Plan to use Embrace scar therapy this time around on TT incision. Should I also treat belly button with Embrace? (Photo)

I would use a combination approach including Plato's Scar Serum, pulsed dye laser, tension release, and fractional laser with PRP vs. Embrace scar patches. Best, Dr. Karamanoukian#Realself100 Surgeon

Thanks for your question. This comes up a lot with my patients too. If you have the tape available then placing it onto the belly button might do some good. Embrace is designed to work across long incisions. I can see that it could benefit patients in round incisions so if they already purchased the tape I ask them to place it on any scar. Side effects are minimal. Best, Dr. Aldo

Embrace Scar Therapy pads are designed to take tension off linear scars by they way they load tension prior to placement of the pad.  Thus, it is not designed to help with a circular scar like a belly button.  Most of the time, we recommend a silicone gel that can be massaged into the belly button twice a day to help with scarring around the belly button.  Sun protection will also help reduce the darkening of the belly button scar in the post-operative period.

Embrace is a great product that we use in our practice to improve linear scars. It works by combining the benefits of silicone with the ability to relieve tension on the wound which is a major contributor to excessive scar formation. Because the belly button incision is round the embrace wouldn't be able to relieve that tension and it could potentially trap moisture in the area causing maceration. An alternative is Biocorneum which is a silicone scar gel which would be much easier to apply around the belly button. Good luck.

Midline scars, like the scar around the belly button, have a higher incidence of forming hypertrophic scars and for that reason we started pretreating that scar and any other scars on patients that scar badly with a dilute steroid (kenalog 2.5%) both during and after surgery as well as encouraging our patients to follow up with a post op scar treatment. there are many of those available and I'm sure we each have our favorites. Ours is BioCorneum. To date we have had no complications by using the Kenalog injections at the time of surgery and then moving up to Kenalog 10% injections every 6-8 weeks after surgery until the scar looks appropriate. Your surgeon will be familiar with this treatment as it is a mainstay of scar therapy.