If you have a scar you’d like removed, book a consultation or surgery date now.
We offer rapid access for consultation and short waitlist for surgery.
Please have your family physician send a referral to our office.
How do I treat scars?
What does scar revision entail?
What is the recovery time?
Is there a cost?
How do I book my surgery?
Scar Revision
What is scar revision?
Scar revision is the surgical removal of an otherwise poorly healed, asymmetric, or ugly scar. A scar removal does not get rid of an existing scar, but improves its shape, contours, and overall appearance.
Scars that are painful, initially poorly healed, or significant infections may require a revision.
For most my patients, scars heal well themselves and many times do not need any treatment, just time.to allow the scar to mature. Scars take at least a year to mature.
For patients who may be at risk of poor scarring, I recomend maximizing non-operative modalities such as silicone sheeting, scar massage, and they may even need a corticosteroid injections.
Patients who have a mature scar and remains painful or poorly healed, may be candidates for surgical excision.
There is no such thing as scarless surgery, however, we hope to improve the scar with a revision procedure. The scar may be excised out and closed or may require a skin graft or flap. Dissolvable sutures are used to close the incision. I will continue to follow you until the scar has completely matured. After the surgery, we will continue with non-operative interventions to ensure we maximize all treatment modalities. This includes scar massaging, silicone sheets, and steroid injections.
The benefits of the surgery:
These cannot remove scars, but often improve them significantly
For painful scars, our hope is to make them painless or at least improve the pain
What are the risks of surgery?
All surgeries may cause infection, nerve injury, bleeding, or persistent pain.
Infection ranges from 1-5%. Patients who have diabetes, use nicotine products, or have an autoimmune disease are at higher risks. If you use nicotine products please stop this 4 weeks before and after your surgery. A mild infection may have some increased pain or redness and can be treated with antibiotics. More severe infections may require the wound to be opened up again and long-term IV antibiotics.
Nerve injury to the nerve is always possible although very rare and dependent on the area on the body it is being removed.
There is no significant bleeding from this procedure, but the wound can ooze blood. If this happens, please place firm pressure on the wound for 10 minutes and this should stop. If it does not, please call our office or present to your nearest emergency department for an assessment.
Persistent pain may continue after surgery either due to scar tissue or sensitive nerves after surgery. If you are removing a scar that is painless, this may cause pain. If a scar was painfully initially, this may also mean the pain is not treated or may even be worse.
Recurrence is always possible and the scar may still heal poorly despite having a revision surgery.
Most patients to take 4 to fully recover. Location of the scar and size are significant factors. Scar located on the lower extremity or large scars will require more recovery. Some patients may take longer due to scar tissue pain. However, to see the final results of the scar it will take at least a year.
You will be provide with a post-operative instruction sheet to guide you on healing. The dressing can come off after 3-5 days and washed with soap and water. The sutures will start dissolving between 2-4 weeks. After four weeks, if the wound has completely healed there are no restrictions.
I ask all my patients to not place their surgical site in any still bodies of water until the wound has healed - this includes bathtubs, jacuzzis, beaches, and no dishes for the next month. (I can write a prescription if your spouse does not believe you!) This is to prevent any infections.
Most scars on the head and neck covered by OHIP. Scars below the neck may not be covered by OHIP or require pre-approval. This may mean there may be a fee for the scar revision depending on its location and size.
If you have a scar you would like assessed, we are happy to book you in with rapid access for a consultation.
Please have your family physician send a referral to our office.