Excised Two Lesions from Chicken Pox on Forehead. East Haven, CT

I had chicken pox, when I was 11, and it left two noticeable lesions on the center of my forehead. I dealt with it for 20 years before I finally decided to have them revised. From what I've read from previous reviews the cost of the procedure should be between $75 to $250 for each excision; anything more is just a waste of money. I consulted with multiple plastic surgeons, and the majority recommended scar excision, which is basically cutting the scar out with a scalpel and suturing the surrounding skin together.

I finally chose Dr.Pan in New Haven, CT to perform the procedure; she was very kind and her $250 fee per excision was fair. The procedure took less than 15 minutes. She numbed my forehead, made a football shape cut mark around each lesion, pulled the scar off with tweezers, and finally sutured the openings shut. The larger scar was on one of the furrows of my forehead, and she sutured that excision to where the scar line aligned with that crease.

After the procedure I wore band aids for a week and applied Vaseline on the scars to keep them clean. I went back a week later and had the sutures removed, and initially the surrounding tissue was dark red. However, I'd say within a couple of days the redness started immediately fading.

After three months the majority of the redness is gone and I'm starting to see what the final result will look like. The large excision left a slight groove in my forehead, and the smaller excision left a very faint white cut line, but that's it. I have olive skin, and I can barely see the excision marks. I would imagine that someone with lighter skin would have scar lines that are relatively invisible.

Overall, I'm happy with the procedure. The revised scars aren't perfect; if I stand directly under a light, I will notice very slight depressions where the revised scars are located. However, that's the only negative reaction I have. From any other angle you can barely tell they're even there, and they look a lot better than my old chicken pox scars. I was told it would take a year before the scars will fully settle, but I'm already happy with the results. Now, I don't have to worry about awkward situations where people would stare uncomfortably at those lesions on my forehead.

And believe me, over the course of 20 years there were a lot of those situations.

In summary, scar excision will mitigate the appearance of your scar, and in my case to the point where they no longer bother me. I feel relieved and a lot more confident now, when I talk to people.

Scars 4 months

Okay, so its been 1 year since the surgery, and I am very pleased with the results. The redness has completely faded, and the revised scars are pretty much unnoticeable. The large revised scar did spread out slightly in the form of a groove, but that's it. You would have to be looking 3 inches from my forehead to see anything, and it still would be hard to notice anything. There are two faint white lines from the excision, but again they're pretty much undetectable. Like I stated in previous posts the revised scars aren't perfect. If I stand directly under a light, I can see slight depressions (like minor acne scars), but that's it. One plastic surgeon told me it is possible to further improve the revised scars through fraxel laser resurfacing.
In summary, I would highly recommend scar excision for chicken pox lesions on the face.
I feel comfortable speaking face to face with people again, and its been a huge load off my mind.