1. What are age spots?
Age spots are flat brown, gray, or black spots on the skin. They usually occur on sun-exposed areas. Age spots are also called liver spots, senile lentigo, solar lentigines, or sun spots.
2. What causes age spots?
Age spots are the result of an excess production of melanin, or skin pigment. Doctors don’t always know why age spots develop. Skin aging, sun exposure, or other forms of ultraviolet (UV) light exposure, such as tanning beds, are all possible causes.
3. Who is at risk for age spots?
People of any age, sex, or race can develop age spots. However, age spots are more common in people with certain risk factors. These include:
a. being older than 40 years old
b. having fair skin
c. having a history of frequent sun exposure
d. having a history of frequent tanning bed use
4. What are the common locations of age spots?
They usually appear on the face, forehead, hands, back, neck and chest, and sometimes on the upper limbs.
5. What are the specific clinical symptoms of age spots?
They can be patches of spots, flat papules or plaques in various sizes with their colors light brown or dark brown. Their surfaces are often accompanied by greasy scales, and they usually come into being slowly and gradually without any self-healing tendency.
6. Which old age spots should arouse our attention?
You should seek medical attention in time once you have the age spots that suddenly become large, black, itchy, or have local erosion.
7. Do all the age spot have to be treated?
Not necessarily. But you should seek medical attention in time once you have the age spots that suddenly become large, black, itchy, or have local erosion.And for the sake of beauty, you can take relevant treatment.
8. Will age spots pose any harm?
As a precursor of tissue aging, age spots indicates that cells have entered the phase of aging. There exists a pigment called lipofuscin, the product of cell oxidation,in the cells of human body's cardiac muscle, liver, nerve cells and adrenal cortex. This pigment not only aggregates on the cell membrane of the body surface, but also invades all the systematic organs of the body and also disturbs the interior of the body.Once deposited on the walls of blood vessels, it will cause vascular fibrosis, leading to arteriosclerosis, hypertension and myocardial infarction; when stored in brain cells, it affects the brain function, speeding up the aging process of the brain and causing degenerative memory, mental retardation, depression, and even alzheimer's disease in the elderly. Accumulated in cells, this substance can interfere with normal metabolism of cells and hinder the functional activities of cell tissues, causing aging of the whole body, and eventually leading the person to death.
9. Will age spots disappear by itself?
Absolutely no. The colors of age spots will but become deeper and deeper as you get older.
10. How is the treatment effect of removing age spots by laser?
The effect can be quite obvious. It's safe treatment with low pain, no scar and it can make your skin smooth and white.
11. Will the treatment effect of age spots rebound?
Age spots removal by laser is a kind of spot removal treatment that can directly reach the nidus. An ideal effect can be achieved without rebounce as long as your take the treatment based on the course of treatment in coordination with the doctor and receive postoperative nursing.
12. How to prevent age spots?
a. Take in more nutrition and have the food full of vitamin A and vitamin C.
b. Avoid sun exposure and prevent uv radiation as much as possible.
c. Give up bad habits, such as smoking, drinking and staying up late.
d. Drink more water, eat more vegetables and fruits and less spicy food or other irritant food.
e. Get enough sleep.