Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Patients of Color, With Michael H. Gold, MD

Today, scar management is a critical yet often underappreciated element of dermatologic care, especially for individuals with skin of color, where differences in pigmentation and healing responses can raise the risk of hypertrophic scarring.

The value of tailored, evidence-based approaches to address both clinical outcomes and cosmetic concerns in such populations has been expressed more and more in recent years. In light of this , the topic was highlighted during the 2026 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting in Denver in a session titled ‘The Art of Healing- Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Ethnic Skin.’1

The HCPLive editorial team spoke with Michael H. Gold, MD, the founder and medical director of Gold Skin Care Center, Advanced Aesthetics Medical Spa, & The Laser & Rejuvenation Center, who spoke about a variety of key insights from his session on scar management in patients with skin of color.

In the following Q&A interview, Gold highlights notable takeaways from his session on scar management at AAD 2026:

HCPLive: You presented on combining surgery and radiotherapy during the ‘The Art of Healing- Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Ethnic Skin’ session at AAD. Why did you feel this was a necessary topic to highlight for dermatology clinicians?

Gold: Scars are a big deal in my world. I've been working on, researching, and treating scars my entire career. I'm a medical doctor. I'm not a cosmetic doc, but they do biopsies, so they're creating a scar. They're cosmetic in some way because they want that scar to look good. But I deal with really bad scars. Many years ago, I wrote the first dermatology paper on silicone gel as a method, not a total treatment, but as a method to improve the appearance of scars. And we know with silicone, whether it's gel or sheets, we can flatten scars over time. Many times, they take the colors back to normal. And that's a great thing, right?

It's not the end-all be-all, but if you looked at the marketplace, there was one product that was around 30-some odd years ago. We have many now. So, as an adjunct to almost everything I do, I recommend that patients take home silicone and use it as one of the gels or sheets on their scars. When you take energy-based devices, we have lots of different things that we've gone through over the years to improve things. So we have fractional lasers, non-ablative fractional lasers. Ablative fractional lasers, microneedling with radio frequency, and other things like pulsed dye lasers and other vascular lasers. We use these to improve the appearance of scars and reduce their appearance.

HCPLive: What else can you tell us about your experience in this area and the other highlights from your talk?

Gold: I spent a lot of my time over the last 20 years working with physicians all over the world, but especially in China, where we've really honed in on the techniques and how we can combine things together. Whether it's a fractional CO2 or a vascular laser. We can make most scars and most contracted scars…we can make their hands move.

You don't always need surgery for that. Laser surgery actually works for that. If you know how to do it, you have the right devices. The devices have gotten much better, and so we love using energy-based devices in scar therapy. I think the hardest thing is that somebody has a burn injury, and I'm going to tell them, ‘I'm going to take a laser, which is also a burn injury, to that scar.’ You have to explain it. You have to talk to the patient about why you're doing it, what it does, and how it works. But they work really well. Then on the radiation side, superficial radiation therapy, or just radiation therapy, was actually started by dermatologists, and we gave it away to the radiation oncology people.

Now we're bringing it back into dermatology. So in my office, and in many offices, we have radiation therapy. In our clinics, they have FDA approval for non-melanoma skin cancers and for keloids. The way keloids work, and if you cut a keloid, the recurrence rate, just cutting alone, can vary between 50 and 80% that's a lot if you do radiation therapy following the excision, and the way we do it is three consecutive days. We have published papers with others, and after one year, the recurrence rate is about 10% or less. That's pretty magical. So it's not for everybody, because we have to have the device right, and we have to make sure we're delivering the right amount of radiation.

This is superficial radiation therapy, and it's safe and effective. So, if I can take a 50 to 80% recurrence rate to 10. I'm really comfortable, right? And my patients are thrilled. So I love using radiation therapy. I do use it in conjunction with other things, like silicone gel and other things that I use, but my patients are really happy.

The quotes contained in this Q&A summary were edited for clarity.

Gold reports relationships with multiple companies, including roles as a consultant (honoraria) for Acclaro Medical, Aesthetic Management Partners, Aesthetics Biomedical, Alastin Skincare, Inc., Allergan, Inc., Benev, Galderma, Hugel, InMode, La Mer, Mindera, MTF Biologics, Nutrafol, Pierre Fabre, Prescriber’s Choice, Revision Skincare, Rohrer Aesthetics, Sciton Inc., Sensus Healthcare, Sente Labs, SkinBetter Science, SkinCeuticals LLC, SkinMedica, Inc., Sofwave, Stratapharma, and VIOL. He has served as a speaker (honoraria) for Alma Lasers, Cutera, Inc., EndyMed Medical Inc. USA, Lumenis, Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC, and Venus Concept. He is an investigator (grants/research funding) for Bausch Health, Leo Pharma Inc., Revance Therapeutics, Inc., Revision Skincare, and SkinBetter Science. He also reports stockholder status with Aerolase and stock options with Venus Concept.

References

1. Gold M, et al. F081 The Art of Healing- Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Ethnic Skin. Session presented at: 2026 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 27–31, 2026; Denver, CO.