Age spots can be reduced through many means

Philip Young, MD answers: How can I get rid of age spots?

I am guilty of not using proper skin protection from the sun..ok, i actually tanned every day of my 20s and 30s!!! So now I need to know what to do about age spots on my face.  Also seeing age spots on hands and maybe even my legs.  What can I do to get rid of these spots?


Philip Young, MD
6 months ago

Age spots can be removed and reduced with lasers and intense pulse light. CO2 resurfacing can take most sun spots away that are at a certain depth. Deeper spots can be removed with different lasers such as ND YAG, Intense pulse light, alexandrite, ruby lasers. 

CO2 resurfacing has some down time and you might need up to a week or more to recover. The other lasers have little downtime but may need multiple treatments and sometimes does not completely remove the spots. One thing to realize is that these spots can come back if you don't take care of your skin. For less invasive approaches, sunblock that blocks uvA, and uvB, topicals like retin A, hydroquinone and hydrocortisone can help but are less effective and take a long time to see results.

Chemical peels can also help in different degrees. The optimal treatment will different depending on what type of skin type you have, whether you are Caucasian, Asian, African american etc.

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