Aesthetic surgery also deals with the revision of scars on the face and body. Scars are often caused by injuries and do not follow lines that favour good healing; surgical scars, too, can sometimes heal poorly, regardless of the surgeon who performed the operation.
Scars can be hypertrophic, keloid, atrophic or contracted. Where possible, the plastic surgeon can improve them by excising them, changing their direction to a more favourable one, or injecting them. Each case is different and needs its own approach. Depressed scars can also be treated with fat grafting.
These are usually small outpatient procedures under local anaesthesia, after which patients go home. It is important to remember that scars are the body’s normal, permanent healing process: a scar cannot be erased, only improved, in some cases until it is practically invisible.