What Can I Do About Sunspots?

Summer has officially arrived! The sun is shining and it is H-O-T, HOT. Here in Ogden, the great outdoors call to us in the summertime. We can hike or bike in the mountains, go camping, take boats out on the lake and lay on the beach. Summer in Ogden means fun in the sun, but it also means more sun exposure and potential for sun damage.

Besides wrinkles and skin cancer, sunspots, or age spots, can develop overtime from too much sun exposure. Because the sunspots take time to develop and often show up later in life, it’s easy to forget about them and think we haven’t caused damage to our delicate skin. All the UV rays you expose your skin to now will cause aging and sunspots, which will show up later in life.

WHAT IS A SUNSPOT?

A sunspot, or Solar Lentigine, is a hyper-pigmented area that appears on your skin after years of sun exposure. Sunspots are often dark brown patchy areas on your hands, neck, chest and face.

HOW DO SUNSPOTS FORM?

Sunspots develop from the breakdown of melanin pigment. Melanin is the skin’s natural pigment, and it helps fight off damaging UV rays. Melanocytes in the epidermis are the cells that produce melanin. After so much UV exposure without adequate protection, the cells are damaged and they are unable to produce the needed melanin to protect against UV radiation. Eventually, those pesky sunspots will form.

HOW CAN YOU PREVENT A SUNSPOT?

The best things you can do to prevent sun damage is to make sure you seek shade where possible, wear a hat and slather on plenty of broad-spectrum SPF, reapplying often.

HOW DO YOU GET RID OF SUNSPOTS?

There are a variety of options for treating sun spots if you are tired of those unattractive signs of damage. There are products for at-home care and maintenance to target and lighten discoloration: Skin Medica offers Lytera, which brightens dull skin and minimizes the appearance of skin discoloration and dark spots; and Image Skincare’s Iluma line, which implements a revolutionary Vectorize Technology to fade age spots and hyperpigmentation. Chemical peels and light treatments can lighten sunspots and reduce their appearance. TimeLess Master Estheticians can help treat age and sunspots with different laser treatments.