Indianapolis Scar Revision Specialist
Barry L. Eppley, MD, DMD

Numerous Indianapolis cosmetic surgery patients have visited Dr. Barry L. Eppley for help in surgically reducing the appearance of their scars. Dr. Eppley encourages patients to read the accompanying literature and visit the scar revision results page to learn more about the different treatment options.

Scars are often the inevitable result of lacerations and traumatic injuries. No matter how well, by whom, or in what environment (emergency room vs. operating room) a laceration may have been repaired, undesireable scars are a frequent problem. This is undoubtably due to the influence of crushing/tearing forces on human tissue from traumatic injuries, a far cry from the controlled and more gentle cutting of a scalpel during surgery. As such, the origin of the injury has much to do with the resultant scars.

Scars are magnified in visibility by four main causes; they are not narrow (too wide), they have surface irregularities (scar level above or below the surrounding skin level, they have unnatural color to the surrounding skin (brown pigment, white scar, or red due to small blood vessels), or they lie unnaturally against the lie of the skin lines. Most scars have one or more of these problems.

As a result of the different reasons for poor scarring, scar revision is really the use of a variety of different surgical techniques to address the specific components of the scar problem. There is no one universal scar revision technique. Scar revision techniques consist of : 1) simple excision and re-closure, 2) excision and geometric rearrangement, 3) resurfacing techniques including dermabrasion and laser resurfacing, and 4) laser phototherapy for red and brown discoloration.