By Nasrin Mani, M.D.
There are two kinds of scars: scars that enrich your personality, and scars that suppress your personality. The first type of scar is a reminder of a special moment in your life, a moment that despite (or perhaps because of) the injury retains a fondness in your memory. This scar is one you love to tell about and are always happy to share.
The second type of scar is one you wish you didn’t have to share, a scar that is often visible on your face, neck, arms, or legs. This scar makes you self-conscious in every personal interaction, and too much of your energy goes toward concealing the scar and worrying about it. You just aren’t free to be yourself. But scar removal allows you to enter every personal interaction just as yourself, not as the person with the scar.
In the past, scar removal really meant scar displacement, as surgical techniques could be used to create a subtler scar in a different place, but now laser treatments and dermal fillers allow us to diminish the appearance of scars, and in some cases erase them completely.
Scars are caused by incomplete or improper healing. Lasers allow us to gently stimulate the skin’s healing response, giving it the nudge necessary to complete the process properly in many cases. In other cases, dermal fillers allow us to supplement what the skin is not able to supply on its own. Finally, sequential microdermabrasion is sometimes used to smooth down slightly raised scars (though CO2 laser and Erbium laser provide the most substantial improvement).
You don’t have to resign yourself to living with a scar: you can be free to be just you, not the “person with the scar:. To learn which treatment options might be best for you, please contact La Jolla Cosmetic Laser Clinic in San Diego for an appointment.
