Healing scar tissue…

When you have any sort of surgical procedure (either major or minor), scar tissue is the inevitable result.  Scar tissue is your bodies way of helping to close the gap in its’ structure.

Scar tissue fibers form in random patterns, as your body is trying to form a strong structure to hold together the separated pieces.  Unfortunately, these random patterns can also inhibit proper tissue movement and range of motion and cause pain if they are allowed to set in that way.

There are a number of things that you can do to help the scar tissue form in a more productive manner.  Vitamin E oil has been used very successfully for helping scar tissue to heal.  You can just get the Vitamin E capsules and break one open once or twice a day to massage onto the scar.

There are also a number of essential oils that can be beneficial for healing scar tissue.  Lavender, geranium, rose, chamomile, lemon and rosewood all help with scar tissue (I am sure that there are others, as well).  Young Living Essential oils makes a blend called “Gentle Baby” which has many of these oils in it and is great for scar tissue repair.

Most sources tell you to dilute the oils in a carrier oil first before applying it to the skin.  This is the safest way to go, however I have had great results from applying the oils in a very small area neat (undiluted) to the skin.  Always test in a small area for skin sensitivity first.  Wait to apply essential oils until the wound has closed, and apply them if possible a couple of times a day (morning and night) for best results.

Massage can also be a great tool for helping scar tissue to heal properly.  Once the would is healed over sufficiently, massage using techniques like skin rolling and deep cross fiber friction can help to make the scar smaller and less noticeable, and can help improve pain, movement  and range of motion.

I had an experience using essential oils and massage to relieve and area of tight, painful, raised scar tissue.  I had had a mole removed on my shoulder.  They did not get all of the pre-cancerous tissue the first time, so they had to go back into the area that was already healing a second time.  Because this wound was so deep and on such a tight part of my skin, they had to do a special stitching technique that involved two layers of stitches.  The scar that this left was still quite painful many months later, and was restricting the range of motion in my shoulder.

My massage therapist worked on it every two weeks using the massage techniques listed above and Young Living’s Gentle Baby blend.  After only a couple sessions, we noticed the texture of the scar changing and the pain was greatly reduced.  She works on it a little every time I go in now, and it is much less noticeable and less painful.