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How to Prevent an Injury from Scarring

Most of the time, people think of scarring as an unsightly blemish on the skin, while a few individuals look at them as cool and even refer to them as reminders of one’s battle wounds. But is there a way to prevent scarring? To answer that, you will need to know the factors that contribute to its appearance.

Determine the Nature of the Injury

The appearance of the scar will depend on the nature of the injury; such as its shape, size, depth, and even location. The way your body reacts to the injury will also affect the scarring process, because those who are prone to having keloids will have a harder time preventing scars from appearing. Deep wounds will take more time to heal than shallow injuries, but it can also be influenced by how healthy your skin is (and if you have any existing skin conditions), its thickness, the amount of blood that gets to the injured area, and even the skin color.

Scarring is a Healing Process

The first thing a dermatologist will ask you is the cause of the injury and its healing progress. Scar prevention often begins with proper treatment, although scarring from deep cuts are almost always impossible to prevent. Scarring itself is a part of the normal healing process, but the healed tissues no longer contains the normal parts of the skin, that is why the affected area will look a lot different from the surrounding skin.

There are Different Types of Scars

There are three types of scars that result from various types of injuries; these are, thin or flat scars that might fade over time; hypertrophic scars that create raised, thick, and reddish scars; and keloid scars that result in raised, dark or reddish scars that often extend beyond the affected area. The last type of scar is often the result of an overproduction of collagen in the skin. This is common in people with severe acne and will need intervention from a doctor to reduce its ghastly appearance.

These are steps you should observe to reduce the scarring while your injury is still healing.

  • Get the best possible treatment for your injury. For example, a cut will heal better if you can get stitches as soon as possible to prevent infection and other complications. If you can’t get a cut stitched soon enough, it will start the healing process, making the stitching less effective.
  • Hasten the healing process. Injuries need to be kept clean, moist, and infection-free with clean bandages and doctor-prescribed healing ointments. Disinfect the wound everyday then change the bandages or dressings to speed up its healing process.
  • Avoid scar creams. They will not reduce the scarring regardless of the manufacturer’s claims. Most of these products contain vitamin E or other ingredients that will not help at all and might even cause irritation.
  • Don’t pick at scabs. This is often the cause of scarring and will slow down the healing process. The scabs will come off naturally, so be patient.

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