Summer is approaching and that is the season for good weather,
baring our legs, barbeques and mosquito bites! Mosquito bites can make
the good weather unbearable and the scars that are often left behind are
even worse. Many of us have ignored the advice of not scratching
mosquito bites (what else can you do to an itch?) and we have the
mosquito bite scars to prove it.
This article will help give you
tips on how to deal with insect bites to minimize the risk of scarring
and will help you to find products that will fade old mosquito bite
scars that have been bugging you for years.
To help reduce the chance of getting scarred when you get a mosquito bite, follow these tips to reduce swelling and irritation.
-
Rub aloe vera on the bites. Either fresh aloe vera directly from the
inside of one of them stems on the plant or store bought 100% aloe vera
gel will do. Aloe vera has natural anti-inflammatory properties and will
help to soothe the area of the bite.
- Moisten your skin and rub an aspirin tablet over the bite. This helps to reduce any inflammation that could lead to scarring.
-
Don't scratch! Mosquito bites can be incredibly itchy but try to resist
the urge to scratch them as this will make scarring more likely. Use
antihistamines, chamomile lotions and ice packs to soothe the itching.
- A drop or two of tea tree oil applied directly to the bite will soothe the itching and help the bite to heal faster.
By
not scratching insect bites and following the tips above, they will
heal faster and the risk of developing scars will be minimized.
This
information is great for new mosquito bites, but what can you do about
the scars you have from mosquito bites years ago? To remove old insect
bite scars, Vitamin E oil and cocoa butter are often recommended and
they do work quite well. Vitamin E oil and cocoa butter tend to work
best when applied regularly to scars that are not very deep or dark.
They will fade very deep scars a little but are unlikely to remove them
completely.
There are also treatments that are targeted to
specifically remove scars such as Mederma and Bio-Oil. Again, these work
very well for superficial scars but are not as effective on very deep
scars. Fortunately, insect bite scars are rarely very deep so these
products will work well as long as they are used regularly - usually
twice a day.
