Age Spots Don’t Have to Come with Age. Learn How to Deal with Hyperpigmentation. - Page

• Posted on: Dec 14 2012
• By: melissa

Hyperpigmentation in skin is caused by an increase in melanin, the substance in the body that is responsible for color (pigment). Exposure to sunlight can cause hyperpigmentation and the brown age spots which commonly show up on your face, hands and arms. You don’t have to accept these spots as a sign of aging. There are a variety of products and procedures to address age spots and sun damage.

• Topical Products 

Using a topical skin lightening agent such as DermaSpaRx DermaLuma  promotes lightening of sun damaged skin and evens skin tone. These results are achieved by inhibiting pigment (melanin) formation and accelerating skin renewal while smoothing skin with moisture and stimulating collagen production.

• Chemical Peels break up the top layer of skin, getting rid of surface discoloration.

A MicroLaser Peel is a minimal to full epidermal laser peel that precisely removes the outermost layers of the skin. The procedure is individually tailored to the nature of the problem to be corrected: wrinkles, scars, keratoses,or pigmentation problems.

Because this procedure goes deeper into the epidermis, it is the perfect step between microdermabrasion and deeper peels. One procedure could be sufficient for at least 6 to12 months, but additional procedures can be performed as required. A package of two to three treatments may be best for you. Your physician will determine what is necessary.

The healing process varies from patient to patient and from the depth of the MicroLaserPeel that is chosen, but will generally take from four to seven days. For a superficial peel, the procedure can be performed on Thursday or Friday and you can return to work the following Monday. There are no dressings or bandages after the procedure and you simply apply an ointment such as Aquafore or Vaseline. This is used as a barrier to keep the air away from your skin while you grow new epithelium. You will probably use it for one to three days. After that, a moisturizer can be used.

Chemical Peeling is a technique used to rejuvenate and improve the appearance of the skin. With this treatment, a chemical solution is applied to the skin, which causes the surface layers to separate and eventually peel off. The new rejuvenated skin is usually smoother with improvement of the color and texture.

Following the procedure there are 2-3 days of significant and peeling of the treated areas.  Residual pinkness or redness fades rapidly over the next 5-7 days. Unlike dermabrasion and chemical peels, fractional lasers uses fine microbeams of very high energy beam of light to “vaporize” columns of epidermis and dermis.  Scars, lines, wrinkles and other skin defects gradually improve over the following 3-4 months. Because the laser is gentle, comfort both during and after the procedure is improved and helps with a more rapid return to your normal routine.

• Intense Pulse Light -While lasers will take care of age spots, Intense Pulsed-Light treatments also work well and are faster and less costly.

Intense Pulsed Light devices deliver energy to target and destroy vascular and pigmented lesions associated with spider veins, facial vesssels, rosacea, sun damage, age spots from hands, legs, chest, arms and face. Using the principle of selective photothermolysis, these treatments target different chromophores in the skin, which selectively absorb the laser or light energy as heat and yield the desired response.

The unsightly flat brown age spots that occur frequently in sun-exposed areas, e.g. the face and hands, can be removed using the Intense Pulse Light treatments.  After treatment, the skin in the areas treated will become dark and peel off in 7-10 days. Usually 2 to 4 treatments are needed to achieve the desired results. Adequate sunscreens are necessary at all times and the use of a skin lightening agent (e.g. dermaSpaRx  Dermaluma) is also beneficial.

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