Scar Treatments?

[Oubliette8]

I was wondering what the best treatment to help reduce scarring is? I have a family history of keloid scarring (my mother gets them bad) and have several hypertrophic and/or keloids myself. I've used straight Vitamin E oil in the past, but I'm wondering if there's something more effective? I keep hearing ads for mederma on the radio and wonder if I should look into or something similar. What has worked for you guys for reducing scars? There's one in particular thats fairly new that I'd like to treat and see if it doesn't help some.

[amcal]

Ugg, I'm a terrible scarrer too. Is scarrer even a word???

I get painful keloids as well.

I had surgery on my arm last year and I used everything under the sun to try to prevent keloiding and to reduce scaring. I used mederma - it really burned and irritated my skin. I used tamanu and emu oils and while they were soothing, I don't think they did much to help reduce the scaring or reduce the keloid.

I do think of all the things I tried that bio-oil probably worked the best. You have to be diligent in applying it 2 x a day but, I think it did the most to help flatten out the scar and reduce the redness.

[Oubliette8]

Thanks! I'll look into bio-oil. Good to know about mederma being irritating- my scars can be irritating enough, soothing is definitely better! Sorry you deal with keloids too. Thanks for the advice.

[JaneS]

There is evidence that keloid formation is an expression of iodine deficiency, see 'THE Iodine Thread'.