Disfiguring Scars Don’t Have To Be Forever by Cynthia Elliott, MD
One of my patients who was a clinician was severely injured when she was run over by a drunk driver, shattering the bones around one of her eyes, among others. The surgery to stabilize the bone fragments resulted in scars that contracted over the following months until she could barely open that eye. The scars limited her peripheral vision, affected her balance, her work as a clinician, her social life, and the first impression she made on strangers. It was heart-breaking to hear how people reacted to her appearance.
Scar contractures occur in the final phase of wound healing and produce tightening in areas where there is mechanical tension. They can reduce movement and become painful in some cases.
When hers developed, she returned to the surgeon who did her original repair as well as consulted with other plastic and ophthalmic surgeons. She was told that there was nothing they could do to improve the scars because new incisions would cause even more scarring. Because she was already a patient of mine, she knew I frequently treated scars with ablative lasers, and she was willing to try the scar treatment I recommended.
Using an ablative erbium laser, I cut the fibrous scar bands that were pulling her outer lids together and the fractionated ablative laser head follow to replace a percentage of the hard, contracted scar above and below her lids with normal, stretchable skin. After using the laser, I injected the scar with a medication to help prevent the scar from re-connecting and shrinking again. We repeated the treatment a month later just before she moved abroad.
She returned to the Tampa Bay area a year later and came in to see me, when the after photo above was done. As you can see, her scars had almost become imperceptible. She’d done nothing else to treat the scars in the interim and needless to say, was extremely happy with the results.
If you or someone you know is looking to improve unsightly scars, request an appointment for a complimentary consultation and I’ll be happy to recommend the most effective treatment options available.
– Cynthia Elliott, MD, Skinspirations
Cynthia Elliott, MD, is the owner of Skinspirations as well as the clinician training facility, ExpertEsthetics. She’s personally performed over 29,000 esthetic treatments and taught her advanced esthetic injectable and laser techniques to over 250 clinicians. That means it’s likely that if you’ve had a treatment in Tampa Bay, the provider who did it was trained by Dr. Elliott.
