Scar Treatment

[RaptorChops]

So I know there was a post about this but it's old. I just wanted to see what everyone else has used on their top surgery scars (or any other scars). I started off using cocoa butter and the scar away sheets. I found on amazon for like 16 bucks you can get this stuff called Mepitac that's cheaper and basically the same as those expensive scar sheets. Although you don't get A LOT it still works pretty well. I've been using it off and on for about 2 months and my scars are a lot smoother and flatter. Some areas are also a lighter pink.

With the other scar sheets they came right off in the shower for me and would just peel off. I had a few times where I would be at work and my strips would fall off under my shirt and get on the floor haha. The Meptiac though, stays on very well in the shower. The only issue (and this happened with other scar sheets for me) if you have it on your drain sights under your arm pit it will peel off a bit. It also will start to stain from deodorant or dyes from your clothes. I usually wear the strips for about 3-4 days before changing it out. It also blends in fairly well with my skin tone so that's a little plus for that.

[Ms Grace]

Do they use lasers for scar treatment? Don't know how expensive or effective they are though.

[Bimmer Guy]

Hey, Raptor Chops.

There is a lot of conversation about this in the Top Surgery Recovery thread, near the beginning.

Research has shown that the only product that helps scars is silicone.  So, you should feel confident with any product that is silicone.  It is hard for a person to know what works and what doesn't because we don't know if it is time or the product that makes the difference.  Academic research removes that variable.

The general consensus of those of us in the thread that were diligently going through this, were that Scar Away and Kelocote were the best choices.

I like Kelocote because it is thicker.  For strips, I like the Scar Away brand (Target brand peels off, per one poster).  Scar Guard peels off.

[FTMax]

Mepitac is silicone based. I was looking into them a while ago. Can't be bothered with scar treatment right now, but I did like the significantly lower price point.

[Jak]

Not ready for any scar treatment just yet, but I did read/view that ScarAway strips should be removed and washed daily. They can then be re-used for up to a week before new ones are advised. One person used two sets, swapping them out once a day while the other was washed and dried. Then I believe he switched to wearing them for 12 hours and massaging with silicone before bed, reapplying the strips in the morning. The latter is probably the approach I'll try first. Also, my doctor said that wearing paper tape for as long as one can - up to several months - has been shown to be ideal. he said that scars become their strongest at two months so wearing tape to at least that point is helpful in reducing widening/stretching. There is certainly no lack of opinion out there! 

[Carbonated]

I was adviced to use ordinary surgical tape (the paper kind) for at least six months to prevent the scars from stretching.

However, I turned out to be allergic to the surgical tape. So after about 8 weeks I switched to Mepitac and used it for four months. I took pictures to compare, and the color of my scars improved some, it also helped keeping them and the skin around from getting dry. The only downside is, immediately after switching to mepitac my scars started to stretch. They quickly became twice as wide. Probably because the surgical tape is inflexible and Mepitac stretches with the skin.

After that I started to use a cream with a high content of glycerine, witch made the redness go down a lot more and made the scars way smoother. That's what what I felt worked best, but I guess it's hard to compare since scars naturally fade with time.

[Konnor]

I didn't have much luck with scar treatments. I tried the ScarAway strips (the long ones, I think like 2"x7") but couldnt get them to stay stuck on. I do have a bit of chest hair so maybe that was the issue. But I'd definitely recommend trying them to see if they work before dropping the money on a box. I also tried the Scar Away gel, just the regular tube one not the one with the rollerball applicator. It was easy to put on and dried fairly quickly. I just didn't get in the habit of using it. I think my scars look fine now but no idea if they'd look better had I used a strict care regimen.