Everyday Cuts and Scrapes: How to Forestall Scarring

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Ouch! Gardening, food preparation, sports and leisure activities, and life in general can outcome in occasional minor skin injuries. But scarring doesn't take to be function of the moving picture. You can have steps to avoid catastrophe up with a permanent reminder of your mishap — if yous know what to do.

Proper treatment of all skin injuries is essential to avoiding scars, says Scott Hultman, Grand.D., 1000.B.A., a plastic surgeon who is the managing director of Johns Hopkins' Burn Center and part of the Scar Revision Clinic squad.

Hultman says, "Scarring can come up from cuts — these are the almost mutual injuries. But scrapes and burns can leave scars equally well. Scars are more than likely in injuries where the peel is not just cutting but also crushed or otherwise damaged. Clean cuts can heal very well if they're washed out and treated to avoid infection."

If there's no loss or destruction of peel and tissue, Hultman notes, "Stitches can be a smashing idea, since wellness care professionals are expert at lining upwardly skin borders, which tin can minimize scarring "

How Scars Happen

To understand how scars course and how to avoid them, it'south helpful to understand your peel's healing process. When you go a cut, scrape or burn, your body immediately responds with a series of steps to heal itself:

  1. The beginning stage is hemostasis. The body prevents blood loss by sending platelets to the site, which bind together and seal the wound, forming a scab.
  2. Next comes inflammation. White blood cells go far at the surface area to fight off bacteria. You may find redness, swelling, estrus and hurting. This is a natural office of the healing process and resolves on its own unless infection takes over. More inflammation in the healing process can mean a greater chance of scarring.
  3. Proliferation is the side by side step. This is when the skin and vessels create new cells. As proliferation continues, yous'll run into the edges of the scab shrink toward the middle, leaving new skin backside.
  4. Finally, maturation occurs. The wound is healed, and in that location may exist a scar in its place.
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Scar Revision Handling

There are many unlike types of scars and scar revision treatments. Scar revision may improve the advent of a scar or restore part to a part of the body that may have been restricted past the scar.

What You Can Practise to Avert Scars

  1. Continue cuts and scrapes make clean and covered.

    For minor injuries, Hultman stresses the importance of keeping them clean and protected. Use antibacterial cream or ointment and cover the area with a bandage, which tin can speed healing.

    The presence of debris, bacteria or other impurities in open pare can trigger infection and extend the inflammation flow. Hultman says prolonged inflammation enhances scar formation. That's why it'southward essential to make clean the wound carefully, with professional assistance if necessary.

    Hultman advises, "If yous take a scrape, such as 'road rash' from falling off a wheel, treat that similar a fire, and be aware that there can be a crush injury to the skin also."

  2. Avoid scratching or picking scabs.

    Healing wounds may itch, but you lot should avoid the temptation to scratch them. "Scratching the wound or picking at the scab causes more inflammation, making a scar more than likely," Hultman says.

  3. Become aid for serious peel injuries.

    Hultman says it's amend to err on the side of caution when deciding whether to run across a doctor about a skin injury. He says you should check in with urgent intendance for these types of skin injuries:

    Connected bleeding. If a deep cut continues to bleed, seek aid right away.

    Deep puncture wounds. "These injuries are unsafe, because they prepare a 1-way valve in the tissue," Hultman says — clay and bacteria can get in simply tin can't go out.

    Bites. Animal and human bites tin can carry some nasty kinds of leaner. Seize with teeth wounds that interruption the pare should be washed out and treated past a professional.

    Burns. While outset-degree burns normally heal on their own, second- and third-degree burns tin become infected. "If you lot're concerned well-nigh whatsoever burn, come to the ER. We would much rather brand sure yous are OK than miss an infection," Hultman says.

    Skin wounds with extreme pain and fever. These symptoms tin indicate a dangerous infection that could spread quickly. You should go to an emergency room without delay.

Scar Treatments

Once as scar has formed, are you stuck with it? Not necessarily. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons can do a lot to minimize scars and assistance yous feel better about your appearance. Bonus: Some of these treatments can also accost itching and pain associated with severe scars.

Hither are some of the therapies bachelor. You lot may need multiple or repeated treatments to get the results you and your doctor desire.

  • Topical treatments: medicated gels and creams, sometimes used with compression bandages to help flatten scars
  • Injections: to make full scars that appear equally "dents"  or hollowed-out areas in the pare
  • Skin smoothing procedures such as dermabrasion and chemical peels
  • Laser therapy, which can flatten and soften scars and address abnormal skin coloration
  • Bleaching for discolored areas
  • Surgical removal of the scar

For the best chance of getting the results y'all want, choose a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with experience in minimizing scars, and be clear nigh what you promise to reach from the treatment.

Learn More than from Scott Hultman

If you have a scar — large or minor — or even an old one, there are more possibilities than e'er before for minimizing its appearance.

Scar Revision Treatment | FAQ with Dr. Scott Hultman

Plastic surgeon and director of the Johns Hopkins Burn Centre, Dr. Scott Hultman, answers often asked questions about the medical and surgical management of scars, including how lasers (pulsed dye or fractional CO2) are changing the style scars tin be treated.