Recommended Anti-aging Treatment for Fair Skin with Rosacea?

Fractional laser is an amazing and highly effective treatment in our office. We use the laser treatment to help with acne scars, large pores, fine wrinkles, tissue collagen loss, scars, sebaceous hyperplasia, active acne, and for brightening dark pigmentation. Although there are very strong fractional lasers such as CO2 laser, we use lighter treatments for corrective skincare and maintenance of results. Our Thulium fractional laser, clear and brilliant laser, and Ultra Thulium laser are excellent options in our clinic. We also perform CO2 fractional and erbium depending on skin tone and tolerance for downtime. Patients do have to use a Melarase cream before and after treatment to help further reduce pigmentation after laser. Dark spots can improve with these treatments. I recommend fractional laser for incisional scars as well, especially after plastic surgery.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

Rosacea, is a common
condition of redness, coarse skin texture and the presence of
telengiectasias ( tiny broken capillaries) on the face. At times
eruptions can resemble acne, become scaly or even oily. These skin changes
most often occur after the 30's and can be a result of sun-damage in
certain genetically pre-disposed skin types . Known triggers are spicy
foods, alcohol, exercise, altitude and other extreme temperatures in the
environment, so prevention of these can be helpful.We advise monthly IPL
treatments with Cutera's LimeLight until clear ( usually 2 or 3 ) and then maintainence
IPL treatments every 3-4 months to minimize correction. You'll be surprised how
easily laser treatments such as Cutera's Limelight or Genesis can help to
eliminate the broken blood vessels !

A retinoid cream can help with acne/rosacea as well as anti-aging of the
skin. If you have sensitive skin it is best to start with a lower strength
retinoid prescription cream such as tretin-x 0.0375% or generic tretinoin
0.025%. Also, you may want to get your skin accustomed with this medicine by
only applying it twice weekly at first then building up to each night
eventually.

Skin Medica has an effective selection of skin care products for rosacea and rejuvenation. The Redness Relief Calmplex is a lovely, soothing moisturizer that reduces erythema in as little as 8 weeks. Most patients with rosacea can use the TNS Essential serum for rejuvenation, and apply the calmplex on top.

Vivier has a wonderful redness relief kit that is economical and effective.Most patients with rosacea have difficulty using topical retinoids but Vivier has an incredible Platine peptide cream complex that has antioxidantsm peptides, hyaluronic acid and a retinoid that is not irritating. This is a high end product but wonderful for patients with sensative skin.

 

Fortunately, there are a number of excellent products out there which will both help with Rosacea and have potent anti-aging ingredients. Two of them have the most potent antioxidants in the world: RevaleSkin and Aveeno's Ultra-calming cream. I had always thought that RevaleSkin's CoffeeBerry was the supreme antioxidant. After all in the ORAC (Oxagen radical Absorbance Capacity) scale, the CoffeeBerry was something like 10 times stronger than green tea and 14 times stronger than pomegranite. I found out that FeverFew is about five times stronger than CoffeeBerry.

Many of my patients with Rosacea have used RevaleSkin. Its formulation does not seem to break them out and there has been a substantial improvement in their redness.

Other good products for rosacea which have anti-aging ingredients include Neostrata's Bionic Cream and Purpose Redness Relief. Products containing Niacinamide are also excellent for improving erythema as well as providing protection against photoaging.

One tip: If your dermatologist has not not put you on Oracea, it would not be a bad idea to do so. Low dose Doxycycline acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. If you believe in the inflammatory cause of skin aging, as I do, you would be advised to take this medication. People that believe in this theory maintain that the sun and other factors sets off low-grade inflammation which produces factors such as matrix metalloproteinases. Studies have shown that Orracea decreases the amount of Matrix metalloproeinases. These collagenases break down our collagen.

The reason I like the above products as they all have sunscreen agents. The sun generally makes rosacea worse and of course the sun leads to photoaging by definition.

Thank you for asking a good question.