A spray of freckles across your nose is cute when you’re younger, but seeing more spots appear over more parts of your body when you’re older isn’t always welcome.
Most of these spots are going to be simple age spots, also sometimes called liver spots, although they aren’t related to your liver in any way. They’re actually lumps or clumps of melanin, a skin pigment. If you’ve had a lot of UV exposure over your lifetime, including tanning beds and sunbathing, you’re going to be more likely to develop age spots, especially after the age of 40.
The spots range from brown to black, are flat, can be irregularly shaped, and are absolutely harmless, but don’t let that make you completely complacent about the spots. Consider getting any irregularly shaped, black, or otherwise unusual spots checked out by a medical professional to ensure that they are only age spots and nothing more.
Once you’re sure that the spots are, in fact, age spots, you can either leave them alone or explore treatment options that will make them disappear. As a first resort, many people turn to bleaching creams to help fade the spots, but these can have side effects such as blisters and they don’t always work very well.
An intense pulsed light (IPL) system is a better option, and something that we offer in my practice. I’ve been very pleased with the results of one treatment in particular, called Lumecca.
Lumecca offers faster results than other IPLs. In fact, the results are apparent after only one or two treatments. Other IPL systems can take up to four to six treatments to get rid of age spots; so Lumecca is both time and cost-efficient. This point alone makes Lumecca a worthwhile option, but the system has some other very important advantages…
Did you know that your body has a “sweet-spot” wavelength for melanin? If we target that sweet spot with light from a xenon flash lamp, such as the one that Lumecca uses, age spots will disappear! Even more exciting is that Lumecca’s pulsing light delivers between 40 to 50 percent of its energy in the sweet-spot range. Other IPLs often deliver only 10 to 20 percent of their energy in that range.
This targeted pulsing light reduces not only the number of treatments, but also the actual time you have to spend exposed to the light. It’s also painless and noninvasive.
From what I’ve seen, and the satisfaction of my patients, I’d say that Lumecca is an excellent option if you want to get rid of age spots and are concerned about time constraints, pain, and skin sensitivity. If you have any questions about this highly advanced new option for removing age spots, feel free to contact my office and I’ll be happy to answer them.
