No matter how delicate your face is, as long as pigmentation appears, the value of your face will be greatly reduced. Among the pigmentation spots, the most headache is melasma. Today, we will talk about melasma, which is known as the “king of spots”.
For melasma, it is important to understand what melasma is like. In fact, there are many kinds of spots on women’s face, not all of them are melasma, so the most stubborn, the most difficult to cure and the most reboundable is melasma, so the following will give you a look at the types of melasma and its performance.
Melasma can be divided into 3 types.
1.Epidermal melasma (melanin exists in the epidermis and the boundary of the spot is clear)
2.Dermal melasma (melanin exists in the dermis, the boundary of the spot is blurred)
3.Mixed melasma (melanin exists in both epidermis and dermis)
Melasma appears as yellowish brown or dark brown patches of different sizes, mostly symmetrically distributed in the cheek and cheek area (therefore also called butterfly spot), and can also involve the forehead, nose and mouth area. The disease mostly occurs in young and middle-aged women.
Not all spots are chloasma!
Many people, including many beauty agencies, do not understand what kind of spots are, and the treatment of different spots is very different.
Therefore, melasma needs to be distinguished from freckles, melanosis, zygomatic brown and other facial pigmented skin diseases, and these non-melasma pigmented spots are better treated by selective laser technology.
Freckles: small spots, spot-like, scattered distribution, not fused, mostly occurring in teenagers, may have family history, often heavy in summer and light in winter.
Zygomatic brownish nevus: It is usually found on the zygomatic bone, mostly in women, and appears as symmetrically distributed dark gray spots of about 1-5 mm in diameter on the zygomatic area, which can also be fused into a patch.
So, why does melasma grow?
Some people may say, “Tell me how to cure melasma,” but NO! Before talking about the treatment, you must know why it grows, otherwise it will come back after treatment!
Here is a look at what causes melasma
In fact, there are many reasons that can lead to melasma. The factors that can easily cause melasma are ultraviolet radiation, pregnancy, oral contraceptives, family history, thyroid disease, use of phototoxic drugs and cosmetics. In addition, pregnancy, endocrine disorder and excessive fatigue may also induce chloasma, we only know the causes to know how to avoid it?
I. Internal causes
1.Stress: When people are under stress, they will secrete adrenaline to prepare for dealing with stress. If one is under stress for a long time, the balance of human metabolism will be disrupted, the supply of nutrients needed by the skin will tend to slow down, and pigment mother cells will become very active.
2.Endocrine disorder: pregnancy and birth control pills will lead to sudden changes in hormone level, which will promote the increase of pigment synthesis on the face, and at this time the pigmentation will be unstable.
3.Slow metabolism: spots will appear when the metabolic function of liver decreases or when ovarian function decreases. In addition, constipation will also form spots.
4.Heredity: The influence of hereditary factors on melasma has been clarified in the literature, and the role of several specific genes affecting melasma has been summarized. Although genes cannot be changed, we can prevent it. Therefore, people who have long spots at home, especially the elders, should pay attention to avoid ultraviolet radiation which is one of the important factors triggering spots.
Second, external factors
1.Ultraviolet rays: this is what we often call photo aging, often exposed to strong sunlight not only accelerates the aging of the skin, but also causes various pigmentation skin disorders.
2, bad skin care habits: excessive cleaning excessive skin care will make the skin become sensitive and stimulate the skin. Sensitive skin melanocytes active
Resulting in a variety of spots, blemishes and other skin pigmentation problems. This is the current high incidence problem, and melasma caused by indiscriminate use of skin care products is even more difficult to cure.
For the above reasons, to prevent long spots, you need to maintain a good mood, which is very important. In addition, there is no way to prevent hormonal changes in pregnancy, but try to reduce the interference of artificial hormones like oral contraceptives, and at the same time, do a good job of cleaning, moisturizing, sunscreen, skin care trilogy, do not over-cleaning to destroy the stratum corneum. The most important of these is daily moisturizing and sun protection, and daily sun protection is the top priority.
How to protect yourself from the sun.
It is generally recommended that outdoor activities within two hours to reapply once, regardless of how much SPF index sunscreen, try to maintain a certain cycle of reapplication, high sunscreen index just can provide stronger protection within 2 hours, but has nothing to do with the length of time.
For sunscreen umbrella, do not have to be too entangled in the brand effect, most of the regular brand of UV protection products are similar sun protection, daily can use sunscreen umbrella + sunscreen combination.
After-sun first aid, you need to drink water immediately to hydrate your skin and avoid sunburn again in the short term. You can also use cold compresses with bagged milk to reduce redness, or hydrating spray to protect the barrier function of your skin.
Treatment of melasma?
Although there are many clinical treatment methods for melasma, there is no unified and standardized clinical treatment plan, which also indicates that the treatment of melasma is very difficult. The main treatment methods are topical medicine, oral medicine, laser treatment and medicine combined with laser treatment. However, if we look at the north and south of the country and all over the world, there is no method that can guarantee a complete cure for melasma. It should be reminded that no matter which method is used for treatment, strict sun protection is the principle that must be followed.
The point here is to avoid laser treatment for melasma. Treatments that leave the internal conditioning and skin barrier repair are only treating the symptoms but not the root cause.
I. Drug treatment: including external drug treatment and internal drug treatment. (Both can be applied after delivery)
The efficacy of topical medication should not be underestimated. Patients who are sensitive to medication can have obvious effect of spot reduction by topical medication alone, whose mechanism of action is to inhibit melanocyte synthesis and promote its decomposition and metabolism. If there is no change at all in a month, it is not recommended to continue using them.
2. Internal medication: antioxidant treatment (reduced glutathione, vitamin C), fibrinolytic inhibition (tranexamic acid), etc. Tranexamic acid, generally recommended to be taken for 8-12 weeks.
3, skin barrier repair: high matching hydrophobic injections to repair the skin barrier, hydrophobic formulas including basic hyaluronic acid, in addition to Philojas, glutathione and tranexamic acid, PRP and other formulas that effectively repair the barrier and lighten pigmentation components. At the same time, do not destroy the skin barrier, such as excessive exfoliation, some unknown sources of “skin cream, spot cream” are applied to the face. This will not only fail to remove the spots, but also make the spots spread and deepen.
Two, laser treatment
At present, the main clinical use of various selective laser, but the effect is not stable, the new technology of picosecond laser is the best choice, but also can not rely on a single laser method, picosecond laser market price is about 10000 once, need at least 3 times, each interval of one month, so now many irregular beauty institutions “pseudo picosecond Therefore, the “pseudo picosecond” of many irregular cosmetic institutions, which charge very low prices and advocate that a single so-called picosecond can completely treat melasma, remind us to be cautious.
Since picosecond is a relatively new method of spot removal, here is a brief introduction to the characteristics of picosecond laser and everyone.
Shorter time and faster speed. The stronger the instant destruction of melanin, and the shorter the dwell time, the lower the thermal damage to the skin.
The honeycomb lens allows the energy to be more focused, and the pigment is more easily absorbed and metabolized by the particles shattered by the picosecond laser, which is less likely to harm the skin.
The extremely short pulse produces almost no thermal effect, so there is no accumulation of thermal damage, and it is not easy to damage the skin tissue, nor does it produce heat to destroy melanin and cause re-darkening. There is no need to worry about the thinning of the skin and anti-tan after laser.
Whether it is topical medication, or after picosecond laser surgery: the most important thing is sun protection, sun protection, sun protection!
This is most important, not only to prevent the occurrence or aggravation of melasma; for those who have received treatment, it is also good to maintain the existing treatment effect and delay the recurrence time.
What do I need to pay attention to for melasma?
No matter during the treatment period or in general, we should pay attention to strict sun protection, pay attention to rest, avoid staying up all night and mental tension, etc., and eat more vegetables and fruits.
In addition, we emphasize that the treatment should be carried out under the advice and guidance of dermatologists, and we should not blindly treat it by ourselves and avoid using prescriptions and topical drugs. Melasma is a pigmented chronic disease, no treatment can be done overnight and never come back, so you should be patient in treatment and pay attention to prevention.
1.Sunscreen! This article is very important! It has been repeatedly emphasized, which shows its importance.
2, to prevent all kinds of ionizing radiation! Modern people’s working life is filled with all kinds of electronic products, all these bad stimuli can produce similar consequences as strong sunlight exposure, because it is all the time so it is even more damaging than sunlight exposure, which results in the aggravation of pigmentation. The countermeasure of prevention is to pay attention to cleanliness, moisturizing and sun protection.
3. Do not use “quick-acting spot cream” containing hormones, lead, mercury and other harmful substances, because there are too many side effects! It can cause hundreds of side effects! It can lead to serious disfigurement! It is forbidden to use scrubbing products for a long time. After using them, the skin looks very soft, but in fact, the natural first protective barrier “stratum corneum” has been destroyed, which leads to the formation of pigment cells and active pigment spots.
Although there are many options for spot removal, patients should preferably choose to visit the dermatology department of a regular medical institution, and should not believe in the advertisement of “seven days to remove spots, package to remove spots”.