Creating a Nearly Invisible Scar

One of the reasons that Clarus Dermatology gets so many referrals from other dermatologists is because of the quality of our scar outcomes. In the case of this patient, the scar is nearly invisible only three months post-operation. In the images, we see that the patient arrived at our clinic with a basal cell carcinoma – a common type of skin cancer – on her face.

Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Neil Shah performed two stages of Mohs surgery to clear the carcinoma (image II. was taken immediately following this). Once the skin cancer was removed from the patient’s cheek, Dr. Shah meticulously sutured the surgical defect back together. The top sutures (the blue threads you can see in image III.) are placed with a narrow pitch to precisely and carefully align the edges of the epidermis (the skin).

Dr. Shah also used fractional carbon dioxide lasers to intraoperatively “sand down” the edges of the wound (these create the tiny red circles in image III. that can be spotted along the wound edges). The methodical suturing along with the use of lasers are what lead to the very fine surgical scar that is nearly invisible only a few months after the procedure.

There is no such thing as “scar-less” surgery, but you can minimize the appearance of the scar line using these techniques.