Age Spots - What is Actually Happening to the Skin?

Many patients mean different things by the word age spots. We generally interpret this word to mean lentigo or solar lentigo. Others may be referring to actinic keratosis or solar elastosis, although this is not how it is usually used. With solar lentigo, the epidermal melanocytes are increased and there are no nests of melanocytes like we find in a nevus.

Age spot signifies accumulation of sun damage leading to excessive deposition of pigment and retention of senescent skin cells on the surface of the skin. Some of the age spot may actually be precancerous (where there is deleterious damage to the DNA of skin cells from years of ultraviolet insults), otherwise known as actinic keratosis, and should be evaluated by a board-certified dermatologist.