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?

Question

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

Answer 1

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.