advice on healing a nasty post-biopsy wound

so i hadn't planned on asking this but here goes.

a couple weeks ago a doctor "shaved" off a 3/8" portion of my forehead to get at a bit of precancerous growth that was taking up residence. test results came in and everything looks okay but i've got this nice circular divot in my forehead. i used polysporin for one week and since then i've kept it covered and followed some advice to keep it moist using a little vaseline, but i've also read advice online that says "hey air it out, bro".

i don't care about getting this healed quickly, i just want it to heal well and with a minimum of discoloration and scarring. my dermatologist is pretty good on the cutting part but his healing advice left a lot to be desired, hence my asking of this question.

As a person who has tried both a lot from a lot of scrapes, wounds etc incurred by clutziness: vaseline tends to heal this shit up cleaner and nicer looking in the long term.

Glad you don't got the cancer.

Like once I scraped a long stripe of skin off my right arm when I fell off a bike. Shoulder to elbow: used vaseline. Elbow to wrist: none. Two years on, upper arm is a lot less noticable (tho neither look too bad).

my doctor gave me some Aldara cream this morning during the followup to use "immediately" but everything i've read online makes me wonder if it's the best advice, it sounds like an aggressive healing agent, maybe too much so. i didn't bother, i just put some more vaseline on.

You'll turn out looking fine, no matter what. Don't you worry your pretty little divot.

http://www.weeklyreader.com/readandwriting/content/binary/harry18scar.jpg

no one answer this question

Abbott otm re: vaseline - keep it well coated and it will heal smoother, though it might take a bit longer to completely heal up. Once it's healed over and there's no more scab, there are a bunch of different scar reducer creams/gels that work well. Vitamin K gel will knock down any residual redness.

I like how Harry Potter is the facial-scarring example used by OMAR LITTLE!

Foreheads seem to do well with this sort of thing. I wish I could give some useful advice about what effectively prevents scars getting hyper-pigmented (liquorice root, according to some?), but if I knew that I'd look better myself. Either way, if the worst you come out with is a tiny ruddy splotch on the forehead, that's pretty normal and decent and gives a face "character" in the sense that that line is actually true, plus it's just good to know you're healthy.

lol Jordan. i have no idea how to minimize scarring, but i am glad you're okay, omar!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Phineas_Gage_Death_Mask.jpg

i had a smaller piece taken out from the same spot in june and it healed up nicely but it was only the size of a pencil eraser, this is wider and deeper hence my concern. so far it only scabbed briefly and then fell off (no kate), it's just kind of turned into this red divot, and i guess it didn't get a major scab because of the polysporin + vaseline. i guess that's the way to do it though.

(lol)

use what your doctor said, don't listen to dipshits on the internets

what does dr. morbius think?

http://staff.harrisonburg.k12.va.us/~cwalton/USHistory/Gorbachev.jpg

so far it only scabbed briefly and then fell off (no kate)

ahahaahah

i think that may in fact be omar's last contribution to ilx

if only you and he could trade places

missed this thread but hope my biopsy tomw don't leave divot.