Do you remember your mother basting you with sunscreen beneath a beach umbrella before you could play in the sand and water when you were little? There was a reason for that. Some of the sun’s damage manifests itself in freckles when people are young and in age spots when they grow older. Dr. Joel Aronowitz tells us about age spots.
What Are Age Spots And From Where Do They Come?
Age spots are small dots darker than the skin. They appear on hands, the top of the feet, shoulders, arms, face, and any other body part exposed to the sun for long periods of time. They look like freckles, but the difference between the two is that freckles fade if a body is kept out of the sun. Age spots don’t fade.
Another facet of age spots is that some of the cells in the body contain pigments, which give the skin its color. When the body spends a lot of time in the sun, the UV light causes these pigment cells to give us freckles in youth and sun spots, liver spots, or age spots in the senior years. Hormones and heredity have some say in the matter, too. By themselves, though, they don’t cause skin cancer.
What Methods Get Rid Of Age Spots?
Simple aesthetics aren’t the only reason to have age spots removed. The little dots could become cancerous at some future point, as with anything else. Joel Aronowitz MD could test your age spots to ascertain if they’re benign.
With that said OTC creams, ointments, and pills take months to work, if they ever do. Plastic surgeons like Dr. Aronowitz, on the other hand, have an array of solutions with which to work:
- Lasers. Laser resurfacing basically scrapes imperfections off the top layer of skin. The skin will grow back unblemished.
- Dermabrasion. A machine rotating quite fast is gently applied to the skin. It’s a bit like sanding, just for people instead of wood. When the skin grows back, it will be smoother and not discolored.
Why Is Plastic Surgery Better For Removing These Spots?
Plastic surgery isn’t just about repairing physical defects or restoring youth. A person needs to accept him/herself and feel good about how they appear to other people. Make no mistake, how people see themselves in a mirror embraces both males and females.
What does that have to do with plastic surgery for age spots? Look at it like this: wrinkles, crepey skin, and perhaps walking with a cane all make people feel old. Age spots just make it worse. On top of that, seniors often can’t read the labels of OTC spot remedies because they only wear their glasses behind closed doors.
There is a surgical procedure or non-surgical answer that fits your circumstances and needs. Just ask if this is right for you, and you’ll be able to look in the mirror and be happy with the reflection.
