Scar Treatments
Whether you have acne scars, surgical scars, or scars from old scratches and cuts, most of us have at least one scar that we would like to remove. The best scar treatments stimulate our skin’s own healing process, to replace scarred skin with healthy skin. Unfortunately, many of the most popular scar creams found in the drug store don’t make a huge difference in the scar’s appearance. In order to improve the look of your scars, there are a few treatments to consider:
- Topical prescription cream for scars: Prescription creams can stimulate the production of healthy collagen to improve the appearance of a raised or atrophic (indented) scar; they can also be used to diminish the appearance of red or brown (called post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation) on the scar. Ask your dermatologist about prescriptions such as tretinoin and hydroquinone to improve the appearance of your scar.
- Injection for scars: Raised, or keloid, scars can benefit from injection of an anti-inflammatory medication called triamcinolone. A short series of treatments will help to flatten raised scars.
- Fillers for scarring: Atrophic, or pitted, scars can sometimes be temporarily improved upon by using a dermal filler to actually ‘fill in’ the indentation of the scar. This treatment is most commonly used to treat acne scarring on the face.
- Vascular lasers for scars: Vascular lasers, such as the KTP laser, are one of the best scar treatments available. They use a unique laser energy to collapse the tiny blood vessels in the skin’s surface that cause scars to appear reddish.
- Laser resurfacing: Fractional CO2 laser resurfacing is the best treatment for most types of scarring. Fractional CO2 lasers use their unique laser energy to resurface the skin, and replace the scarred skin with healthy collagen. The result is improvement of the scar’s texture and color.
Next time you are in the office, ask Dr. Tareen, or her assistants about how to improve the appearance of your unwanted scar! We are pleased to offer some of the best scar treatments in Minnesota.