I was involved in an accident five months ago and it left me with a very horrible scar on my right cheek and my chin. The scar is hard and the doctor says he can’t perform surgery on me because of this. He says that laser surgery won’t take my scar away but will make the scar worse and much bigger. What can I do to make these ugly scars disappear?
G.S.

Dear G.S.,
Wound healing and restructuring usually takes about two years. Many factors can affect the outcome of the wound healing process, i.e. the presence of scars, infection of the wound, skin loss from the injury, the angle of wound to the natural skin folds or lines and blood supply to the area (and many more). These determine the final outcome of the healing process. What we see as an ugly scar is actually your body’s best attempt to fix the problem, which in this case, is skin injury.

Each scar is treated differently, depending on the type of scar. Treatment can be conservative – i.e. laser treatments, steroid injections, abrasive procedures – or surgery.

As your wound is still in the early part of the healing process, many things can be done to reduce the possibility of severe scarring. I suggest you contact your plastic surgeon so that he can discuss your options to manage this scar.