Scar revision
Scars are the permanent marks of a trauma. By removing or reducing these marks, dermatologic surgery erases the trauma as much as possible.
Overview
Scars often become swollen, widened, and even painful. They can be brown on lighter skin, white on darker skin, and sometimes red or purple. Every scar has a story, a cause and a growth process.
To properly approach the revision of a scar, I need to know its history, analyse it, and consider the quality of the surrounding skin. Surgery is not always the best solution, in which case I can advise other alternatives, such as adapted dressing, creams, laser treatment or even injections, which I perform on a regular basis. Scars resulting from severe burns sometimes require their own specific treatments.
Indications
Scars signal a complete invasion of the skin, including the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis, or an abrasion or burn going at least down to the dermis. Skin tissue can regenerate through a complex cellular healing process. Scars typically continue to change for about a year before reaching their permanent state, and only then can a scar revision diagnosis be made. Until then, the healing process can be assisted to make the scar more bearable.
Technique
Before one year of healing
You can book a consultation to explore the different ways to improve the healing process and minimize the scar.
After one year
The technique used depends on the nature of the scar:
- Surgery and local plasty for scars that are large, thick, or in an uncomfortable area
- Injections for scars that are hollow, dark, or swollen
A combination of both techniques is sometimes the most adapted.
Procedure
The procedure is conducted under local anesthesia at the medical office and usually lasts less than an hour.
After the operation
You will have to rest for a few hours but will not experience any pain. Simple local care will be needed for one to six week.
Results
The results are visible after one week but are considered fully stabilized only six months after the operation.
You don’t have to keep an unsightly scar only because you were told that nothing could be done about it. Over time, medical and surgical techniques develop, and today, we can do things that were unimaginable ten years ago.
Questions
Leave us your question and Dr. Prevot will get back to you as soon as possible