How to Flatten Hypertrophic Scars?

Hypertrophic scars develop when body tissue is damaged by injury. When body injured then scars develop on the skin that looks very embarrassing and painful.

When the skin of the body injured then scars develop in red shape and then after sometimes when the wound heals it becomes flatter and paler.

After an injury, the skin cell contains myofibrils that increase the production of collagen. This collagen helps to heal the wounds. But at the same time overproduction of collagen develops scars on the skin and it can be painful to touch.

Hypertrophic scars can be flattened by taking steroids injection, with laser treatment, by radiotherapy, and by surgery. Home remedies to treat this condition are silicon sheets, pressure dressing, by massaging, by onion extract creams and can also treat by sea salt and chamomile.

These scars can be due to acne or burn. It can also due to cut on the surface of the skin. If these scars are on your face or neck then surely you are worried about these scars and want to treat these scars.

Hypertrophic scars are a very hard problem to treat. It is not as easy to treat as it happens. It develops mostly on upper chest shoulder and back neck. It is most common in Africans and Asians population.

Hypertrophic scars are evenly not harmful to your health and they do not extend on another area of the skin like keloids. But many of the people do not like to have these kinds of scars on their faces.

Contents

1 How to Flatten Hypertrophic Scars?
2 Things to avoid during treatment of hypertrophic scars:

How to Flatten Hypertrophic Scars?

There are a variety of ways that are being used to treat hypertrophic scars. It is recommended that you visit a Certified Dermatologist for an opinion. In this article, I will explain to you how can you flatten hypertrophic scars.

Hypertrophic scars can easily be treated by your dermatologist by using one of these treatments.

Your dermatologist will ask is that from when you are facing this problem of scars because skin tissue develops after one year if scars are from more than one year than your dermatologist will recommend a medicated treatment. And if hypertrophic scars are nor more than from year than dermatologist will suggest you wait.

Here are some medicated treatments that are recommended by Dermatologist are:

Injection of corticosteroids:

Corticosteroids are steroids that help to treat hypertrophic scars. It is a very effective and first-line treatment for these scars. These treatments are done by an expert. By injecting steroids directly into the scars make the scars soft and flatten them easily.

Your dermatologist will recommend you inject steroids after every 6 weeks until it heals. Corticosteroids are injected to the infected place after equal intervals as prescribed by your doctor.

Note: You should inject corticosteroids after your doctor’s recommendation because steroids weaken normal skin cells around infected skin.

Laser therapy:

Laser treatment is one of the best treatments for early scars. Laser dissolves the blood circulation and allows it to circulate well and flatten the scars.

Laser treatment burns the hypertrophic scars and allows it to mix the skin with blood circulation to make it smooth flawless. Laser therapy helps to treat the red area around the scars and make it lighter.

Cryotherapy:

It is a freezing technique to get relief from the scars.

In this technique, the doctor allows the scars to freeze to make it flatten. It very results gaining technique. Freezing methods are applied with nitrogen by an expert. you cannot do it at home without any expert.

Doctors recommend taking cryotherapy because this technique is nontoxic and very successful in many aspects.

Bleomycin:

It is a method in which bacterial culture is inserted into the hypertrophic scars to accommodate the excess production of collagen at that site.

Bleomycin is a strain that contains soil bacteria. When bleomycin inserted into the scars it makes the scar flatten. It also reduces itching and pain of the scars and changes the appearance of the scars.

Many studies suggested that it gives promising results and helps to flatten the hypertrophic scars. But more clinical experiments are also required to make it a more successful method to treat hypertrophic scars.

Surgery:

Surgery gives maximum results and flattens the scars but surgery done after one year of the formation of the scars.

Actually, the chances of recurrence of the scars after surgery are 9 % so it is not as a good method to treat scars as many people think that it could be. So when surgery is alone taken then chances of recurrence of scars are more than so many surgeons recommends to treat it with radiation.

Surgery along with radiotherapy:

Many people think that radiotherapy only has done in cancer but it also effective against the hypertrophic scars after the surgery. It removes the chances of scars from the roots and helps to treat it.

If you are having surgery than take radiation therapy within 24 hours or 48 hours to eliminate all kinds of roots of the scars. The benefits of radiation are that it inhibits the recurrence of the hypertrophic scars after the surgery.

Best Methods to Flatten Hypertrophic Scars at Home

There are also different home remedies that will help you to flatten the hypertrophic scars. If you are not feeling comfortable to take treatment from your doctor then these remedies will get rid you from this problem.

I hope these home remedies will help you out.

Silicone sheets:

Silicone sheets are a very useful method to treat hypertrophic scars. There is a lot of silicone sheets that are present in the market or you can order it online.

Take a silicone sheet and cut them into the size of your scars. You can also take different shapes of silicone sheets that are available online.
Apply these sheets on your scars for 12 hours to 14 hours in a day.
Use this method for 2 to 3 months to get rid of this problem.

If you have severe scars then use this method for 5 to 6 months.
You can check after week that either these sheets are working on scars or not.
If the scars are getting lighten then it means silicone sheets are working well and will definitely flatten scars after a few months of use.

It is believed that silicone sheets increase the hydration of the skin and allow it to soften and ultimately flatten the scars.

By applying pressure:

Hypertrophic scars can be treated by applying a lot of pressure on it. this process is especially if your scars are due to the burns. It is a very easy way to get rid of this problem of scars that are showing inflammation. You can use medicated bandage or bandage tape to provide pressure on the scars.

You will heal the scar 80 % of scar within 14 to 15 days of using a bandage.

The benefit of using the bandage is that it inhibits the blood supply and provide less amount of oxygen to wound that ultimately lessen the production of collagen. When collagen will produce in fewer amounts then scars will heal rapidly.

Applying pressure by an elastic bandage or medicated bandage you will not heal the scars 100% but it will give you maximum results in a very short time. It is a very inexpensive treatment for hypertrophic scars.

By massaging scars:

By massaging scars you can get rid of this problem. Because massaging the areas of hypertrophic scars circulate blood and make the skin soften. Ultimately softening of the skin makes the scars lighten. so you can use a good quality moisturizer to make the skin soft and light.

Rub hypertrophic scars and massage it for 5 to 10 minutes a day to reduce scar tissue and flatten it but you must take patience.

OTC creams for hypertrophic scars

To treat hypertrophic scars you can apply corticosteroid creams on the scars to get rid of this problem. Corticosteroid creams are easily available at any pharmacy. You can also buy online and apply it on the scars for few days regularly.

You can also use onion extract creams that give rapid results and flatten the skin but many physicians are working on the use of onion extract creams.

Use these OTC creams in little amount because it can weaken the other normal tissue cells of the skin.

Use of bio-oil:

Most of the scars are reduced by using bio-oil. but you should know that what is bio-oil. Bio-oil is a combination of all the essential oils containing Vitamin C vitamin E and all the ingredients that are used to lighten the skin.

So many researchers proved that this oil is also very effective against the hypertrophic scars of the skin.

Apply this oil on the scars twice a day for a few weeks and you will definitely show the results.

It actually works great for hypertrophic scars.

Use of sea salt:

Sea salt is very effective to help in hypertrophic scars. It aids to flatten the scars.

Take 2 tablespoons of sea salt and add it into 6 to 7ounce of hot water.
Now take a cotton towel and allow it to wet.
Now cover your scars with a towel as your scars should soak into the towel.

Leave this towel for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes wash your scars and allow it to dry.
Repeat this process for a month and you will see good results.

If you do not want to make a sea salt solution then you can use saline.
You can buy saline at the pharmacy and soak the scars saline to make it flatten.

Apply chamomile:

Chamomile contains a lot of properties of healing in it. You can not even imagine the benefits of chamomile, To treat hypertrophic scars.

Take a chamomile tea bag and steep it into half a cup of water.
Water should be hot to dissolve chamomile in it.
No take a cotton towel and allow it to soak in this water of chamomile.

Apply this cotton towel or cover the hypertrophic scar with this soaked towel.
Leave it for 10 minutes.
Then wash your scar area it will make the skin soften.

If you are allergic to herbs then avoid using chamomile.

By using baking soda:

Baking soda helps to prevent tension around the wound and make it soften when you will use it with vitamin E oil. You can also use a vitamin E capsule in place of its oil.

It will act as an exfoliant and will help to flatten the skin of scars.

Take 2 tablespoons of baking soda in a bowl.
Now add 3 to 4 spoon of Vitamin E oil in the bowl.
Allow it to mix and make a paste.

Apply it to your hypertrophic paste and gently rub it for 10 to 15 minutes.
Rinse it off with warm water and pat it to dry with a cotton towel.
Then apply a good quality moisturizer on it.

It will soften the scar and within a week it will flatten the scar.

Things to avoid during treatment of hypertrophic scars:

It is not possible to treat scars immediately but if you will take safety measures during the treatment you can get relief from this problem in a short time.

Cleaning and caring for your wound is a very necessary thing. if you will take care of your wound and will keep it clean you can rapidly heal the scars.

If you have scars on your neck or on your ear then avoid wearing jewelry because it can make the scars more severe.
Do not use cosmetic or skin products that contain chemicals, it will inhibit the process of healing.
After surgery does not use any kind of products that can cause allergies.

Final words:

Hypertrophic scars are common and not harmful to the health of the person. But many people think that it can turn in to skin cancer. Many studies suggest that hypertrophic scars can heal without treating but it take some time almost 1 to 3 years. So if you want to flatten it rapidly then use the above methods.

If your scars are not healing after home remedies or OTC treatment then consult it with your doctor to take surgery or laser treatment.