To break up hard scar tissue, use techniques like deep massage (circular, linear, cross-friction) to improve blood flow, combined with consistent stretching and mobility exercises to lengthen tissues, and consider professional help like physical therapy for advanced methods like Active Release Technique (ART), Graston, or ultrasound therapy, always ensuring the wound is fully healed before starting. Applying silicone sheets or gels can also help soften and hydrate the scar.
Physical Therapy. Physical therapy can help break up scar tissue that has formed around a joint. Learning flexibility exercises and stretches can help to reduce stiffness and relieve some of the discomforts that scarring can bring.
There are three main types of motions you can use:
What are the best methods for scar tissue removal?
The breakdown of scar tissue involves breaking down and realigning collagen fibres that have built up within muscles. There are various types of massage that can be used to break down scar tissue including sports massage and deep tissue massage.
It's best to begin such therapy soon after the surgery, though long enough after for the area to heal. However, the therapy can still be beneficial years later. "By then, scar tissue tends to be really stiff and not easy to move," says Dr. Hedt.
Other natural options include topical applications of aloe vera, coconut oil, and oils such as jojoba and lavender, alongside vitamins A, C, E, and minerals like zinc. Treatments like acupuncture are also suggested, where some practitioners claim it may help in reducing scar-related pain and improving mobility.
Pain relievers and ice may help relieve pain. Heating pads can assist with stiffness. While these may provide temporary relief, they are not addressing the scar tissue itself. In fact, overuse of heating pads can actually speed up arthritic changes in the body.
Dermatologists may inject a corticosteroid solution directly into a hypertrophic scar or keloid, which may help reduce its size. Steroids break the bonds between collagen fibers, which reduces the amount of scar tissue beneath the skin.
Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) — In this technique, your physical therapist uses stainless steel ergonomic tools to locate and break up scar tissue. The tools allow for more sensitivity so your PT can locate stiff tissue under the skin.
Use Vaseline® Jelly for Scars
By sealing in moisture it also helps to reduce dryness of scarred skin, once your skin has healed. This may help to improve the appearance of scars, making the skin look smoother and softer, as well as help to reduce itchiness caused by dryness.
New skin forms as the wound heals. With deeper wounds (into the dermis layer and lower), your body responds by making collagen to repair the wound. Collagen is thicker than the rest of your skin. This thicker, less flexible tissue becomes a scar.
After several weeks, the scar that forms may feel hard, tight, raised, or bumpy. Over time, the scar will become softer, smoother, and less red. Your scar will continue to heal for 12 to 18 months after your surgery.
The more time that products of injury and inflammation are left to stagnate in the area, the more scar tissue will form which will reduce overall healing. In general, we should follow an alternating ice-heat-ice protocol, always ending with ice.
Applying a silicone dressing such as Scarguard™, or any variety of silicone sheet “Scar Treatment” bandage (available at most drugstores) at night will help many scars flatten out and soften. Silicone sheets can be purchased at any local pharmacy, grocery store, Walmart, etc.
Key Takeaways of Scar Healing
Exercise enhances scar healing by increasing sweat production that promotes tissue repair, boosting immune defense, and improving blood flow and oxygenation to the affected area.
Corticosteroids can be injected into raised scars, such as keloids and hypertrophic scars. These injections help reduce inflammation and scar size. Cryotherapy involves freezing the scar tissue with liquid nitrogen to flatten and soften it. Cryotherapy is most effective for more minor scars.
Scars are necessary for injured skin to heal. They develop from an imbalance in the production of collagen at the wound site. Scars undergo numerous changes as they develop, but they are permanent. Bio-Oil is specifically formulated to help improve the appearance of scars, but will never remove them.
Massage therapy can also help break up scar tissue and allow it to remodel. Scar-revision surgery: A range of surgical procedures can remove a scar, improve its appearance or transplant skin from another area (skin graft). This is an exchange of one type of scar for a different, more preferable scar.
Castor oil PLUS heat will increase circulation to the area you are trying to target. The castor oil hot pack will draw more blood to the area and encourage the breakdown of old scar tissue, improve the mobility and the appearance of the scar.
Vitamin C is perhaps the most important vitamin for scar reduction. According to research, this powerful antioxidant is involved in all phases of wound healing.