Managing your cuts and pimples – how to minimize the formation of scars

A lot of people ask the question “What is the best way to prevent scars from forming after an injury or after an acne breakout?”. The only true answer to that is to prevent yourself from getting injured or prevent your skin from getting acne breakouts.

The best way to treat injury sites and acne sites is to try and minimize the possible scarring. The potential scar all depends on how severe the injury or the breakout is, and if you are pre-disposed genetically to scarring. Getting cuts on your skin on areas where there is high tension, like on your knees, shoulders, or elbows, means that the potential scar might be greater due to the extra pull on the skin.

Scars are formed to protect the injury on the skin. Your body’s response it to repair the area and cover it while the rebuilding process is underway. The collagen tissue built around the injury area becomes the scar tissue, and it is used to seal off where the injury was. Remember that your body doesn’t really care about aesthetics, so it will repair and rebuild the area without thinking of how it might look afterwards. As a result, your scars might end up being hypertrophic, meaning thick, or atrophic or thin. Other scars may even grow unusually large and end up as keloids.

So how exactly can you minimize the formation of large scars on your cuts, scrapes and pimple sites? Well first of all your body needs good circulation along with good nutrition and sufficient rest to properly repair itself. If you’re lacking in certain vitamins, like zinc and vitamin C, your body’s capabilities for forming collagen might be impaired and would take longer for your cuts to heal.

Second, you want to manage the injury site, like keeping it clean and moisturized. For small cuts and scrapes, you want to use soap and water to gently clean the site, while for pimple areas you want your normal cleanser. What you need to do afterwards is to use a moisturizing agent to sufficiently lock in the moisture, like petroleum jelly to prevent your cuts from drying out, or lotions that are friendly enough to your facial skin. Antibiotic creams can also work well for small cuts to prevent any infections from forming.

There are ways to minimize the appearance of scars, and if you are interested in doing so, you can contact your dermatologist to learn about your options.