Why do some scars look dotty?

Today we saw a lady with a scar on her abdomen. She’d had a mole removed ten years previously and stitched up by her general practitioner.

The scar had faded well and was now a very light silvery colour, but unfortunately she’d been left with small dots on either side of the incision.

These dots occur by in-growth of the top layers of the skin (epidermis) into the deeper layers (dermis). If the stitches are left in too long the epidermis grows down the stitch tracks where it is embedded in the dermis, and causes permanent marks like this.

Plastic surgeons recommend removing stitches from the face after approximately five days and from the body before ten days. If the stitches are removed before this time they are very unlikely to develop dots on either side of them as in this case.