Best Scar Product? Polyurethane Dressings vs Silicone Sheets

Since I started treating my scars I didn't know better than that silicone sheets are the most effective scar treatment product available. Especially when it comes to burn scars and hyperthropic and keloid scars these are actually the only really effective scar product there is on the market. So I thought... But thanks to Bri who posted a comment on my silicone scar treatment Squidoo lens I learned about polyurethane dressings.

After digging a little into reports of studies and clinical trials it seems polyurethane dressings are slightly more effective in fading scars. An important side note: the studies I found were sponsored by the manufacturer of the commercial product. More about this in a following post.

Here are some facts and links to research reports on the effectiveness of polyurethane dressings compared to silicone scar sheets.

Over a 12 week period polyurethane dressings were compared with silicone sheets. Summarized, both the scars treated with silicones as well as polyurethane improved but according to the patients the scar color, tightness, softness were in favor of the polyurethane dressings. Furthermore during the trial period no serious side effects were reported but in case of the use of silicone sheets there were to patients who developed local dermatitis ( rash) where no adverse events were related to the use of the polyurethane dressings.

Read the full abstract of this study conducted by Beiersdorf AG, Hamburg here: Efficacy of a Polyurethane Dressing on Hypertrophic Scars in Comparison to a Silicon Sheet.

The polyurethane scar dressings are available at Amazon.com.