My friend was attacked by her parents dog and has 30 stitches on her face. What are the best things to use to reduce scarring? Thanks for your help!
first of all i hope the stiches were done by a facial plastic surgen, they should be tiny. i have used vitamin e with a lot of success to reduce scarring, and straight aloe (like from a broken off piece of aloe plant) works well too. however, her best course of action may be just plenty of rest, plenty of water, and something to prevent infection and reduce swelling. you don’t want to ‘experiment’ with remides on her face. her biggest concern is infection, because that will cause a major scar.
wow, that stinks royally. If scarring is bad enough, surgery is always an option. they can do wonders with a laser these days. only problem is the price tag. I forget what the product is called, but there is an over the counnter remidy, but I have no clue if it works. I think an intelligent step would be seeing a dermitologist. I wish her the best.
Unfortunately dogs don’t tend to do precision incisions and generally I find the bites cross tissue planes at right angles i.e muscles and skin. This makes the scar more likely to be obvious, as opposed to a planed incision that you would place in a natural skin fold and parallel to tissue planes.
Anyway the vitamin E is a good plan, and remember the scar may look ugly as it heals, that of course is an individual thing. I have had patients that it has taken upto a year to settle. There is always the option of a scar revision if it doesn’t settle.
Cheers.
I’ve had good success with alpha-hydroxy acids in reducing the appearance of scar tissue. This would be done AFTER the wounds have healed.
Your friend’s parent’s dog? So your friend must not have been home for a long ass time OR the dog is new.
First of all, SHOOT THE FRIGGIN’ DOG!!!After that, I guess do what the others said. ( I really don’t know that much about scars, Obviously}
I was in an accident that caused facial fractures. After surgery, the plastic surgeon recommned that I use cocoa butter on the scars. That was several years ago, and now you can’t even find the scars. I hope this helps.
Fortunately, the incisions were pretty clean but not along natural folds. She has an excellent plastic surgeon and derm, but they didn’t stitch the wounds.
She always goes up to the dog when she arrives and she did this day as well. Its not a new dog. It will be put to sleep soon.
I appreciate the recommendations thus far during this rough time.