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Age spots and Laser treatment
Liver spots or age spots are a very common worry in cosmetic medicine. It is important to know that there are several types of skin pigmentation:
- Beauty marks or naevi which appear in childhood, adolescence or young adulthood.
- Freckles or ephelides which appear on pale skinned people and redheads, and appear after exposition to the sun.
- Liver spots or lentigo, also called age spots, are especially visible on the face, throat, back and hands.
Age spots are the most visible of the three. They are a result of aging of the skin. Age spots are light or dark brown. They are flat with a diameter from 2/3mm up to 8/10mm.They are predominantly found on those parts of the body most exposed to the sun, such as the face, the back, the hands and the chest (women). Properly speaking, age spots are not signs of genetic aging of the skin, but the cumulative effects of ultra-violet rays.
Therefore the appearance of age spots occurs according to the amount of solar exposition accumulated since childhood. Long and frequent exposition can cause early age spots, as can the failure to adequately protect the skin.
There are many different techniques in the treatment of age spots:
- Age spot fading creams, which are often not very efficient.
- Cryotherapy, which is performed by a practitioner, and consists in spraying or applying liquid nitrogen (-180°) with a cotton swab on each age spot. There will be a moderate burning sensation for a few minutes after application. In the days after treatment, spots grow gradually darker, almost becoming black. 10 to 14 days after application, a fine layer of skin detaches from the spot leaving a pink mark. The mark regains normal skin colour in the following weeks. This technique is only appropriate for a limited numbers of spots.
- The laser is definitely the method of choice for the removal of age spots. Pigment lasers are used to “explode” the pigment contained in age spots. During laser impact, patients feel a stinging sensation resembling needle pricks. Just after laser treatment, the spot becomes grey and then grows darker over the next few days to finally become black and fall off between 10 to 14 days after treatment.
A large number of spots can be treated in one session using this technique. The cosmetic result is very satisfactory.
In any case, whichever method is used, rigorous solar protection for the treated areas is essential to avoid any pigment changes in reaction to treatment. In fact, sun protection is essential at all times to prevent the appearance of new age spots.
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