Thanks to reply and comment ; )
Now, after almost 3 months, it looks still like the third picture. Will post soon.
The healing is long. I guess it may take 6 months to have the final result.
The red or pink color of my new scar is supposed to become lighter than my skin color. It wont disappear completely but usually, people will have to be very closer to your face to see it.
My new scar / line was supposed to be really fine... but it's larger than i expected (but it was my worst and deeper scars).
Do i recommended it ? It depends, i didn'T see yet the final result on me. Laser treatments are possible and can worth with the new small scars left by excision because it's no more deep. Personally, i do prefer to have some linear scars than holes in my face... My surgeon was agree with that. I really hate to see the holes in my cheeks, depending of the light and it worst when i'm tired or at the end iof the day, etc... And i was afraid that these scars become more apparant in 5-10 and 15 years when my skin will be older ...
My surgeon said to me to hide the red line with makeup after a week...
I tried makeup once to see if the scar is really flat (no deep), same level of my skin and it is, almost nothing is visible with a bit of makeup. I didn't use it every day cause i just prefer to heal with nothing... maybe i'm wrong... just a choice...
I have a new appointment by September 30th. Will have 2 new excisions this time on the other side of my face. It will be smaller excisions this time.
I decided to have scalpel excisions after some consultations for laser treatments / they all said my deeper scars wont be fixed by any laser. But if the excision let other linear scars, these scars can be fixed very weel by laser after.
My surgeon is a plastic surgeon in Montreal. He did reconstructive and plastic surgeries. He doesn't offer laser treatments or this kind of new technologies, unfortunately cause i trust him a lot... But, all other surgeons and clinics that i visited before, did laser treatments but nobody do practice scar excisions.
Will post soon pictures of my other cheek before and after the procedure....
Hi,
Pictures of scar scalpel excision :
I had a first scar excision on July 7th.
Feel free to comment or give pertinent information ; )
Congrats!!!!!
I'm so happy for you. I will be getting excision as soon as my filler absorbs. You should consider yourself very lucky that no one tried to sell you on laser or filler. Your DR sounds very honest - just going straight to excision. My scars are exactly like yours - same spot on cheek and looks like a letter "c".
You are also very very lucky to have had a good surgeon. I work for a plastic surgeons group, and let me tell everyone there are bad surgeons out there!!!!!!!!! If you get a bad one you will not have a good result. Even though surgical excision is the most basic thing a PS can do some are just bad - or simply don't take the time to suture the defect. Very sad but true. The problem is I don't know how the average patient knows who they are going to. If I did not work for this group I would only go to someone I know has had good results (someone from this board for example)
Can't wait to have mine done!!
Please keep us updated.
Hi I am new here.
Congrats I am very happy for you!
I have had scars similar to yours and worse than this(deeper,multiple types-bowcar,rolling,icepick...and also many in number!) on both my cheeks covering very large areas.
I have had dermabrasion done 2 times,cross technique,it did improve but only a little because my scars are a lot & very deep! But since I am dark skinned & prone to pigmentation it left severe hypertrophied pigmented scars after theses treatments as well.nothing could get rid of those at least in my type of skin.
At last I ended up asking a plastic surgeon to do excision of some of them after visiting a couple of them who suggested laser,fillers etc.I was not convinced because those ae good for light skinned people,with shallow scars & fewer than mine.Moreover its not a permanent solution,not to mention expensive!
At last I found a plastic surgeon who agreed to do it for me.very small incisons were done on thoses pigmented areas.Some have had better outcome than others.Following surgery some of theses were infected or so it seemed,the incision lines moved far apart. I was not prescriebed any antibiotics dont know why!
Its been more than a year.I have used on top of these incision lines mederma & silicon gel sheets. my daily skin care routine consists of a basic cleanser,sunscreen while going out,retin a at night &/or a moisturiser.
All in all I'd say that those in which there was little or no infection & the incision lines were in closes approximation had a better outcome.my stitches were removed by his assistant not a plastic surgeon himself.I think it would have been better if it was done by him because he could tell it if the stitched needed to stay in longer or I needed antibiotics because of the infection.
I had 7 very small(.5 cm or a few mm) incision scars:
3 are good just a linear mark.
1 is ok.
1 is gaping but better than before.
2 are terrible & gaping though not pigmented & hypertrophied.
I think if my first surgeon(who insisted on dermabrasion) whom I had begged to do this for me had done it I'd not have suffered all the pigmentation & hypertrophy!
I still plan on having the same surgeon do this for me or some other surgeon.But this time I am hoping to have better results.Right now I am giving my skin a rest trying to improve the skins general health. hope to get some ideas from the people here! I satill use the mederma cream but I am thinking of trying some other scar reduction cream.I do not have pics to show but I can tell you guys I looked terrible for months because my skin easily pigments! I had black linear areas on my face for months but then a single small pimple leaves a black spot on my skin which takes months to go.
But I say this to say about this procedure: a) for deep large multiple ones close together so that many small holes can be replaced by one linear one
b)be prepared for months of pink & brown or black areas of incision lines on the face
c)make sure the plastic surgeon is good & willing to do it.
d)study your own scars see how & where the incision you too think will best benifit you,although your surgeon will help you with this.I had no choice had to take out the thick pigmented ones.
e)if you are prone to keloids or hypertrophic scars better be aware.
f)beware of infections & general health of skin
It cost me 2500 USD.Id say I am 60% satisfied.
Thanks for sharing with us! My ones were done for each individual scar and they looked great for the first week or two, but they slowly open up. less than 5% improvement even with internal stitches. This method is looking very good, looks as if he cut a long elipse rather than a circle. I may need a new doctor.
Did he use internal stitches? if so, were they permament or absorbing?
ill be keeping a close eye on this thread so dont forget us! you gave me hope again
Thanks for sharing with us! My ones were done for each individual scar and they looked great for the first week or two, but they slowly open up. less than 5% improvement even with internal stitches. This method is looking very good, looks as if he cut a long elipse rather than a circle. I may need a new doctor.
Did he use internal stitches? if so, were they permament or absorbing?
ill be keeping a close eye on this thread so dont forget us! you gave me hope again
HI,
I think too that my scar excision looked better the first weeks. It open up too... a bit
Will have to post you the actual result cause my third picture was better than now i guess...
My scars was deep and i think i'll have better results anyway
To answer to your questions :
For my first excision, he cutted a long elipse and he used internal stitches, absorbing.
But internal stitches caused a reaction after maybe 4 weeks.
I thought it was long to heal or to see improvements, but it is anyway...
Then, i touched a bit the scar left by the excision and i felt like a small cyst just behind. My skin around the scar wasn't smooth. I really had a kind of cyst.
Some days after, i saw a small hole, then i called the clinic. They said it was a reaction to the internal stitches. I touched without strong pressure and a kind of pus (like yellow-sebum) left there...
Sice, my new scar and the skin around is smooth more like normal skin... But still red/pink..
They basically cut out the whole area and pull the skin back together.
Mick, how large would you say the area was? Like maybe a penny or something?
I had a doc tell me to do this years ago. He was kind of old, and it didn't seem like it was a very popular thing to do. I thought maybe he was being old fashioned. Now I'm kind of wondering if he was right. Wonder how much it would cost.
Imagine a shape like an eye cut out. Then take your fingers and pinch the wide sides of the edges back together closed, so it just makes one line where the skin joins back together. That's what they're doing. So if you can live with the one straight line, then it's OK. But it's kind of a crap shoot how bad that line will be. It's obviously best for someone who has one tight group of marks.
