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One of the doubts that patients who undergo cosmetic surgery often have is related to how their scars will look like. They are concerned that they may be very visible or evident.
Healing is a process that does not only involve the closing of a wound. It is a more complex process that takes much longer.
It is important for the patient to know that a scar can become almost imperceptible to the human eye or camouflage with the color of the skin. However; it never completely disappears.
Once your plastic surgeon makes a wound and stitches it closed, a healing process begins. This first step can take about one to two weeks.
Then begins a long process that we call scar maturation, which can take from 3 months to almost 2 years. The collagen in the skin, genetic factors, the place where the scars are located, and the care that has been taken during the postoperative period, play an important role in this stage.
During the scar maturation process, several things happen that will generate visible changes in the scars. The first thing that happens is the appearance of new blood vessels. These will be in charge of forming the tissue that is underneath the wound and will later give strength to the scar. These blood vessels will make your scars look red.
This phase can take approximately 3 months. For this reason, plastic surgeons make so much emphasis on the patient not sunbathing during the first months after surgery. In this way, we prevent the scars from staining.
Later will come a phase where these blood vessels collapse and begin to disappear. Here your scars may turn dark or brown.
Finally, the mature scar becomes white, without an inflammatory process or cell proliferation. This allows it to begin to camouflage with the color of the skin and become almost imperceptible to the human eye. By this time almost two years may have passed since your surgery.
In order for the scar maturation process to be the best possible, you should follow all the advice given by your plastic surgeon. Currently, there are a great variety of resources to make this process as fast and controlled as possible; such as lotions, creams, siliconized bands, and lasers, among others. Surely your plastic surgeon will recommend the best for your case.
It is also important to clarify that, during the scar maturation process, alterations or pathologies such as keloids or hypertrophic scars may occur. These are mainly determined by genetic factors that we cannot modify with surgery, and they determine how the scars will be at the end of this process.
I hope this information has been useful for you. If you have any other doubts you can ask for a consultation or advice!
