Acne Skin Discoloration
Age Spots: Spotting The best treatments to fade skin discoloration
"Dr. Fairfield, are these age spots? Help! Make them go! "This is something I heard from my clients forever. Fortunately, today there are effective treatments to fade, or even remove the dark stains unpleasant appearing on the face and the backs of hands. It is true that the tendency to get age spots occurs in families, but you can get them, even if none of your cousins did. And with modern cosmetic technology, you can finally do something about it. We'll look at least two methods - mechanical and light treatments - But first I have to turn to prevention.
We probably will not completely prevent age spots, but something everyone should do anyway will help prevent them. That something is sunscreen. Sun damage definitely causes skin pigment cells to go wonky, and this brings about age spots. Do the right thing: keep the sun off your skin as much as possible with protective clothing. Invest in some big hats, and use a sunscreen UVA / UVB, at least SPF 30 daily. And do not forget that sunlight can penetrate through clouds and windows right.
But I admit - even if you do everything right, you can still get age spots. So let's take a look at some treatments you can discuss with your dermatologist cosmetic, to see what is best for you.
The leading point of the mechanical age medicine is microdermabrasion. Rub the skin with extremely fine crystals, both at the tip of a wand or a stream that blows against the skin and is sucked away, microdermabrasion removes the dead cells the outermost layer of skin, where cells reside discolored. The treatment brings a bonus: increased blood flow, stimulation of new cell growth and collagen, reducing fine wrinkles, deep cleansing of blacks and improvement of mild acne scars - they are all microdermabrasion benefits.
More advantages to microdermabrasion are convenience and safety. With few side effects and without anesthesia, microdermabrasion is fast enough to carry over your lunch hour. Effective on all skin types and colors, is perfect for sensitive skin to chemicals. You will see immediate results, which increase in a series treatments.
But for longer lasting results, your dermatologist may recommend cosmetic treatments that operate below the surface skin, to work directly on the site guilty of age - the cells that produce melanin (skin pigment). It is when these cells start cranking out pigment much more than the result of age spots. To go deeper and destroy these cells, your cosmetic dermatologist can suggest targeted light treatments, using a laser light or broadband. The best of these technologies pass through surface skin cells, causing no damage. An additional benefit? No recovery time at all.
Intense Pulsed Light Therapy (IPL), set by the cosmetic dermatologist for the skin, delivers microbursts of energy spectrum light to the skin cells. In darker skin cells, converts light to thermal energy, destroying them. A variant of this procedure uses LED (for example, the system GentleWaves ®) for sending coded pulses of light of low intensity, with less energy than a 25-watt bulb. In this treatment there is no heat involved and no discomfort at all. These light treatments of broadband mesh well with microdermabrasion, producing an even skin tone, reducing fine wrinkles and leaving skin softened and refreshed.
Laser treatments use an intense light at a single frequency. Some laser treatments cause damage to cells skin surface and cause them to exfoliate. This can leave the skin red, increased recovery time and possibly producing mixed results. Then for my clients, I prefer using the Fraxel ™ Laser. With this innovative device, the energy passes through the skin surface to reach darkened and damaged cells middle layer. This process stimulates the skin to create new cells and produce collagen for elasticity and overall skin rejuvenation. With the Fraxel laser, too, no recovery time. This is the treatment I have used the backs of my hands, and I'm very impressed with the results.
If you see these little marks stained with age, appearing on your skin, do not despair. I have not found a way to keep them to appear, but the science of cosmetic dermatology is definitely giving us ways to show age spots to the door.
About the Author
James C. Fairfield, MD has established the oldest and most respected dermatology practice in the Delaware Valley. For more free cosmetic dermatology information and resources and to sign up for his free report, Erase the Years; visit his web site at www.cmderm.com.
Myths & Truths on Acne & Natural Skin Care, Ep194
