Plastic Surgery Scar Therapy Roundtable. Every patient who has has plastic surgery wants the best scar as possible. In an exclusive Plastic Surgery Channel roundtable Drs. Bruce Van Natta, Lou Bucky, Steve Antrobus and William P. Adams Jr. discuss what patients should know about scar therapy.
What is Scar Therapy?
No matter how big or how small….scars can have a physical and emotional impact on a patient. Its something Plastic surgeons know all to well.
Dr Bruce Van Natta says ”when it comes to scars almost everyone has some concern about scars if they’re undergoing surgery, particularly cosmetic surgery.” Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Dr. Bruce Van Natta from Indianapolis admits surgeons are responsible for a a lot of those scars.
Van Natta adds, “Part of the key there is we try to hide the scars. But clearly some of those are going to be visible. And when it comes to scars, I always try to tell patients the first big thing here is genetics.”
Some patients heal perfectly fine while others are prone to develop a thick or discolored scar. All of us don’t make scars the same way so if you had a history of not making good scars you need to realize that may not be something we can completely control.
How can scar therapy reduce scarring?
To reduce the appearance of scaring, Dr. Caroline Glicksman, a plastic surgeon in New Jersey, along with other surgeons are turning to a proven non invasive, low risk
treatment. “We know that silicone sheeting has worked for years from the science we have from our burn patients. We would like a product with a little silicone in it, a little
sunblock in it and particularly patient compliance. No scar therapy works unless the patient uses it.”
Plastic surgeon, Dr. Lee Thornton from Mississippi agrees and says silicone treatments
are effective. ”Such things would be silicone sheathing to put over the scar, silicon gels
to put over the scar”
Thornton says silicon therapy can be used to prevent the formation of new scars and also helps to reduce the appearance of existing scars.
According to these plastic surgeons, the best way to dramatically improve scaring is with silicone gels or ointments that can be placed directly on a scar or rubbed into the
skin. That combined with a moisturizer and a daily sunblock seems to get the best results.