What's the Best Way to Get Rid of Age Spots on Asian or Ethnic Skin?

Indeed most lasers are potentially harmful to darker skin. Skin coloration and age spots are made of a pigment called melanin. Melanin tends to absorb laser energy very easily. So patients who have more melanin (hence darker skin tone) will absorb more of the laser energy than those with very fair skin. 

This can pose the risk of overheating and scarring, which develops as a result.


However, there are some lasers that use very specific wavelengths which are relatively more resistant to being absorbed by melanin in the surrounding areas. They will target the problematic melanin in age spots, but not so much the melanin that gives your skin its color.


Fraxel Dual is an example of a laser that is actually very safe for ethnic skin. It uses the 1550nm wavelength and the 1927nm wavelength. When addressing age spots the 1550nm wavelength will break up the organelles in your skin containing the melanin.

And the remains are carried away by your lymphatic system. Here is a video of an Asian patient who underwent Fraxel Dual.

 

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

Thank you for your photo. I would use the Picoway Resolve on your skin to fair on the safe side. We do have a microfractional Co2 Laser which is lesser invasive than the fractional laser, but should require an in person consultation.  All the best.

Thank you for your question.  CO2 laser skin resurfacing treatment is very beneficial for making acne scars diminish, removing age spots, increases collagen and elasticity production.  This is done by removing deeper layers of damaged skin and stimulating the regeneration of healthy skin underneath. This treatment is also beneficial for uneven pigmentation, photodamage, fine lines and wrinkles, precancerous spots, and a host of other skin imperfections and benign lesions. If you believe you may be a candidate for CO2 laser skin resurfacing treatment, a qualified cosmetic surgeon or dermatologist can carefully analyze your skin and determine if the procedure is right for you

Treating age or sun damage on Ethnic Skin can be tricky because IPL/BBL lasers can make it worse, these type of laser's pick up pigment in the skin and can not differentiate between your natural pigment and a sun spot, risking burn's or hypo-pigmentation (white spots).  We always pre-treat our ethnic skin patients with a 4% Hydroquinone topical cream for at least 4 weeks to settle down the pigment cells.    My preferred method is using pro-fractional treatment laser for this pigment.   If the spots are resistant to that treatment we do use BBL laser's at very low settings for multiple treatments to get improvement.  Remember with any laser you are at risk for Hypo-pigmentation problems.