Edmonton Dermatology | What Is Pigmentation?
Hi everybody. Welcome to Edmonton Dermatology YouTube channel. My name is Andrea, and this is Vanessa, my coworker. Today we’re gonna talk about skin pigmentation. So, Haleem Aine said, skincare is so much more important than makeup. Makeup is for when you go out, having fun, and your skin is forever. So a lot of patients do come see us regarding spots that they get all over their face. So these little brown spots everywhere.
Some of ’em can actually quite large, and they’re, they feel that they’re a little unsightly because they’re kind of different color from their normal skin. So a lot of patients are feeling annoyed that they have to cover more with makeup, and sometimes makeup just doesn’t really help with that. So today we’re gonna discuss on how we can treat that. So how, how do you even get pigmentation? So pigmentation happens with long-term sun exposure.
So what happens is our melanocytes, our pigment producing cells essentially evolved with us to protect us from the sun. So, so even when you’re a small child and long-term sun exposure can actually make your melanocytes overreact. So what happens is they continually produce melanin pigment into your skin, trying to protect your skin from the sun. So even in the winter, you’ll notice that you still have these little brown spots on your face.
They may be lighter, but they’re still there because your melanocytes are overproducing and trying to protect you is pigmentation curable. It can be, so usually it’s requires a treatment and proper skincare. So treatments, including lasers, stuff like that. And skincare, making sure that you’re wearing sunscreen using lightening creams if you need to, stuff like that. Does pigmentation go away on its own? Not necessarily. You can use obviously some skincare products over the counter.
Again, skincare products over the counter because they need to make sure that they’re all safe for every type of skin type. They’re not as effective as what we would really want. So a lot of the times you’re not actually getting the full effect from the skincare. So usually what we say is come into Edmonton Dermatology, come for a consultation. We can really sit down with you and explain to you in greater detail of why it’s important to continue to use proper skincare.
And when do you really need to actually get a prescription for pigmentation. Also keeping in mind sunscreen is very, very important. So how do you prevent pigmentation, sunscreen and st wearing a hat, staying in the shades, stuff like that because the more your skin cells or your melanocytes get produced or get hit by the sun’s rays, the more they’re gonna go, ah, I gotta make you protect you from the sun.
So it throws up all that pigmentation up into your skin and it actually will cause those brown spots to get darker and create more brown spots. Hmm. Okay. what is the best treatment for pigmentation? So the best treatment to get to the pigmentation out of your skin is laser treatments, laser and light treatments. So what they do is essentially it resets the melanocyte and it will actually tell it to kind of stop producing that melanin and it’ll help try and get that melanin out of those cells up to the surface of the skin so that it can gently peel off your skin and become lighter.
Okay. are treatments uncomfortable depending on the type of treatment that we obviously suggest in the consultation? So some people find treatments to be okay, others may find it a little bit more uncomfortable. We, of course, we have ways to help counteract that.
So we have numbing creams, we also have cooling fans to really calm down the skin and make it comfortable for you. Of course, we don’t force you through the treatment. We do work with you and we go slowly and stuff like that. So that’s something we can talk more about in our consultations here at Edmonton Dermatology. Okay. what are the most common areas? That pigmentation is present?
So it’s usually the face, because that’s the area that is most exposed for us women. We also like to wear our nice low cut shirts, so a lot of us do have pigmentation on the chest, so that can be treated as well. The other areas, the back of the hands. So a lot of times we forget to put sunscreen on our hands. We always put it on the inside, rub it on our face, but we always forget to put it on the tops.
So those have a tendency to have little brown spots all over them too. Those are also treatable. Some people also get it along the arms. Again, those are treatable as well. Oh, okay. What kind of skincare do I use to reduce the pigmentation? So again, that’s something that we can go in even greater detail in our consultations here at Edmonton Dermatology.
However a lot of them is meant to try and calm down the melanocytes. So essentially tell them to kind of go to sleep. They will still protect us while they’re in the sun, but they don’t, we don’t want them to overproduce. So you can actually apply the creams on morning and night and it will kind of lighten up the pigmentation. It won’t take them away completely, but it will tell the melanocyte to just stop producing that extra pigmentation.
Is there a difference between pigmentation and melasma? Yes, there is. So of course, in our skin we usually have, we do have not usually we do have essentially multiple layers in our skin. So melasma has a tendency to be this deep set pigmentation usually leaking a bit into the dermis of the skin. So that’s the second layer, the middle layer of the skin.
Most pigmentation that we’re talking about. So like solar lentigos tend to be in this top surface, which is your epidermis. Those ones are a little easier to get out with, with treatments. Melasma does take a few more treatments and that’s actually something we’ll discuss in our other video regarding melasma. So please take, check that one out. Cool.
So how do I know my pigmentation isn’t dangerous? So that is something where you do need to see your family physician and get a referral to our wonderful doctors here at Edmonton Dermatology so that they can be checked out and make sure that they aren’t worrisome. There are some conditions out there that do really need to be assessed by a physician to make sure that they are safe. If you are unsure, please just go see your family doctor and ask ’em to be referred to a a dermatologist.