By Dr. TRACY MOUNTFORD, MBBS MBCAM
This week I want to discuss something that is of great interest to many people, young and old, and that’s treatment of scars.
Many of my patients find it very hard to conceal scars such as acne, stretch marks, chicken pox etc. As I’m sure you’re aware if you’ve ever had scars, covering with make-up can actually make them look worse, and unfortunately, scar tissue is really quite tricky to treat. It can take a long time and a lot of commitment, and it’s very hard to get a bit disillusioned with treating scars.
But if you’re willing to commit to a long-term treatment plan, there are some very successful treatments that can help improve the appearance of scar tissue. In this week’s Q&A i’m going to be telling you about 3 common treatments that we use in-clinic to treat scars.
- Micro-needling: Micro-needling treatment, also referred to as ‘collagen induction therapy’, encourages the production of collagen in our skin so that it is smoother, healthier and brighter. After doing this treatment, the scar could look smoother, less obvious and more refined, because the area starts to heal and regenerate fresh collagen. It’s a very simple, safe, non-invasive treatment to do and there is relatively little downtime. It does take a number of treatments to get to the end point, so if the scarring is quite extensive or quite deep, your physician or your doctor may recommend two, three, four, five, maybe even six treatments, over a period of time. But they’re relatively easy and, also, relatively inexpensive.
- Prescriptive skincare: We often combine microneedling treatment with the use of prescriptive skincare. So, for example, something that contains Retin A, or something that contains a vitamin A compound that gives a very gentle soft peel to stimulate your affected skin all the time, so it backs up the treatment that has been done in the clinic.
- INTRAcel: There are other, even more sophisticated, ways of improving scar tissue. For example, there’s something called Intracel, which again involves needling the skin. But what makes this treatment even more impressive is that it fires a regular frequency blast through the skin as well at the same time. Again, with aesthetic cream on the face, it’s relatively painless. It’s slightly uncomfortable, but it’s very easy to tolerate.*
What I want you to take away from this is that when it comes to treating scar tissue, you have to be incredibly patient and committed because you won’t see immediate results after one treatment. The results will appear maybe over six months, nine months, or even up to a year.
If you are willing to wait I would recommend you book a consultation with one of our medical team where we will look at the depth of the scars, what your expectations are and tell you what we can realistically deliver.
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