The second tier of scar factors has to do with your general health. Patients who are healthy heal faster
and better. This makes sense, but it is often taken for granted. If you have good nutrition and good
habits, you are more likely to close a wound quickly, have it gain strength and elasticity soon, and have it
ultimately look good in the end. Patients who are very unhealthy often have wounds that open, can
become infected, and in the end look the way that you would expect after all of that. General health is
also a baseline condition, one that cannot be fixed in the two weeks before a procedure, so changes
occur over extended periods of time.
The last part of the scar result has to do with what is done to the wound. In the operating room, good
surgical technique and decreased tension will optimize wound healing and later scarring. Suture
materials can have an impact, whether absorbable or not; and each patient will also have their own
response to the materials, which can sometimes be for better or worse. After that, proper wound
protection, sunblock, and massage, will all play big parts in getting the scar to heal and fade over time.
Some treatments will be easier to perform and make a habit of than others, and many require real
commitment to get everything you can out of them. Things like massage require remembering to do it
twice a day, and being patient in terms of seeing results. In some cases, less is more, especially with
regard to topical creams. Most do not have much effect at all, except that they motivate patients to actually rub on the wound and unknowingly benefit from the massage effect. In other more rare cases,
the creams or ointments can actually become an irritant, and cause the scar to become inflamed and
heal less well.
