When people talk about skin issues, they often forget to consider scars. Most people are preoccupied with breakouts and zits, or they worry about superficial damage to the skin. However, acne can leave behind scars and dull spots. Several people start feeling conscious of the way they look because of these scars.

If you have facial scars, you need to make sure that you get the right treatment for it. It all starts with picking a scar cream that addresses the issues which lead to the formation of these marks in the first place.

The best scar cream is one that works slowly but provides a permanent solution. Here is a brief guide to the different types of scars, and some tips to help you pick the best scar cream for yourself.

What are scars and how do they form?
Scars are a signature of an injury or damage caused to the dermis, which is the skin’s second deepest layer. This damage can be self-inflicted if you pick your skin, or it could be a leftover mark from surgery.

Scars form due to your skin’s ability to heal fast. Whenever you get a wound, your skin immediately goes to work by fixing that wound. It starts with clotting the blood in the area of injury to prevent bleeding, and it forms a barrier on the cut to protect it from the external world. We see this as a scab. Scabs are fragile and easily broken.

However, as soon as the scab forms, the dermal layer starts producing fibroblasts. It helps to fix the collagen on the skin to form a smooth, pink layer that we see on the surface. The problem starts at this point. The fibroblast is produced at a fast rate, and the collagen isn’t laid out evenly. Too much collagen produces a raised scar, and lack of collagen leads to an indented one.

With time, your skin tries to sort this out, but getting it back to its original state would require some help. The best scar creams can help with this issue.

How to pick the best scar cream?
You need to consider several factors while picking a scar cream that will work for you. It also depends on the visibility of the scar and the intensity of the treatment it requires. The most important factors that you need to consider are:

• Age: The older the skin, the lesser the production of collagen, and the speed of collagen production is also slow. All this leads to slower healing.
• Hormones: Hormones, especially in young adults and teenagers, affect your body’s processes down to the cellular level. Most of us have skin issues arising solely due to hormonal imbalance.
• Scar’s location: Where the scar is formed affects what kind of a treatment it needs, and the likelihood of it healing completely. Marks on constantly moving parts such as knees and ankles take more time to treat than parts such as the face.
• Skin tone: It is a vital factor that determines how quickly the scar will heal. If your skin is on either end of the spectrum, tilting towards the fairer or darker side, then these scars will be a lot more visible, and therefore harder to treat.

Tips to pick the best scar creams
Here are a few things to keep in mind while picking the best scar creams for yourself:

Prevention is better than cure
No treatment or cream will guarantee that your scars will disappear in due course of time. However, a good skin care routine from an early age is essential. It gives your skin a head start, especially when it needs to act quickly in an emergency. When wounds occur, you can work quickly to ensure that a scar doesn’t form. You can do this by keeping your scabs clean and moisturized. You can apply vitamin E supplements to your face as well.

Starting immediately after you get a wound
You can start looking for some products that fade scars as soon as it shows up. The older these scars, the harder it is to get rid of them. Look for products with a silicone base or rosehip seed oil.

You can find several retinol-based, over-the-counter products and creams that help in increasing cellular turnover. They also ensure that new cells form quickly.

Prescription creams
In most cases, the best scar cream is the one prescribed by your dermatologist after they assess the needs of your skin. Besides these creams, another treatment available is clinical microdermabrasion or medical peels. This treatment is especially useful if the scarring occurs on the first two layers of the skin.

After consulting a medical professional, you can also take prescription medications or tablets that focus on the root cause of the issue. These medicines help in slowly fading the scars from the inside.