massage of the lip scar after surgery

[Jewel Goodwin (rbaer@dire]

Our son is five months old and had his lip repair on July 20.
Now our plastic surgeon tell us that we have to massage his scar
in a downwards motion for three minutes, at least 23 times per
day. This has proven to be very impossible as he gets very upset
as we even approach his mouth. he has even gotten to the point
where we have to make sure he sees his bottle before we take it
towards his mouth, or he will even reject that. This is the 'oral
defensiveness', I guess. Right now, he has a beautiful cupid's
bow, but our surgeon says if we don't massage the scar now, while
it is going through a thick stage, it will pull his lip up
drastically and we will regret it. Does anyone have any
suggestions?

[rooster@home.ifx.net]

In response to your question regarding lip massage. Our
daughter is now a year old, she had surgery at 5 months. She
had/has a unilateral cleft lip, a cleft palate, and a cleft in
her gum line. Her surgery went very well. The only
"real" problem we had was pacifer withdrawel. Our
plastic surgeon said nothing about the excercise you spoke of.
Her lip is beautiful. The surgeon did a wonderful job of a
repair. They said her scar would draw up, look "angry"
red and would do this possibly for up to a year. I was more
worried about how she would look after the surgery than before
it. It did nothing they spoke of. After the redness of having the
stitches removed it was fine, as if there weren't even a scar. If
you look closely you can see the thin,thin line. I am so pleased,
I can't speak enough of her surgeon. But back to the question, no
we did not massage any part at any time. Good luck.

[Terri (pnt0723@magicnet.n]

My son had his lip repair in September and his surgeon has me
massaging his lip in the same manner until his October follow up
visit. He never told me to do it that long or that many
times....I do it for just 1 minute 2 times a day. At first he was
really cranky about it...I discovered that if I do it while he is
eating or just after he has eaten he doesn't seem upset. I think
in the beginning the area was still sensitive...my son's scar is
thin and barely visible. You can get a second opinion...maybe
from his pediatrician. I am not concerned about my son's scar and
his surgeon NEVER implied that I would be sorry that I did not
massage his lip. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

When my daughter had her surgery at 5 months our surgeon
wanted us to put adhesive tape with a small piece of what looked
like sillicon on the scar. My daughter not only hated it, but
took it off every time we applied it. On her follow up visit the
doctor could not belive that we were not using the tape and acted
as if her scar was going to be horrible, but she is now 15 months
and it does not look perfect, but it is no where near horrible.
We usee a cream called "Mederma" which I highly
recomend for scars. You can purchase it over the counter at
Eckerd, Wal-Mart and many other pharmacies for approx. $30.

[cmsmith@midsouth.ualr.edu]

My son had his cleft lip fixed at 6 weeks old in 1994. Our
plastic surgeon never suggested massaging his scar. We used some
kind of thin skin material that they use of burn victims to help
heal the scar. Then in 1998 he was 6 years old, the doctors
suggested we have a laser surgery to take the scar away
completely (even though it was hardly noticeable). I recommend
not to ever have the laser surgery performed unless the scar is
extremely noticeable. The pain and agony they go through is just
not worth it.

[Anonymous]

hello, my daughter just had her lip repaired six days ago and
still has her stitches in they wont come out untill this
thursday. our plastic surgeon never told us to message her lip or
do much of anything after her stitches come out. he said the best
result will come from just the follow up care right after surgery
(ie. cleaning and putting the antibiotic cream on) i asked dr.
about mcderma but he said that wont work its just a gimmick
(guess he doesnt believe in it) but anyway dr. said a lip should
absolutly never pucker after surgery or something else is wrong.
well just thought i would put my two cents in. im anxious to see
how my daughters lip looks after stitches come out is there much
redness after that? or a great deal of healing time yet to go??
curious how long it takes to get the final result?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am one of the older persons still going through
revisions. In my 32 years, 28+ surgeries, I've had my share of
lip and nose revisions. The surgeon who did the majority of the
work prior to 5 years ago never suggested massaging the lip scar.
But then, I might not have been at a point where it was
warranted. Or, he might not have known the benefits. His
treatment was very conservative and though the outcome was good,
it was not the "most that could be done" in my opinion.




I am currently under the treatment of a brilliant surgeon,
who is the head of the Cleft Lip and Palate center at N.Y.U. I
had lip revision surgery only last week (1/27). (I wrote about
the outcome in a posting on this board entitled "Results of
my recent lip & nose revision"). I can tell that the
shape of my lip is different and the surgeon said that it may
"pull" while healing and that the massaging will help
to bring it back to the correct length. I do not know the
specifics about the method of correction to say why I need to do
this, but whatever he tells me to do, I do.



When I get to the stage that I massage the scar regularly and
see some result of it, I will post another article. Good luck.