Scars: More than just skin-deep

I think everyone can understand that scars can be anything from a cosmetic eyesore to a major body-altering issue. Scars are made up of a thicker collagen that mends together injured tissue. Hypertrophic scarring is a typical wavy formation of scarring that outlines just where the injury, incision, or damage occurred. However, Keloid scarring, which is more atypical, can occur when collagen forms with no apparent reconstruction pattern and expands beyond the site of injury. We see this when scars bubble up and become large and irregular. While most think either type of scarring is simply cosmetic, the damage and lasting effects of either types of scars are much more than surface-deep.

Deeper scars often form dense, fibrous tissue that can attach to muscles, tendons, and connective tissue that when adhered can cause immobility issues and integrity problems in the surrounding areas. Scars are meant to be tough, gritty, and dense to stabilize the compromised area. Because of that lack of flexibility in the scar, it changes how your body would normally move, contract, and relax. Imagine a string puppet where each movement is affected by another and the tension in one area causes a laxity in another. This is called "tensegrity" and a scar interrupts that smooth-flowing movement, especially within the fascial and connective tissue planes. Range of motion and strength of muscles can be the product of a scar left untreated.

Scars not only cause a ripple effect in issues with movement and normal muscle ability, but the scar itself often contains little to no nerve innervation at first. Once the collagen starts to break down and nerves begin to reintegrate in the area, people often feel the symptoms of neuropathy including hypersensitivity, itchiness, deep throbbing pain, or pins and needles sensations. Sometimes those nerves never reintegrate and there is numbness forever.

So what can be done about scars? We often hear about "breaking up scar tissue", but what does that actually mean? When we break up scars we are breaking down the collagen fibers that make up the scar so that your body can build normal tissue again. Breaking down the fibers (whether on the skin or deeper in the muscle and tissues) decreases pain and abnormal nerve sensations in the area. Needling is one of the most powerful and targeted ways to reduce scars.

In Medical Acupuncture terms, needling of any kind does three things:

1. Causes microtraumas which forces your body to rapid-heal the area with fresh, healthy blood flow.
2. Creates an immune response to reduce inflammation and begin the clean-up process of old, dead cells and collagen.
3. Causes the "electrical resistance" to reduce. Our bodies naturally should have free-flowing, uninhibited blood flow, muscle movement, and nerve conductivity. When there is a scar - the resistance to that smooth flow is reduced. Think of a raging river that is uninhibited and flowing downstream. Now imagine a river that is littered with rocks, dams, and debris which reduces or even stops the water from reaching downstream. This would be a "high electrical resistant" area. Scar are like dams in a river preventing normal flow.

We use the following techniques for scars:

1. Medical Acupuncture with electrical stimulation. We insert layers of needles on either side of the scar from under the deepest level, to the middle of the scar, and then on the most superficial area of the scar. We then connect a small, ground current of electricity which helps break up the collagen through the scar. It sounds painful but because most scars have very little nerve innervation, the technique is simple, safe, and pain-free.
2. Microneedling is even more powerful tool we use for scars. This electronic pen, which is similar to a tattoo gun, rapidly fires 12 tiny needles that break up the scar faster than any acupuncture technique will. We sometimes use an awesome combination of microneedling and small cosmetic acupuncture needles to resurface the skin. This works particularly well for acne scars because it releases the scar from beneath to reduce the "pock" appearance.
3. Neural Therapy is one of the best, and most unique scar treatments we offer. This takes the same technique described above with Medical Acupuncture, except we inject procaine, an anesthetic, into the scar. The small amounts of procaine bubble inside the belly of the scar expedites the collagen breakdown from both inside and out.
   
   

We have seen incredible results from all the above therapies. We have successfully reduced scars from surgeries, after acne, tummy-tucks or breast augmentation procedures, after c-sections, and scars from accidents to name a few. The best part about these techniques is once the scar tissue is broken down and softened, it doesn't return! As Medical Acupuncturists, our team is all proficient at treating scars safely. We handle needles daily and use as little invasive techniques as possible which is a win-win situations for those dealing with scars.

https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/neural-therapy-an-overlooked-game-changer-for-patients-sufferingchronic-pain-2167-0846-1000184.php?aid=53201