Scar Revision Beverly Hills
Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Beverly Hills
Reduce scar visibility and improve skin appearance
Injuries can affect everyone and can sometimes leave undesirable scars that last for long lengths of time. Scars can also arrive from disease or a previous surgery. The scar can affect your self-consciousness or even remind you of unpleasant memories.
Dr. Lesavoy offers facial scar revision in Beverly Hills to reduce the visibility of scars. He is trained in evaluating skin and the severity of the scar to prepare the best treatment plan for you.
Scar Revision Treatments
There are a number of treatments available for scar revision. After an evaluation of your skin and scar, the following approaches may be recommended:
- Topical treatment with gels and other medicine
- Dermabrasion or scar sanding
- Revision with surgery
Scar revision is aimed towards reducing the visibility of the scar. This includes improving its color so it matches with the surrounding skin. While skin appearance can experience improvements with treatment, you must have realistic expectations about the procedure. Scars cannot be completely erased, but they can be treated until they become barely visible.
Common Scar Revisions Performed by Dr. Malcolm Lesavoy:
- Breast Augmentation Scar Revision
- Breast Lift Scar Revision
- Tummy Tuck Scar Revision
- Facial Scar Revision
- Keloid Scars
- Breast Surgery Scar Revision
- Skin Excision Scar Revision
Scar Revision & Scar Removal Procedures
Scars can be caused by various situations, including physical trauma, accidents, or the results of previous surgery. A scar will be developed depending on how your body heals in response to the original surgery or the experience of the surgeon.
There are a number of variables that can affect how severe scarring can be, including the size and depth of the wound, thickness and color of your skin, blood supply in the area, and direction of the scar. The extent that a scar affects your self-esteem is a personal matter.
No scar can be completely removed, however, Dr. Lesavoy is a skilled scar revision surgeon in Beverly Hills who can improve the appearance of a scar. This can make the scar appear less obvious through the injection or application of various steroid medications or scar revisions.
Facial Scar Revision Surgery
Because of its location, a facial scar is usually considered a cosmetic problem, whether or not it is hypertrophic. There are several ways to make a facial scar less noticeable, often it is simply cut the scar out and close it with tiny stitches, leaving a thinner, less noticeable scar.
A scar crossing the natural line, or crease, between the nose and mouth is removed and repositioned using Z-plasty. A forehead scar, located in the natural lines, is excised with tapered ends. The skin is then loosened and brought together with stitches.
If the scar lies across the natural skin creases (or “lines of relaxation”) Dr. Lesavoy may be able to reposition it to run parallel to these lines, where it will be less conspicuous.
The repaired scars will now lie partly within the natural skin crease, where they will be less visible.
Some facial scars can be softened using dermabrasion, which is a controlled scraping of the top layers of the skin using a hand-held, high-speed rotary wheel. While dermabrasion leaves a smoother surface to the skin, it will not completely erase the scar.
Types of Facial Scars
Each scar is different and can originate from various causes. Some types of scars for facial scar revision include:
- Acne Scars
- Prior surgery scars
- Keloids
- Facial scars from injury
Our treatment plan is tailored to the unique features of your scar, including its condition, age, and severity. Different scar types can include discoloration, post-surgical incisions, acne scars, hypertrophic scars, keloids, and contracture.
Skin Grafts for Scar Revision
More serious forms of scar surgery are skin grafts and skin flaps. These are more likely to be performed in a hospital as inpatient procedures, under the use of general anesthesia. The treated area may take several weeks or months to heal, and a support garment or bandage may be necessary for up to a year.
The process of grafting involves the transfer of skin from a healthy part of the body (the donor site) to cover the injured area. The graft is said to “take” when new blood vessels and scar tissue form in the injured area. While most grafts from a person’s own skin are successful, there are times that the graft doesn’t take. In addition, all grafts leave some scarring at both the donor and recipient sites.
Skin flap surgery is a complex procedure in which skin, the underlying fat, blood vessels, and sometimes the muscle, is moved from a healthy part of the body to the injured site. In some flaps, the blood supply remains attached at one end to the donor site, while in other, blood vessels in the flap are reattached to vessels at the new site using microvascular surgery.
Skin grafting and flap surgery can greatly improve the function of a scarred area. The cosmetic results may be less satisfactory, since the transferred skin may not match the color and texture of the surrounding skin. Generally, flap surgery produces better cosmetic results than skin grafts.
Scar Revision for Contracture
Burns or other injuries that result in the loss of a large area of skin may form a scar that pulls the edges of the skin together, a process that is called contraction. The resulting contracture may affect the adjacent muscles and tendons, restricting normal movement.
Correcting a contracture generally involves cutting out the scar and replacing it with either a skin graft or a flap. In some cases Z-plasty may be used. Several new techniques, such as tissue expansion, are also playing an increasingly important role. Ask Dr. Lesavoy for more information about correcting a contracture. If the contracture has existed for some time, you may need physical therapy after surgery to restore full function.
Scar Revision for Keloids
Keloids can appear anywhere on the body, but the most common areas are over the breastbone, on the shoulders and on the earlobes. They occur more often in dark-skinned people than in fair-skinned people. The tendency to develop keloids lessens with age.
Keloids are often treated by injecting a steroid medication directly into the scar tissue to reduce redness, itching, and burning. In some cases, these steroids will also shrink the scar.
If steroid treatment is inadequate, the scar tissue can be cut out and the wound closed with one or more layers of stitches. Generally, this is an outpatient procedure, performed under local anesthesia. You should be back at work in a day or two, and the stitches removed in a few days. A skin graft is occasionally used, although a keloid may develop at the site from which the graft was taken.
No matter what approach is taken, keloids have a stubborn tendency to recur, sometimes even larger than before. To discourage this, Dr. Lesavoy may combine the scar removal with steroid injections, direct application of steroids during surgery, or radiation therapy. Or you may be asked to wear a pressure garment over the area for as long as a year. Even so, the keloid may return, requiring repeated procedures every few years.
In the illustration, this thick, over-grown cluster of scar tissue on the earlobe is a keloid. It has been removed and the incision closed with stitches, leaving a thin scar.
If you believe a scar revision can work for you, we can provide additional information to help you understand the types of scars, procedures that can treat them, and results you can expect. Your treatment experience will depend on your unique circumstances and severity of the scar. Please call our office to schedule an appointment and meet with Dr. Lesavoy. You may reach us at 310-248-5451.
Join board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Malcolm Lesavoy at his beautiful practice in Beverly Hills for a consultation. With more than 25,000 surgeries performed, Dr. Lesavoy has the expertise & experience to provide you with beautiful results.