Laser Scar Removal After Breast Lift?

There is truthfully no such thing as "laser scar removal". Once you have a cut or incision, you will always have a scar. Scars take quite a while to fully mature, and they go through a normal healing process. Right after surgery (the first few weeks), the skin is touching and the scar might look great. For the first 6-8 weeks after the incision, the body piles up collagen (a building material used to heal scars), and the scars become noticeable and thick. After that, the body starts re-orienting the collagen components in scars, rearranging them along lines of tension, and small muscle cells (myofibroblasts) try to make the scars smaller with contraction. This whole process of scar maturation takes 1 to 2 years (when viewed under a microscope), but for most people looking at scars from the outside, it varies from 6 to 18 months. Scars are considered mature when they are flat and no longer red.
Most of the lasers that are proposed to "remove" scars are really aimed at getting rid of the redness. The laser is tuned at the red pigment, and removing it makes them appear more mature. The problem is that this redness is due to the hypervascularity of healing scars, and the myofibroblasts (muscles are red) that are trying to shrink the scar. So if you are going to use one of these lasers, you are paying money for something that would happen by itself in a few months, and you are short changing yourself by not letting the scar shrink!
There are some resurfacing lasers that can be used on mature raised scars to camouflage and contour them into the surrounding skin, but this is not what people are normally talking about when they ask for "laser scar removal". Be sure it is worth spending money on before you sign up.

Plastic surgery scars require attention after surgery so that they remain cosmetically-appealing and barely noticeable. In our office, we use a protocol for scars that minimizes their activity in the 6-8 weeks after surgery. If you have late plastic surgery scars, you may also require laser and RF therapy to help reduce the longterm effects of the scarring. Keloids, hypertrophic scars, widened scars, red scars, and hyperpigmented scars all require scar modulation with topical creams followed by lasers and RF therapy. Topical skincare should be directed to a specific need, whether for pigmentation or hypertrophy and our office can guide you through the process to obtain the correct Plato’s Scar cream or Melarase cream for hypertrophy and discoloration. In terms of lasers, we would employ the vbeam laser for redness, Venus Viva RF, PRP microneedling, chemical peels, and Morpheus 8, fractional erbium, or fractional co2. All of these have their individual benefits. Most of all, we recommend you visit a solid plastic surgeon who understands surgical scar revision, laser therapy, and RF therapy for scars.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Thank you for your question. Breast incisions can be managed using a multimodal approach:
1) Scar massage - starting as soon as the surgical dressings come off and the incisions are sealed
2) Silicone sheets or scar gels for about six months to year
3) Embrace - a tension reducing dressing for the first 2 months
4) Fractionated lasers to help blend the scar into the background - done as a series, starting about 4 weeks after surgery and repeated every four weeks for six months.
5) Sunscreen to prevent the scars from darkening