Eli5: if you picked a scab over and over again each time it formed, how would a cut ever heal? Would you have this wound forever or would it heal eventually regardless if you kept ripping off the scab?

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Eli5: if you picked a scab over and over again each time it formed, how would a cut ever heal? Would you have this wound forever or would it heal eventually regardless if you kept ripping off the scab?

In: Biology

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It just slowly turns into scar tissue and encloses. The pickable part gets smaller and smaller and you’re left with a scab sized scar.

Mosquitos LOVE ME. One time I was sitting outside with a friend. Same sort of clothing and everything, same location. I got 17 mosquito bites JUST ON ONE OF MY ANKLES. He had like 5 total all over his body.

Coincidentally mosquito bites itch for weeks for me. They don’t stop even after it’s a scab and I’ve picked it. I still wake up just rubbing it fuckin raw. As an adult I try to stay away from summer evenings outside but as a kid I would have scabs all over my legs and arms every summer. THEY JUST NEVER STOP ITCHING

Anonymous 0 Comments

I’ve tried this. For a small, 10mm dia. scab on my forearm, I kept pulling off the scab as soon as it was solid enough. But each time the scab that formed next was always smaller. I think by the time the scab is solid enough to pull off the outer edges of the wound have fully healed. Or are skin-like, not scab-like.

I was gonna ask: does anyone eat their scabs? But then thought it too gross.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The short answer…yes.

Why? Wounds heal from healthy tissue outwards (generally). This healing tissue (often called granulation) is interwoven into existing tissue and it doesn’t peel off easily. Scar tissue is seriously tough stuff, much tougher than the skin and tissues around it. The scab you peel is an accumulation of dead skin, intermediate healing and protective tissues and dried blood.

Part of my practice as a Community Paramedic is advanced wound care, and quite often I end up removing scabs to promote tissue growth and manage infection.

Anonymous 0 Comments

if you want it to not heal you should keep removing the scab early so that the wound failed to clot, basically you should keep it bleeding
if the bleeding stop, it would heal no matter what.

but remember the blood cloting happened from below the open wound, so you should dig deeper from the outter scab, making bigger and deeper wound.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The cut would eventually heal if it didn’t get infected, but you would end up with a rather extreme scar.

Anonymous 0 Comments

According to the experiments preformed by a younger me you need to sleep eventually and that’s when it heals over