Wound Healing
For all types of skin irritation, oozing or not, or following a dermatological procedure, quick, quality skin repair is key.
Whatever your skin type, specific factors might trigger or lead to oversensitivity: Your skin reacts strongly when you’d rather it didn’t…
What does wound healing mean?
Wound healing is one of the most amazing properties of human tissues. This normal tissue repair process takes place in two phases:
What are the consequences?
Proper wound healing: Given time, if the wound was deep, its closure will result from the repair of the epidermis but it doesn’t exactly look like normal skin: there is a scar. This scar will improve through a “remodelling” phase. The condition of a scar cannot be assessed for several months.
But there are difficult wound healing situation, in certain rare cases, there can be abnormal scar formation.
- The deep healing phase: Dermal tissues regenerate by forming thick growths, rich in capillaries and cells. This process is like inflammation. If it is too severe, it will require medical attention.
- The superficial phase: during which the epidermis closes starting from the edges of the wound. For this process to take place, the wound cannot be too wide or deep so that it can close by itself and there is no infection.
What are the consequences?
Proper wound healing: Given time, if the wound was deep, its closure will result from the repair of the epidermis but it doesn’t exactly look like normal skin: there is a scar. This scar will improve through a “remodelling” phase. The condition of a scar cannot be assessed for several months.
But there are difficult wound healing situation, in certain rare cases, there can be abnormal scar formation.
Some of the causes for these abnormal scar formations are:
Certain collagen metabolism disorders, for example, can lead to slow, abnormal repair or atrophic scars also known as “cigarette-paper” scars,
General condition disorders such as malnutrition,
Long periods of bed rest (chronic wounds, bed sores),
Poor circulation can also lead to ulcers in the legs and wounds that are difficult to heal.
Lastly, some people can have raised scars that look like smooth nodules and do not improve by themselves. These are called “keloidal scars”, and should not be confused with hypertrophic scars or atrophic scars.
Certain collagen metabolism disorders, for example, can lead to slow, abnormal repair or atrophic scars also known as “cigarette-paper” scars,
General condition disorders such as malnutrition,
Long periods of bed rest (chronic wounds, bed sores),
Poor circulation can also lead to ulcers in the legs and wounds that are difficult to heal.
Lastly, some people can have raised scars that look like smooth nodules and do not improve by themselves. These are called “keloidal scars”, and should not be confused with hypertrophic scars or atrophic scars.
