Stretchmark Treatments in Edmonton | Treating Stretchmarks Effectively
Hi, and welcome back to Edmonton Dermatology YouTube channel. Today we are going to be talking about stretchmark treatments in Edmonton. And I’m here again with Andrea, a registered LPM here at the Edmonton Dermatology Skincare Center. And she’s going to break this all down for us today. Give us lots of good, lots of good information. But I just wanted to share something with you. If you have stretch marks, think of ’em this way. Stretch marks are nature’s badge of achievement. They show that you suffered morning sickness, heartburn, back pain and childbirth to bring a new life into the world. So that’s unknown. Who said that? But obviously that’s for women. But even they all women can Yeah. Any woman who’s had a child probably is probably in that statistic right there. And for, for men, I guess it’s, you know, you, you grew and that’s what you got a badge of achievement there that you of gross being taller than everybody.
Yeah, exactly. Usually that’s why. Right? So the prevalence of stretch marks has actually been reported to range between 50 to 90% of people having them. Mm-Hmm. So that’s a lot of people. That is a lot of people. Yeah. That comes from health engine blog. So do you have any interesting stories or No, most of the stories are ladies, yeah. Childbirth, badge of achievement. Yeah. Most of my patients that come see me are all about the babies. Yeah. We’re glad that they’re cute. Yeah. Because it’s very helpful in that way to kind of get over the unfortunate part of the stretch marks. Yeah. But definitely a wonderful achievement. Yeah. I applaud all the ladies out there. And obviously they vary between how severe, how severe, how large. Yeah. Coloring, stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, okay. What are stretch marks?
Stretchmark Treatments Target Uneven Skin
Break it down for us. So, I mean, if you have stretch marks, you can see, obviously see that your skin has a textural problem. So what happens, and I like to use the analogy of a rubber band. So you know, when you take a rubber band and you stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, eventually it’s going to lose its elasticity, right? So obviously childbirth that elastic is getting stretched out further and further. But you’ll see when you let go of that elastic over time, it gets kind of weak and kind of floppy a little bit. So that’s what happens in almost the very top layer of the skin. And unfortunately there’s not a whole lot of collagen and elastic in the top layer of skin. It’s in the second layer of skin. But because that has been stretched out so much, your bottom layer’s not able to compensate for that stretching.
Okay. So essentially it’s, it’s having a textural problem at the surface of the skin, not necessarily at the bottom, but to really help the surface, you also need to help the bottom. So it’s kind of like all this multiple different layers of the skin are kind of involved in stretch marks, but mostly on the surface is the biggest issue. Okay. So who can get stretch marks? Anybody? you can get them as a teenager, you can get them obviously as you’re pregnant. Elderly patients can get them as well if they have a rapid increase in weight. Can stretch the skin out. So everybody, all skin types no matter what, you can be light skin, dark skin. Again, those are different coloring issues that happen with the stretch marks in that. So people, darker skin types might have more light colored stretch marks because that pigmentation kind of gets spread out further so then it gets lighter.
Treat the Discoloration of Stretchmarks As Well
So, okay. Yeah. Can stretch marks have different colors then? Yes, absolutely. So they can be white red. I’ve actually seen some kind of purple-y blue ones. White obviously it’s kind of nice for us light colored skin. Our skin types one, we have a tendency to be able to hide that a little bit better. But we also get the redness now for skin types that are a lot darker. So skin types four through six have a harder time to kind of try and hide the light color. So unfortunately for them, the coloring, we can’t fix too much. For lighter skin types, if there’s red or blue in them, we can’t help with that. You can, you can. Oh, okay. Great. Yeah, I’ve seen those too for sure. Are stretch marks dangerous? No, they are not. They are not worrisome. You don’t have to worry about your health concerns and that unfortunately they’re just unsightly.
Most of us don’t like having them. They don’t like the feel and touch of them, but luckily they’re not dangerous. Everything should be alright. Is there any way to prevent getting stretch marks? So it’s key to make sure that you keep your skin hydrated and ladies, when you’re pregnant, it’s very important to make sure that you use a proper skincare type to help with that elasticity. So something that’s going to help make sure that your collagen elastin in that second layer of the skin is fed enough so that it’s able to continue to feed that top layer as well. So just making sure you’re applying even in the early stages, even if you don’t see that you have a stretch mark happening while you’re in your first or second trimester, make sure you’re still applying it. Because It’s all about prevention.
Mm-Hmm. Yeah. That’s actually really important. Yeah. Are stretch marks permanent? Yes, I knew that. Yes. They are. Again, it’s all about prevention. So even if you’re a teenager and you’re growing really fast and you have them kind of all over, even on your chest and back, making sure that you still put that cream on. Look for creams that have stretch mark indications on them just to make sure that your skin is getting that proper feeding so it can handle that sort of stretching growth and stuff like that. Okay. Yeah. Are there any treatments to help with stretch marks? Yes, there are. However, it is only to slightly improve them. They’re not going to make them erase or go away. Okay. So scars are very, are scars, stretch marks are very similar to scars. Yeah. Whereas we only can get them to maybe about 50% improvement, which actually 50% is pretty good.
Stretchmark Treatments Include Lasers and Topical Creams
It is actually true? Yeah. especially when you’re dealing with living cells. So some of the treatments that we use are a combination of topicals and laser treatments. So laser treatments, what they do is actually go into the skin and help heat up the collagen. So we’re almost causing a bit of an inflammatory response in the skin so that your collagen elastin in that second layer can get a decent feeding of nutrients because your body will send nutrients when there’s inflammation, when they get fed properly, it will help with the surface. So give it a stronger foundation. So you have like your, your foundation nice and thick. That top layer has something to sit on properly. Then we’re able to go over top and kind of smoothen out the surface a little bit to try and even out the edges. because As we know, like you have the edges on the side that are a little bit thicker and then you have little, little mountains on the inside of your stretch bars.
Mm-Hmm. That have a tendency to be a little bit up and down. So just try to get that to smoothen out a little bit more. Okay. We can also help with coloring, like I said. Oh, so the redness and the bluey purple-y, we can definitely help with that. White of course, most lasers are unable to treat anything for white. So again, skin types four through six. Unfortunately white is something that we aren’t able to treat, but we can certainly still help with the texture of the stretch mark. Okay. How I know it probably doesn’t get rid of the blue color. It will help with the blue. It will kind of make it less noticeable. Okay. The redness is actually easier to treat than the blue. Okay. But we can get it to the point where it’s kind of like you have to be really close to see it.
Okay. Kind of thing. But it will still have a bluey change to it. Yeah. Okay. Well there’s still some hope there. Which option is better for stretchmark treatment? I feel that it’s both. So using topical moisturizers creams that are indicated for stretch marks and laser treatment. So combining the two together, because with the topicals what that’ll do is make sure that there’s a continuous nutrients given to the skin so that it has that proper building complex needed to fill that second layer and feed that top layer. So one product that I really like that we sell here at Edmonton Dermatology is called Strata Mark. It is from the company Strata Med. And it’s, we sell it here at our clinic. So if you’re interested in this product, please just stop by. We can certainly get it for you. What this product does is you’re allowed to apply it morning and night.
Get 50% Improvement in Stretchmarks
You literally just take a small amount and you rub it over your area of concern and it will continue that feeding process. Now it is bit of a gel, so it has a tendency be a little bit sticky, but once you let it dry for about five, 10 minutes you can go ahead and put your clothing on and go about your day. Okay. Mm-Hmm. Will the treatments permanently remove the stretch marks? So, like I said before, it’s one of those things where it’s, it’s a scar on the skin, it’s, we’re not going to be able to completely remove it. I wish maybe one day in the future they’ll have something, but at this point in time with our technology, we’re able to at least get up to about 50% improvement, which is a pretty wicked amount of improvement. That is good. Yeah. Yeah.
It’s a very good amount. Great. Well thank you very much. You are welcome. For telling us a lot more about stretch marks. I kind of had some of those questions in the back of my mind for a while now since I got kids. Awesome. Thanks for joining us here on YouTube at Edmonton Dermatology Clinic. And don’t forget to like the video. Leave us a comment. Maybe you’ll have some other questions that we can answer. Yes, please. Yeah. And subscribe to the channel to stay up to date on all the latest skincare technology and stretchmark treatments in Edmonton. Thanks. Bye. Thanks so much.