Pigmentation? Age Spot?

Let’s focus on hyperpigmentation sometimes called age spots or liver spots, or as the French call it ‘les madallions des cemitiere’ or Cemetery Medals!!! You can prevent this, but if its too late we can still help you.

If you are 45 years plus and unhappy with your skin quality and condition it is probably due to damage caused over time by the sun, known as ‘Photo damage’ or ‘Photo aging’.

What is Pigmentation:

It is now widely known that the most visible signs of aging skin are: lines and wrinkles, brown spots also known as sun spots, dullness, sallowness, open pores, poor skin tone, uneven skin texture, laxity and lack lustre skin. Pigmentation and age spots are all largely attributable to sun damage, excessive sunbathing or sunbed use, or even simply just not using a high enough SPF sun screen daily, can have a dramatic effect on the way we age, accelerating old looking skin and negatively impacting on our skins health.

Photo aging is an entirely preventable condition; it is an environmentally induced disease which compromises the structure and function of our skin. However, we are all predestined to the effects of photo aging as we are all exposed to the sun every day. Whether through our office window or driving a car, even on a cloudy day at any time of year, the damaging UVA, UVB rays are constantly penetrating through glass and clouds damaging our skin. Consider a timeline continuum; one end of this spectrum line is a tan or worse sun burn! At the other end, skin cancer! However, we can limit this damage and quite subtly or moderately reverse the signs of aging.

How does Pigmentation occur?

Hyperpigmentation are patches of skin which have become darker in colour than normal, healthy skin. This darkening often occurs because there is an excess of melanin, our skins natural sun defence mechanism, which forms deposits in the skin to protect it against the suns harmful rays. These are unsightly and aging brown spots which appear on our face, neck, decolletage, arms and backs of hands, (the areas that get the most exposure). They look like anything from light brown freckles to large varying degrees of dark brown splodges. They can appear in at any time during adulthood.

Although most of the sun damage to our skin has been done well before we are aware of it, it’s not too late to correct some of this damage and prevent further damage with the correct sun block and sun safety.

What can be done to correct the damage already taken place?

With the recent advances in aesthetic medicine, most types of sun damage are treatable, and we can do a lot to help visibly improve the signs of aging. We have a number of treatments and products we would recommend which can improve the damage that has already taken place and prevent any further damage happening:

Intense Pulsed Light photo rejuvenation treatment(IPL)is highly effective at lightening and removing pigmentation. This treatment is ideal for age spots and improving skin quality for facial imperfections and abnormalities. The IPL technology will create clearer, smoother looking skin. After a series of treatments you will see a significant reduction of unwanted pigmentation. This can be used on the face neck, décolletage arms and hands. A cold gel is applied to the area and then the IPL hand-piece is gently applied to the area, pulses of light are applied, you may feel a slight sting, like a snapping of a rubber band, an aesthetic cream can be applied pre treatment but is seldom required. 1 to 3 sessions about 3 weeks apart are the norm which provides excellent long term results. The treatment takes approximately 20 minutes each time. Depending on the size of the area being treated a course of IPL treatments starts from £90

Obagi Nu-Derm System is a prescription – strength physician dispensed advanced skin care system

Obagi contains the most potent and effective skin lightening ingredient (Hydroquinone) is one of the most efficacious skin care ranges on the market. Used together with a high factor sunscreen this skincare programme greatly improves cellular skin function, minimizes the signs of premature ageing, reduces future photodamage, helps skin look and act younger and healthier and reduces acne flares. Our highly experienced practitioners will prescribe a specific and adaptable programme for you, and typically achieve visible and highly satisfying results within 16 weeks, whilst hand holding you through a dramatic and powerful skin health improvement revolutionising process. For a full skincare pack prices start from £330.

Genuine Dermaroller is a natural skin regeneration and scar repair therapy. This treatment can also significantly improve the appearance brown spots – age spots from sun damaged skin on the face neck and décolletage also this is a great treatment for acne scarring. This is advanced micro- medical skin-needling, a procedure that stimulates the skin to regenerate and repair itself naturally and safely creating smoother, brighter, healthier, younger looking skin. Your practitioner will use a topical anaesthetic to numb the skin making the procedure more comfortable; it will take approximately 30 minutes for the topical anaesthetic to work and 20-30 minutes for the Genuine Dermaroller therapy. Immediately after you will look as though you have moderate sunburn and your skin will feel tighter than usual, this will start to subside after 1 to 2 hours, and will normally recover within the same day with only slight redness the following day. 2-3 treatments are recommended. A course of treatment starts from £350

The above treatments can only be performed and recommended by one of our highly skilled practitioners. We would always recommend a thorough consultation before embarking on any new skincare programmes, for more information on these or any other treatments at The Cosmetic Skin Clinic please call 01753 646660.