Can Silicone Gel Pads Flatten Raised Scar Tissue?

It sounds as though you have had successful removal of a skin cancer with surgical margins, resulting in dog ears at the edges of the incision. This can occur with wide excision of skin cancers with margins in areas that do not have redundant tissue. In this particular case, silicone sheeting will not decrease the thickness of the dog ears, as the tissue is generally well perfused.

Patients with true hypertrophic or keloid scars may benefit from conservative measures such as silicone sheeting, TAC injection, and massage.

Yes, silicone gel scar sheets (or liquid you can paint on) do help to flatten and fade thick, red scars. These are technically called "hypertrophic scars" and are not true "keloid" scars as many people call them, including some doctors. Hypertrophic scars form only in the location of the actual trauma and do not grow and spread outside of the trauma line, although they may become wide and raised.

Over time, these hypertrophic scars usually do fade and flatten on their own, especially with regular massage, so the gel sheets may just be helping to speed up this process. Unfortunately, nothing except re-excising and resuturing the wide flat scar can help narrow it.