Age spots on your face and hands? How to diminish their appearance.
Posted on Thu, Feb 10, 2011
By Marné CarMichael Walsh
The most common question I hear from patients involve brown spots on their face.
Cause for concern or not?
Although some of these spots warrant concern for their cancerous potential, such as a mole or pre-skin cancer, the majority of these flat “age spots” are benign (will not cause harm). Spots are usually flat, not bumpy. These spots are often numerous, irregular shaped, and increasing in number yearly.
Common sense prevention
Brown spots are usually a result of hereditary factors, sun exposure, and/ or hormonal changes. Regardless of the cause, application of zinc oxide sunscreen daily, such as Obagi Healthy Skin, Skinceuticals Ultimate Defense, or Epicuran Zinc Oxide sunscreen, would be the first step to prevent further darkening.
Use skin lighteners
The next step would be to use a skin lightening agent such as the Obagi Nuderm skin care line, Neocutis Blanche or more natural products such as Skinceuticals Pigment Regulator or Phyto +. Incorporating a prescription for tretinoin (Retin A), or the weaker non-prescription product Skinceuticals Retinol, would synergistically work with the skin lighteners for even better results. Depending on the number and size of the brown spots, the overall health of your skin, and how fast you want to see results, we can determine which products would be best for you.
IPL – A quick fix for brown spots
If you prefer a quicker, low maintenance fix for the brown spots, a series of 1-3 IPL (intense pulse light) treatments done one month apart would enable the spots to peel off gradually over 1-2 weeks. Since most of the brown spots will gradually return with time, wearing zinc sunscreen daily will delay this process. All of these treatments produce excellent results for the flat brown spots. However, bumpy brown spots are treated differently using other types of lasers, freezing or electrodessication (burning).
My treatment of choice
My personal preference for my own spots is strict zinc sunscreen use daily with 1-2 IPL’s a year and topical treatments with Skinceutical’s pigment regulator and retinol for daily maintenance. I also realize that as I age, I will need more aggressive topical treatments. I know I will always have brown spots on my face but knowing that I can suppress them with no down time is the key for me.