Although prevention is always better than cure, there are now many treatments available to combat those signs of ageing and repair any damage sustained by the skin. One area that can be a dead giveaway but is often overlooked is our hands.

Hands are often exposed to sunlight without being protected, and as a result, the skin can display signs of damage. The skin can easily become dehydrated, and as we age and the body doesn’t regulate pigmentation production as well, liver or age spots can also start to appear.

For slim people, veins can become prominent, as there is insufficient body fat to conceal them. This is often a comment directed at celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Madonna, who was seen wearing fingerless gloves at a recent film première.

Age spots can be removed using IPL, which will restore a more youthful appearance. The IPL causes the hyper pigmented spots to fade away, ensuring that the appearance of your hands doesn’t let you down.

As the light is pulsed, the skin is only exposed to it for very short periods of time, making it safe for the skin tissue surrounding the area to be treated.

Intense Pulsed Light can be used for a variety of treatments:

• Permanent hair reduction
• Rosacea
• Broken capillaries and thread veins
• Birthmark removal – both vascular and pigmented
• Hyper pigmentation – age spots etc.
• Sun damage

It uses the pigmentation of the lesion or hair for a highly focussed form of treatment. Hair and hyper pigmented areas of skin contain more melanin than the surrounding skin, which absorbs the intense light more quickly and heats up. In thread veins, the haemoglobin absorbs the light and causes the blood to increase in temperature.

Once temperatures reach a certain level, pigmentation begins to break down, while cells lining blood vessels or hair follicles are denatured, causing the veins or follicles to collapse. The principle is simple but effective, and can produce excellent results quickly and safely.

The skin contains cells that produce melanin when the skin is exposed to the sun’s rays. The melanin absorbs the energy of the sun’s rays, thus protecting the body from the harmful effects. While many of us believe we look better and even healthier with a tan, its very appearance denotes damage inflicted on the skin.

As we age, our skin is less able to regulate the production and regulation of melanin, resulting in uneven pigmentation and patches of darker skin. These ‘liver spots’ can appear anywhere on the skin, although those areas most often exposed to the sun are usually those that are worst affected.

It is always advisable to take the route of prevention, and to invest in a good quality sun block that can protect the skin. For damage that has already been done, the visible signs of that damage can be reduced with the help of pigmentation treatment.

These hyper pigmented areas can appear anywhere on the body, although those that are more frequently exposed to the harmful rays of the sun are usually more affected (the face and hands). If your skin has been damaged by the sun, these age spots can make you appear older than your years.

While prevention is certainly the best approach, pigmentation treatment can successfully and effectively even out skin tone and reduce the amount of pigmentation in the skin. The Laser Treatment Clinic offers a combination of treatments in order to achieve superior results:

• IPL, or Intense Pulsed Light, works by directing short bursts of light at the hyper pigmented areas. The light energy produces heat within the lesion, and once the temperature reaches between 60 and 70°C, the pigment starts to break down. Once the particles are small enough, the body can remove them naturally from the site.

• Microdermabrasion and laser treatment removes the damaged layers of skin, and stimulates skin renewal to encourage the production of healthy new skin cells.

These changes are gradual, however, and for those who are already displaying the signs of skin damage and premature ageing, they may feel it is too late to do anything about it. There are skin-rejuvenation treatments available, however, that can significantly improve how the skin looks and feels.

Intense Pulsed Light can safely eliminate superficial signs of ageing, such as wrinkles, age spots, thread veins, the permanent flushing associated with rosacea and enlarged pores. It offers a non-invasive approach to achieving younger-looking skin with minimal effort.

Another method involves removing the damaged layers of skin to reveal the newer and healthier layers of skin beneath the surface. This is done using a hand-held device that applies a pressurised stream of medical-grade crystals to the skin to remove damaged skin cells in a uniform way.

The subsequent laser treatment encourages the more youthful new skin to heal and renew itself, producing a smoother, clearer complexion.

It can be used to remove stretch marks, acne scars and for pigmentation treatment, but what does it actually involve?

Microdermabrasion involves using a hand-held device that directs a stream of very fine, medical-grade crystals over the surface of the skin. The crystals and dead skin cells are simultaneously removed through suction.

When used correctly, microdermabrasion removes the superficial layers of the skin while respecting the skin’s natural structure.

The laser is usually applied after microdermabrasion, and can often feel like an elastic band is being flicked on the skin’s surface. It can cause pinpoint bleeding and inflammation, but this quickly subsides as the skin heals. The epidermal renewal usually takes between four and five days, after which an improvement can be seen in the texture and appearance of the skin.

While the microdermabrasion can cause a scratching sensation, and the laser can be mildly uncomfortable, the skin is not damaged and is encouraged to renew itself in a safe and controlled way.

• Exposure to sunlight
• Smoking
• Harsh environmental conditions
• Pollution etc.

Fine lines and wrinkles begin to appear on the face, an area particularly vulnerable to the ageing effects of the environment. Thread veins can start to form beneath the surface of the skin, showing through as red or purple spidery lines. Age spots can also become more prominent and numerous, as damage from the sun causes pigmentation to develop unevenly.

These dreaded signs of getting older can be combatted in several ways:

• Prevention. Ensuring that skin is nourished and moisturised can help minimise the effects of ageing, and a healthy lifestyle will also help.
• Camouflage. Make up can help to conceal the imperfections associated with skin damage and ageing.
• Repair. There are two types of non-invasive treatment used at The Laser Treatment Clinic that can significantly improve the appearance of damaged or aged skin. Photo rejuvenation treatment uses IPL for pigmentation or thread vein removal, while microdermabrasion and laser treatment remove the damaged layers of skin and stimulate the production of youthful-looking new skin cells.

Shaving rashes, spots, cuts and scrapes can all cause the skin around the original injury site to darken. This can make them noticeable, even long after the injury has completely healed, and they can darken further over time, particularly if the skin is exposed to sunlight.

If hyper pigmented areas of skin are causing you problems, there are solutions available. Sun protection is very important in order to prevent further damage to the skin, while microdermabrasion and laser treatment can help to improve the skin’s appearance.

Microdermabrasion works by removing the damaged superficial layers of skin in a gentle and uniform manner, improving the skin’s texture and evening out the skin’s tone. This procedure also stimulates skin renewal and collagen production, ensuring that new and healthy skin cells replace the damaged ones.

IPL is another treatment that can produce great results. The intense light causes lesions to heat up, and break down the pigment cells trapped with the skin. Once fragmented, they are absorbed by the body and the pigmented patches fade.

Uneven pigmentation can be caused by a variety of factors, both biological and environmental. Prevention is always the best approach to preserving the condition of your skin, but what exactly do you need to do?

• Use sun protection. Make sure you use a sun block on exposed skin all year round. Using a high factor sun block, such as The Laser Treatment Clinic’s Derma Feed High Force Total Protection, will prevent sun damage.

• Stop smoking. The toxins in cigarette smoke can have a devastating effect on your skin, causing it to wrinkle and sag, with hyper-pigmentation and a greyish hue to the skin also being common problems for smokers.

• Keep your skin hydrated. As we age, our skin starts to dry out, so you need to make sure you are using the right skincare products to keep it nourished and moisturised.

As the inflammation and redness subsides, they can leave hyper pigmented and pitted skin behind that is difficult to hide. Acne can permanently damage skin tissue and even destroy it, thus causing the scarring so typical of acne.

While the hyper pigmentation may fade over a period of time, once tissue has been destroyed, it will not be replaced and the pitted appearance remains. Some specialist concealers and make up can help to make the affected skin look smoother, but this can be time-consuming, and results can vary.

If you are suffering from the after-effects of active acne, then consider a treatment that will not only reduce the residual redness of the damaged skin, but also improve its texture and appearance.

Microdermabrasion is a form of deep exfoliation which gently and uniformly removes the damaged superficial layers of skin to remove new skin beneath. The treatment also helps to stimulate the renewal of the skin’s surface, and the subsequent use of a laser provides a boost in collagen and new skin cell production.