Sunlight feels warm and soothing on your skin, especially after a cool and foggy winter. But while you bask in the sun, its ultraviolet (UV) A and B rays damage your skin from the surface to the inner layers.
Sunlight even alters your skin’s DNA, making you more susceptible to skin cancer.
If you overindulged this summer and neglected the sunscreen, what do you do? Just sit and wait for the inevitable wrinkles, visible veins, and dark spots to appear or worsen?
At Aesthetics, by Dr. Lee, our aesthetic team, led by Dr. Luis Lee, recommends broadband light (BBL) treatments to restore your skin’s health and vitality. You can reverse summer skin damage with BBL in our office in Granite Bay, California.
How can a BBL PhotoFacial™ erase your sun damage? Find out below.
Almost every aesthetic issue associated with aging is actually a result of cumulative sun damage. So if you had fine lines or freckles before this summer, your skin has already been damaged by the sun’s UVA and UVB rays.
You don’t have to suffer a sunburn to damage your skin with too much sunlight. Tanning or simply long exposure to sunlight creates changes to your skin’s DNA and can damage the deepest layers of your skin. This can be happening even if you don’t notice a difference on the surface. Yet.
The sun isn’t the only culprit, of course. If you use tanning beds, you’re also damaging your skin — and its DNA — at the deepest level.
You might think you escaped the summer unscathed. But when you look in the mirror, you can probably trace many of the issues that concern you back to sun exposure this summer or summers past:
Forehead furrows, 11s, crow’s feet, as well as fine lines and creases on your face all trace their origins to sun damage. About 90% of facial wrinkles are the result of long-term exposure to UVA and UVB.
If you have freckles anywhere, they’re a sign of sun damage. Brown spots, age spots, and freckles are all related to sun exposure. If you had freckles as a kid, you were exposed to sunlight as a baby or young child.
Those web-like veins along your nose or on other areas of your face may be another sign of sun damage. Sun exposure breaks down the elastin in those tiny capillaries, causing them to enlarge and form visible lines of blue, red, and purple on your face.
If your skin is splotchy with some areas that are darker than the rest, that’s the sun at work. Melasma, which often affects women during pregnancy, is related to hormones, too, but the underlying driver is sun damage.
The UVA and UVB rays of the sun break down the collagen and elastin in your skin. Those proteins are responsible for keeping your skin thick, healthy, and resilient. Once they’re gone, diminished, or broken, your skin becomes loose and saggy.
While the sun wreaks havoc on your skin, you don’t have to sit and take it. In addition to developing sun-healthy habits, such as always using sunscreen when outdoors, you can help your skin heal with a BBL treatment.
A BBL treatment delivers broad-spectrum, visible, and infrared light energy into your skin. The energy encourages skin cells to regenerate themselves. These fresh new skin cells replace the damaged ones.
Although a BBL PhotoFacial is concentrated on your face, neck, and decolletage (if needed), you can use BBL to undo sun damage on any area of your body. A series of 3-4 treatments spaced about four weeks apart can improve or resolve sun-damage issues, such as:
We can also improve the look and feel of other skin issues that aren’t sun-related, including acne scars and other types of scars. Each treatment takes only about 15 minutes.
Are you ready for the sun to be undone? Call us for a BBL PhotoFacial today at 916-888-8988. We serve the California communities of Granite Bay, Rocklin, Citrus Heights, Folsom, Lincoln, and the greater Sacramento area. You can also send us a message online.
