Sun Spots and Sun Damage
What are the features of sun-damaged skin?
Excessive sun exposure leads to varying degrees of skin pigmentation, lines and wrinkles, pre-cancerous sun-spots (actinic keratoses), redness and capillaries, thinning of the skin, loss of elasticity and skin tone. The areas that receive most sun exposure, and hence incur the most sun-damage, are the face, neck, ‘V’ of the chest, hands and forearms. Your specialist will determine which features of sun damage are present and recommend a treatment or combination of treatments that is best suited to you. Almost all cosmetic treatments are aimed at reversing the effects of sun damage however the following are specifically aimed at reversing multiple effects in the same treatment method.
What treatments are available?
Photo-Fraxional Combination treatment
The Photo-Fraxional treatment consists of the use of both the IPL and the Fraxel Re:store at the same time. This treatment targets virtually all the features of sun damage at once and is therefore our best treatment for sun-affected skin. A single treatment often gives results equivalent to three treatments with a single laser. Treating sun-damaged skin with Photo-Fraxional laser is one of our most common procedures at the clinic.
Fraxel Re:store
The Fraxel Re:store rejuvenates all of the skin and is the best currently available treatment for addressing most of the features of sun damage. It addresses, skin pigmentation, lines and wrinkles, pre-cancerous sun-spots, redness and capillaries, and skin tone. It does this with minimal down-time and unprecedented safety.
Fraxel Dual/Fraxel Peel
The new superficial wavelength of the Fraxel Dual is specifically designed to treat irregular pigmentation due to sun damage. It also addresses skin texture and can reduce pre-cancerous sun-spots.
Dual-filter IPL
This is our most specific treatment for redness and vessels. Yellow light is specifically taken up by the colour red and in this way the vessels are heat-sealed while leaving the surrounding skin alone.
Photodynamic IPL (photodynamic rejuvenation)(PDR)
PDR consist of dual-filter IPL treatment to the skin following preparation of the skin with one hour of ALA lotion. The ALA lotion makes the sun-damaged areas of the skin even more susceptible to the light of the IPL, resulting in greater removal of sun damage. It is especially useful if there are pre-cancerous sun-spots present.
