Question: Question from Angie

Hello. I had a mini tummy tuck a week ago and want to prepare for scar treatment. I have read a lot about silicone strips? What would you suggest.

Answer

Hi Angie

For more info on the use of silicone strip and silicone sheets, I would suggest you speak directly to the plastic surgeon that performed your abdominoplasty. Since Skin Renewal does not perform plastic surgery, we do not use these, as we do not deal with immediate post-care after surgical procedures.

For that reason, in all honestly I would not be the best person to advise you with regards to silicone strips.

What Skin Renewal does do, is scar treatment for various types of scarring such as post-surgery and post acne. Depending on the type of scarring (indented or raised or keloid), we would follow specific treatment protocols for that specific type of scarring. Treatment, again depending on the type of scar, could include anything from Needling, Laser, Carboxy therapy to injections for keloids. The course of treatment would always depend on the specific needs of the patient, taking into account the type of scar, the size, the area or location and the patient’s healing ability. In a case like yours, where a patient has had recent surgery, we would obviously want to ensure that your surgeon is happy with your progress and happy with how you have healed and that they are happy for treatment of the scarring to commence before we just go ahead and start treatments.

If scars are more than a year old, there is no problem with starting right away, but again, in a case like yours where you have had surgery so recently, there does need to be a certain level of healing before you begin with treatments, as starting too soon, could actually result in adverse effects.

You need to bear in mind that the trauma from the surgery – the actual cutting – sets up a healing cascade in your body and especially in your skin, and you skin is currently busy performing a huge sequence of actions in order for the various layers of tissue to heal. If you interrupt that process by intervening too soon with treatments, you would actually take a huge step back in your healing process and can make the scarring worse. So in most cases, there is at least a three-month waiting period before starting to treat scars, so that we do not interrupt that healing process. In some cases, if a patient is prone to keloid scars, or if the scar is as a result of a massive injury or accident, there are some preventative actions and treatments that can be done, but these have to be looked at on a case by case basis, as treating scars is not a “one size fits all” treatment.

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