Cuts and scrapes shouldn't have to mark you for life that's why I've decided to talk about the latest treatment for old scar removal and preventing new ones.

If you're like most people, you have some battle scars: lifelong reminders of the time you wiped out on your bike at age six, the knee surgery you had in college, a recent run-in with a paring knife. "Any skin damage that's more serious than a simple cut or scrape will produce a scar," says David J. Leffell, M.D., a professor of dermatology and surgery at Yale School of Medicine and author of Total Skin (Hyperion, 2000). Composed mainly of collagen, a protein fiber normally found in the skin's middle layer, these scars are the body's method of repairing itself.

Fortunately, many scars will fade in time. For those that don't, new procedures like laser therapies can minimize them significantly. But your best bet is prevention. According to Dr. Leffell, treating injuries quickly and properly will go a long way in minimizing the appearance and development of scars.

After a superficial wound has healed a scar will take its place, forming an unsightly mark that may last a lifetime. The human body was built to sustain a variety of injuries, including penetrating trauma, burn trauma and blunt trauma. All of these incidents set into motion an orderly sequence of events that are involved in the healing process, in which healthy skin is replaced by a scar.

When the skin is wounded a variety of different cells aid the wounded area and the complex healing process begins. This is the body's natural way of protecting itself from harm. However this innate protective process usually leaves behind scarring evidence.

Dos and Don'ts for Keeping Scars at Bay

DON'T cleanse injuries with hydrogen peroxide. "The bubbles make it seem like something good is happening, but hydrogen peroxide is known to kill the new skin cells that immediately begin to grow," says Dr. Leffell.

DO cover a cut. Allowing a fresh cut to "breathe" is an old wives' tale that will actually delay healing by as much as 50 percent. "Moisture prevents the formation of a hard scab, which works as a defense to the development of new tissue," says dermatologist Bruce Katz, M.D., an associate clinical professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of Juva Skin and Laser Center in New York City. He advises treating the damaged area daily with an antibiotic ointment like Neosporin (which will avoid infection, another hindrance to healing) and keeping it covered with a bandage. After 7 days, switch to plain Vaseline petroleum jelly, and continue using it below the bandage until new skin appears over the wound.

DON'T apply vitamin E. No matter what your grandmother may have told you, vitamin E has been demonstrated in a University of Miami study to deteriorate wound healing. (Also, one-third of the patients tested also suffered an allergic reaction.)

DO maintain constant pressure on the injury with special bandages or silicone sheeting pads. According to several studies, coverings like these help to compress scars-including keloids, scars with ropy tissue that grows impetuously over their natural limits. (Though it's not known why, darker-skinned people are more prone to this type of scar.) To try: Curad Scar Therapy Cosmetic Pads, ReJuveness Pure Silicone Sheeting, Scar Fx and Syprex Scar Sheets.

DON'T expose new scars to the sun. UV rays can slow the healing mechanism and, since they stimulate melanocytes (the cells that produce pigment), can cause dark coloration. When you're outdoors, always slather on a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.

Scars are a part of everyday life. No one is free of having fallen off their bike when they were learning how to ride or having lived their entire life without having to submit themselves to some sort of cut or surgery, or just having knicked themselves will shaving. The problem isn't the scar itself. If you really think about it having gone through life without a single scar might just mean that you haven't lived at all. The problem is scar treatment. So don't be afraid to live just because you may get a "battle wound", treat it, investigate and trust products that aid your skin's natural repair mechanism with safe ingredients.