Scars, scars, scars...and how physical therapy can help

Have you ever had surgery?  Did you ever cut yourself while cooking in the kitchen? Were you a teenager when you had to sit through 3 hours of the Titanic movie because your girlfriend insisted? You have scars.

Scars are really awesome. I know, sometimes they don’t look good and they can bring back some negative memories, but if you think about them from the standpoint of an exquisite, self-healing body, then they are awesome.

Think about it.  You get a wound during an accident. Now there is a literal hole in your body and your body knows how to fill it.  You don’t have to do anything and after a few weeks the wound is healed.  Your body just regenerated itself.

How cool is that?

They can become problematic is because most medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, and other healthcare professionals don’t understand how amazing they are and how they can influence the body.  I am not going to lie, they can have a negative impact on your body if not treated properly.  That’s why it’s important to find someone who knows how to work with scars after an injury or surgery.

There are a few things to understand about scars and how they can influence pain and mobility.  First, scar tissue can limit the movement of a structure decreasing a joint’s range of motion or a muscles ability to stretch. Second, scars can cause your body to move differently due to altered information coming from the scar when it’s stretched.  Lastly, depending on how one injured his or herself there can be a lot of emotions connected to that event which can have an impact on pain and mobility.

There are ways to improve the extensibility of a scar, the information received by the scar, and the emotions surrounding the event that created the scar.  It is important to address all aspects of the scar early on, especially the mobility of the tissues.  Even the mobility can be addressed later in life with certain medical procedures.  Even the neurological and emotional effects may remain many years later and can still be treated.

If you think an old injury or scar is causing you trouble today please know it’s not too late to get treatment.  Please give us a call and let us know what is going on with your scar and how you think it may be impacting you today.  

Talk To A PT On The Phone