treatyourscars Every scar is healed differently, and movement physical therapy can walk you through all of the different stages of your arm scar treatment. Movement Physical Therapy has physical therapists that specialize in treating injuries in your upper extremity, and we are here to help you through your hand scar management. As always, if you have questions about Scar Massage, or want to know if you are doing it right, you may contact your physical or occupational therapist.
Once your scar tissues are completely healed, your physical therapist may start to implement manual techniques — either using your hands or an instrument — that will help encourage your injured tissues to lengthen. In the right setting, massage therapy for the scars and manual treatment techniques can make a big difference in scar tissue release.
While some scar tissue never goes away, frequently, when treated correctly, injured tissues can be rebuilt into the appearance of normal, healthy tissues — decreasing any pain and restoring normal tissue behaviors — in any body region, including pelvic muscles after childbirth.
Severe injuries and excessive amounts of scar tissue directly impact your muscles and joints, decreasing the range of movement in these areas. If left to heal without Scar Desensitization Therapy, the scar has significantly more negative effects on a range of motion than if treated.
As surgical incisions begin to heal, scar tissue may accumulate and restrict the range of movement of the chest or abdomen, ultimately leading to a shortage of breathing, difficulty moving your body and arms, and pain when you move.
After your skin and deep tissues heal, scars pass through four distinct stages of healing. Over the next 2-3 months, the scarring will be smaller and more integrated into a person’s skin tone. Signs of scar maturation include tissue becoming lighter-colored, less sensitive, and more uniform in texture.
Although an initial skin scar might be small, the scar often grows larger over the next 4-6 weeks and becomes redder. The scar itself, as well as surrounding skin, can also become more sensitive, making it unpleasant to use in the affected area. If a scar is located in an area difficult for an individual to access, massage therapy may help. Scar massage is a technique that involves rubbing and deep pressure, and is used to keep the scar from becoming stiff and raised, as well as keep it from adhering to underlying tissues, including muscles and bones, which may restrict movement.
When done correctly, massage may reorganize scar tissue, helping the body heal more quickly, and possibly reduce the appearance of the scar. It is important to start your Scar Massage and Desensitization Techniques early on, so you can help avoid the scar tissue from building up, tearing, and continuing your pain. Scar massage may begin once your wound is completely healed, with no surgical staples, steri-strips, or scabs. You should continue with a daily massage of your scars for at least the first 6 months, then you can decrease it to 3-5 days per week, until your scars are fully healed.
To perform a cross-friction massage: you will want to put straight pressure on the scar, rubbing it back and forth, up and down, and in a circular motion. Because of this, you will want to begin the desensitization process by applying deeper pressure all over the area of scarring. Rubbing on the surface of the scar with different pressures and different textures will accelerate the process of healing damaged nerves and desensitize the area. By rubbing and tapping the area of the scar while healing, and while the scar continues to form, you will be sure to get the uniform growth of scar tissue over the entire area of injury.
The use will reduce the amount of adhesion of scar tissue to structures beneath the skin, and will ultimately contribute to better outcomes once the scar has formed. After that, after the scar tissue has formed and hypersensitive nerve fibers are desensitized, you can begin thinking about ways of treating your scars to decrease their overall appearance. The purpose of immersion is to decrease scar sensitivity and help your skin and nerves to be more resistant to normal forces in daily life. Laser therapy does not remove a scar, but it may decrease pain and itchiness, and it may enhance the person’s range of motion.
At-home treatments At-home treatments may help a person control or lessen the pain from scar tissue, reduce swelling, and accelerate the healing process. Fortunately, there are types of therapies that, while the scar is healing, help to make sure that it is as malleable and mobile as possible going forward. In this article, we are going to take a look at how and why someone might feel pain from their scar tissue, why it might happen years after the injury, and available treatment options.
Whether your scars are caused by surgery, a burn, or are a result of another type of injury, managing your scars as part of an occupational therapy program can be a useful tool for helping reduce how your scars look, as well as increase functionality, which can be limited by scars. Given that many of the scars treated in Occupational Therapy appear on the arm, reducing pain and sensitivity is essential to ensure the patient is able to keep using their arm properly. Your surgeon or therapist who treats your hands can suggest various treatments for your scars after the injuries are healed, cuts are closed, and stitches are removed.
Doctors can do skin grafts–the transfer of healthy skin from another part of your body–during Scar Revision Surgery. A trained physical therapist can do soft-tissue mobilization and other techniques, like cold lasers, on the scar area. Smoking actually can delay healing procedures, increasing the risk that you will develop scar tissue, as nicotine limits blood flow into your cut, which keeps cells from reaching the scar area to start the healing process.
