Scar Cream Treatment Tips
Information on how to get rid of scars through sound skin science

Let me go straight to the point and state it early that there is still no topical cream product that can be considered a 100% hypertrophic scar treatment. In fact I know of no product (topical or otherwise) that can totally erase hypertrophic scars. An Internet search will reveal the same thing.

Hypertrophic scars are scars that form a raised lump on the skin that looks and feels different from your normal skin. They form when collagen goes into hyper drive trying to regenerate itself in the wounded tissues thereby stifling the return of the normal skin tissues. Their sizes will not go beyond the boundaries of the healed wound and appear reddish in color. This is usually formed from the bigger wounds and wounds that cause deeper damage to the dermis which is the thickest part of the skin. (Know what the other scar types are by reading this scar removal treatment tip).

Hypertrophic scars (or any scar for that matter) will not inherit the original integrity of the normal skin it replaces and will be of weaker material. Sports fighters like boxers know of this first hand with their facial scar tissues caused by previous fights. It is quite easier to re-open wounds because scar tissues are not as tough as normal skin.

Scar Removal Creams for Hypertrophic Scars

Studies on two leading types of scar creams in the market. One is vitamin E based, while the other is based on onion or Allium cepa extracts.

Although vitamin E is scientifically known as a topical application that can penetrate skin and act as an antioxidant that fights free radicals which can interfere in skin healing, studies on vitamin E creams indicate that it is no more effective than placebo in improving the appearance of hypertrophic scars and may even cause irritation and allergies (more than 30% showed such symptoms in the studies). Further studies are needed because the previous studies are being criticized for their experimental design, more specifically for the dosage they used in the experiments which some thing is too low.

Studies on onion extract creams are also showing the same findings with treatment results not showing any significant difference from placebo. However, there were statistically more study participants that indicated that they thought the scars looked better, felt softer and appeared less noticeable. Testimonies from users outside of this study also have indicated the same.

In conclusion, while there many scar cream products out there, caution is advised to anyone thinking that they are the silver bullet to your scarring problems. Most studies performed on the leading types of scar removal cream products out there indicate that they may not be more effective than letting the scar improve by itself through time (which is expected). However, there is merit in using them as some of them are effective in making the scars softer and appear less noticeable.

At any rate, it is reasonable to expect that further experiments are being done in this area and that new hypertrophic scar treatment technologies are being studied even now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 5:27 am and is filed under Scar Cream Clinical Studies, Scar Cream Treatment Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.