Everyday Cuts and Scrapes: How to Prevent Scarring

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Ouch! Gardening, food grooming, sports and leisure activities, and life in general can consequence in occasional pocket-sized peel injuries. Merely scarring doesn't have to exist role of the picture. You tin can take steps to avert ending upward with a permanent reminder of your mishap — if you know what to do.

Proper treatment of all skin injuries is essential to fugitive scars, says Scott Hultman, K.D., Yard.B.A., a plastic surgeon who is the manager of Johns Hopkins' Burn Heart and part of the Scar Revision Clinic team.

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

If there'due south no loss or destruction of skin and tissue, Hultman notes, "Stitches can exist a great idea, since health care professionals are good at lining upwards skin borders, which tin can minimize scarring "

How Scars Happen

To empathise how scars form and how to avert them, it's helpful to understand your skin's healing process. When you get a cut, scrape or burn, your body immediately responds with a series of steps to heal itself:

  1. The first 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 expanse to fight off bacteria. You may discover redness, swelling, heat and pain. This is a natural office of the healing process and resolves on its own unless infection takes over. More than inflammation in the healing process can hateful a greater chance of scarring.
  3. Proliferation is the next step. This is when the skin and vessels create new cells. As proliferation continues, y'all'll see the edges of the scab compress toward the middle, leaving new skin behind.
  4. Finally, maturation occurs. The wound is healed, and in that location may be a scar in its place.
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Scar Revision Treatment

At that place are many different types of scars and scar revision treatments. Scar revision may amend the advent of a scar or restore function to a part of the torso that may have been restricted past the scar.

What You Tin Do to Avoid Scars

  1. Go along cuts and scrapes make clean and covered.

    For minor injuries, Hultman stresses the importance of keeping them make clean and protected. Utilise 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 skin can trigger infection and extend the inflammation catamenia. Hultman says prolonged inflammation enhances scar germination. That's why information technology's essential to clean the wound carefully, with professional help if necessary.

    Hultman advises, "If you have a scrape, such as 'route rash' from falling off a bicycle, treat that like a fire, and be aware that there tin can be a crush injury to the skin every bit well."

  2. Avoid scratching or picking scabs.

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

  3. Get help for serious skin injuries.

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

    Continued haemorrhage. If a deep cut continues to bleed, seek aid right away.

    Deep puncture wounds. "These injuries are dangerous, considering they set a one-way valve in the tissue," Hultman says — dirt and bacteria can get in but can't get out.

    Bites. Brute and homo bites can carry some nasty kinds of bacteria. Bite wounds that interruption the pare should exist washed out and treated by a professional.

    Burns. While offset-degree burns ordinarily heal on their own, second- and third-degree burns can get infected. "If you're concerned about any burn down, come up to the ER. We would much rather make sure you are OK than miss an infection," Hultman says.

    Peel wounds with extreme hurting and fever. These symptoms tin point a dangerous infection that could spread quickly. You lot should go to an emergency room without delay.

Scar Treatments

One time equally scar has formed, are y'all stuck with it? Non necessarily. Plastic and reconstructive surgeons can do a lot to minimize scars and help you feel better nearly your appearance. Bonus: Some of these treatments tin as well address itching and hurting associated with astringent scars.

Here are some of the therapies available. You 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 fill scars that appear equally "dents"  or hollowed-out areas in the peel
  • Skin smoothing procedures such equally dermabrasion and chemical peels
  • Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation therapy, which can flatten and soften scars and accost abnormal peel coloration
  • Bleaching for discolored areas
  • Surgical removal of the scar

For the best take chances of getting the results you lot want, choose a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with experience in minimizing scars, and be articulate about what you hope to accomplish from the treatment.

Learn More from Scott Hultman

If you have a scar — large or modest — or even an sometime one, in that location are more possibilities than ever before for minimizing its appearance.

Scar Revision Handling | FAQ with Dr. Scott Hultman

Plastic surgeon and director of the Johns Hopkins Burn Center, Dr. Scott Hultman, answers frequently asked questions about the medical and surgical direction of scars, including how lasers (pulsed dye or fractional CO2) are changing the way scars can be treated.