Scarring Prevented - Simple Steps

Once you’re my age you may not worry too much about a little more scar tissue from your years on the battlefield of life. Or maybe you’re not so fond of the war-torn look. In any, for your children you might want to attend to some simple steps to reduce the vividness of scar left from little injuries.

The benefits keeping Vitamin E on a wound are well established. For a small area it is easy to keep an E gel-cap around to pierce occasionally and keep the the area oiled with it (the gel-cap automatically seals back up rather nicely by itself). Note that this use of Vitamin E is needed after the skin has healed over — not while it’s still bloody or scabby. For those earlier stages, see information on wound healing.

Sun Shielding - A Better-Kept Secret

Had I paid more attention over the years to the changes in coloration of my own sun-exposed injuries (never did much like that mirror device), I might have figured out a principle shared by a friend’s thoughtful doctor. My friend’s adolescent daughter had received a significant slice across the forehead requiring a few stitches. There was no problem with the physical healing, but both mom and daughter were sadly nervous about possibly having th un-birthmark on the youngster’s face for life. The doctor was attentive enough to the social trauma that this could cause for a teenager to share one simple strategy: keep the sun off the area for the first six months.

Apparently something about the way ultraviolet rays affects an incompletely healed area causes a discoloration to the final skin/scar area. I had never heard of such or even paused to think about it — hence the visible scar atop my pate where I stood up too fast in a low basement. But this youngster was lucky: taking care to keep the area covered and out of sunlight enabled her face to heal to its natural smooth perfection, no trace on her adult face of her adolescent mishap.

If you or someone you care about is sensitive about appearance and has some scarring to heal in such a prominent area, please pass along this little medical hint.