyperion, 2000). Made mainly of collagen, a protein fiber commonly found in the skin's second layer, these marks are the body's way of repairing itself.
Luckily, many scarswill 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.
After a superficial wound has healed a scar will take its place, forming an unsightly mark that may last a lifetime. The human body was built to sustain a variety of injuries, including penetrating trauma, burn trauma and blunt trauma. All of these incidents set into motion an orderly sequence of events that are involved in the healing process, in which healthy skin is replaced by a scar.
When an injury occurs 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.
Scar Treatment Dos and Don'ts
DON'T swab wounds with hydrogen peroxide. "The bubbles make it seem like something good is happening, but hydrogen peroxide is famous to kill the new skin cells that immediately begin 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 avoids the formation of a hard scab, which works as a defense to the formation 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 advises 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 a week, switch to plain Vaseline petroleum jelly, and keep using it below the bandage until new skin grows over the wound.
DON'T apply vitamin E. No matter what your grandmother may have told you, vitamin E has been shown in a University of Miami study to impair wound healing. (Also, one-third of the patients tested also suffered an allergic reaction.)
DO maintain constant pressure on the wound with special bandages or silicone sheeting pads. According to several studies, coverings like these help to flatten scars-including keloids, scars with ropy tissue that grows impetuously over their natural boundaries. (Though it's not known why, darker-skinned people are more prone to this type of scar.) To try: ReJuveness Pure Silicone Sheeting, Scar Fx and Syprex Scar Sheets, Curad Scar Therapy Cosmetic Pads.
DON'T expose new scars to the sun. Ultraviolet rays can slow the healing process and, since they stimulate melanocytes (the cells that produce pigment), can leave dark coloration. When you're outdoors, always use 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, or just having knicked themselves will shaving. 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.

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