Scar & Keloid Treatment

Scars and keloids are different problems

They get grouped together and they should not be. A scar sits level with or below the surrounding skin, or is discolored. A keloid grows beyond the original wound, keeps growing, and behaves like a chronic condition rather than a mark.

The treatments are different, the realistic outcomes are different, and being clear about which you have is the first useful thing a consultation does.

How we treat scars

For most scars — acne scarring, surgical scars, textural change — we use the LaseMD Ultra at a setting selected for scar tissue. The thulium laser resurfaces in fractional columns, prompting the skin to remodel the area over the following months.

Depending on what we find, we may combine it with microneedling or Morpheus8, which work mechanically rather than by light, and reach deeper. Steroid also has a place in some raised scars.

What matters more than the tool is matching it to the scar. Deep boxcar scarring, rolling scars and a flat pigmented mark all respond to different things, and treating them the same way is why some patients arrive here having spent money without improving.

How we treat keloids — and what to expect

Keloids are treated with diluted corticosteroid injected directly into the lesion. The steroid softens the dense collagen, flattens the raised tissue and settles the itch and discomfort that often come with it.

We start with a single trial injection. Keloids vary enormously in how they respond, and the honest way to find out is to treat once and look, rather than commit you to a course before we know anything.

If it responds, we continue at intervals until the keloid is meaningfully reduced. That word is deliberate.

The part most clinics will not tell you

A keloid is not going to disappear. Anyone promising that is either misunderstanding the condition or hoping you do.

What treatment achieves is a keloid that is flatter, softer, less discolored, less itchy and far less noticeable. For most patients that is a substantial change and worth having. But the tendency that produced it does not go away, and keloids can recur — sometimes years later, sometimes after minor trauma to the area.

This is also why we are cautious about anyone suggesting simply cutting a keloid out. Excision alone frequently produces a larger keloid than the one you started with, because the surgery is itself a wound in skin that overreacts to wounds.

If you are keloid-prone, that is worth knowing before any elective procedure, piercing or surgery — and it is a reason we screen for it before treatments like Sculptra.

Who performs it?

Keloid injections are performed by a physician or our advanced practice nurse. Laser scar treatment can also be performed by Carla, who is certified on the device.

We match the provider to what is being treated rather than to whoever is free.

What should I expect?

Steroid injection into a keloid is uncomfortable — the tissue is dense and takes pressure to inject. It is brief. Some lightening of the skin around the injection site can occur, and thinning of the tissue if it is overtreated, which is one reason we dilute and go gradually rather than aggressively.

Laser scar treatment involves a few days of redness and a fine sandpaper texture, as on the LaseMD page.

Improvement in both is gradual. Scar tissue remodels over months, not days, and judging the result too early is the most common reason patients give up on a treatment that was working.

Why choose PhillyMedClub for scar and keloid treatment in Philadelphia?

We start by separating two problems that get grouped together and should not be. A scar sits level with or below the surrounding skin, or is discoloured; a keloid grows beyond the original wound, keeps growing, and behaves like a chronic condition. Scars we resurface with the LaseMD Ultra at a setting selected for scar tissue, sometimes combined with microneedling or Morpheus8 depending on depth and type. Keloids we treat with diluted intralesional steroid, and we begin with a single trial injection rather than committing you to a course before we know how yours responds. We will also tell you the part many clinics leave out: a keloid is managed, not cured, it can recur years later, and excision alone frequently produces a larger one. Consultation first, in Fishtown, Philadelphia.