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What You Need to Know about Plastic Surgery Scarring

Find out how plastic surgery scars are hidden and what you can do to minimize them in this Howcast video featuring plastic surgeon Robert J. Morin, M.D..
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Transcript

I'm commonly asked by my patients: "Is this going to leave a scar?" The simple answer to the scar question is: anytime an incision is made anywhere on the body, on the skin, there is going to be a scar. Scarring is part of the normal wound-healing process and there is no way for a cut, a laceration, or an incision to be made in the skin and for that skin to heal without a scar.

So yes, any time any surgical procedure is performed, a scar is going to result. There are ways in which to make the scar as beautiful as possible. In part this is dependent on the genetic make-up of the patient, but in part it's also dependent on the surgical technique of the surgeon and the aftercare of the scar as it's healing and maturing. ]

There are many products that are available that help scar maturation. Silicon products tend to work fairly well for this. They should be placed after a wound is completely healed. In addition, if a scar tends to start to get thick or raised, then there are different things that we can do to help treat the scar. For example, injecting the scar with steroids. Again, in general, any time any incision is made on the skin, it's going to result in a scar. However, as plastic surgeons we're well trained in making the scar as beautiful as possible.

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