Age Spots - Safe and Treatable

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You may have noticed some brown spots appearing on your face, chest, arms, and hands. Age spots. Find out where they come from, how to prevent more from appearing, and what to do about the ones you already have!

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What are age spots?

“Age spots,” or “liver spots” are not caused by aging or the liver, but rather sun exposure. They are darkened brown, black, or grey spots that appear on areas that are most frequently exposed to the sun–hands, neck, face, chest, and hands. They are not painful, and more importantly, not dangerous or cancerous. That being said, skin discolouration of any kind should be checked regularly with a dermatologist to make sure that no cancerous cells are involved. Great news–age spots are found on the top layer of the skin, which means their appearance can be treated through several means.

Prevention

The first rule of skin care is always: Wear Sunscreen! Wearing a light UVA/UVB protected moisturizure all year and every year prevents discolouration, wrinkles, and skin cancer. Even if you may have age spots now, a combination of wearing an oil-free sunscreen and employing one of the treatments below will get rid of the spots while preventing others from appearing. Great skin is possible at any age, and the most important thing to know is that prevention is an ongoing process, and treatment is always an option.

Treatments

There are several options to treat age spots. Here are few of the pros and cons of the two most popular treatments for age spots: chemical peels and laser treatments.

•  Chemical Peel Chemical peels aid with discolouration and encourage growth of new top-layer skin cells. Along with sunscreen use, new skin cell production is key to young looking and balanced, healthy skin as dirt is removed and oils are stabilized.

•  Laser Treatment Laser rejuvenation will take longer to decrease the discolouration, but shows fewer signs of treatment afterwards. As chemical peels renew the top layer of the skin, the new skin will appear red briefly afterwards before showing the results of renewal. However, laser rejuvination takes more sessions to do. Both are safe and worth the results!