Scars are marks left by a healed injury, burn, or incision. It is made of hardened fibrous tissue. Scar tissue on the skin may become highly thickened, raised, or red. This is known as a keloid scar.

A keloid is a mass of excessive fibrous tissue that appears at the site of a scar. Dark-skinned people are more prone to develop keloids than are people of other races.

Most unattractive scars can be removed or treated by cosmetic lasers, peeling or 'polishing' techniques, several mineral and antioxidant supplements to aid curing from the inside out, and the use of topical biological products to encourage tissue healing.

Is any scar truly permanent? For the most part, scars in general are forever, although there may be methods to minimize the severity of the scar visibly. That implies a scar can be improved or camouflaged and therefore reduced visibly, but there is usually some trace of a scar.

Are there parts of the body on which scars can't occur? Commonly the development of a scar is virtually anywhere on the body. It's simply a matter of how much of a scar is noticeable. Therefore, if there's an injury, there will usually be some trace of scarring. The degree of scarring oftentimes depends on the age of the person being scarred at the moment of scarring, and the ethnicity of that individual. So, usually the younger the patient, the fairer the complexion and eyes color, the more minimal the scar is.

What is a hypertrophic scar? A hypertrophic scar is a scar which is red, raised, visible, large and oftentimes troublesome. It is an undesirable form of scarring and usually responds to some kind of treatment if you treat it early enough.

How do you get rid of a hypertrophic scar? It depends greatly on the age of the person, the gender, where the lesion is, how the scar was formed, how long it's been there and whether anybody has tried to reduce it previously. All those factors will influence the common treatments which will involve laser reduction.

I am pregnant now and want to avoid getting stretch marks. What is your advice? Generally speaking, stretch mark development is an inherited trait having to do with hormonal/skin fluctuations during pregnancy. In general, there are very few effective methods to reduce stretch mark formation during pregnancy. Either they occur or they don't. The intelligent thing is to treat the stretch marks early, after they appear, or during the last months of pregnancy. You can safely use oral Vitamin A, C and E supplementation.

What is a keloidal scar? A keloidal scar is just like a hypertrophic scar but it is older and it is usually fixed, implying that a hypertrophic scar is usually still evolving or maturing. A keloid is usually a scar which is in its final form and is somewhat more difficult to remove or remodel. Keloidal scars, depending on where they appear, can be remodeled but with greater effort.