Photoaging FAQs – How & Why Does the Sun Affect Our Skin?
Adventuring and experiencing nature are essential steps in enjoying life and spending time with friends and family. Feeling the sun on your face can feel relaxing and energizing. But exposure to the sun’s powerful ultraviolet (UV) rays has adverse effects over time, leading to a phenomenon known as photoaging.
At Regeneris Medspa & Cosmetic Surgery, we understand the concerns surrounding this process and are here to provide answers to your burning questions. What is photoaging? How can it be prevented or delayed? And can the signs and symptoms of premature aging be stopped or even reversed?
Let’s explore the signs and symptoms of photoaging, the causes, the effects on your skin, and the cutting-edge treatments available to combat its visible signs.
Answering Your Photoaging FAQs – Regeneris Medspa in Boston, MA
At Regeneris Medspa in Boston, MA, Dr. Ryan Welter and his team use the latest skincare treatments to reverse scarring, smooth wrinkles, and permanently delete stubborn blemishes.
To schedule your consultation today, call Regeneris Medspa at (781) 412-1309 or contact us online.
Understanding Photoaging: Causes and Origins
Photoaging refers to the premature aging of skin caused by prolonged and unprotected exposure to UV radiation. While chronological aging is a natural process, photoaging accelerates the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and other unwanted skin concerns.
UV light damages skin cells, impairing their DNA and causing them to produce abnormal amounts of enzymes that break down collagen and elastin fibers. Collagen and elastin are essential proteins responsible for maintaining the skin’s firmness and elasticity.
Perhaps you’ve seen this famous image of a trucker who—after years of driving on the right-hand side of his tractor trailer—experienced drastic photoaging from the sun through his window. As this notable case demonstrates, habitual sun exposure can have startling effects as the days, months, and years roll on.
Symptoms of Photoaging: Recognizing the Signs
The symptoms of photoaging manifest as visible changes in the skin’s texture, tone, and overall appearance. Common signs include:
Hyperpigmentation
Discoloration (or hyperpigmentation) occurs when rays of UV light interact with the melanin responsible for your natural skin tone. Skin cells darken and clump together, forming spots or patches on the skin caused by uneven pigmentation.
Blemishes in this category of photoaging damage include age spots (liver spots), Solar lentigines, and even freckles. Existing discolorations can also worsen with exposure to the sun, and certain chronic skin conditions (such as melasma) may flare-up.
Fine Lines & Wrinkles
Excessive UV exposure leads to the breakdown of collagen and elastin, resulting in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. When we’re young, our bodies produce abundant elastin and collagen, keeping our skin tight and empowering our natural healing response. But as we age, our bodies divert resources away from these two vital structural proteins, resulting in accelerated skin damage.
UV radiation further damages individual skin cells, giving fine lines and wrinkles the momentum they need to deepen, lengthen, and spread. Our skin simply can’t keep up when both age and sun damage stack up against it.
Mottled Skin
Uneven pigmentation and irregular texture contribute to a mottled, aged appearance. Ultraviolet light can penetrate into lower skin layers where it interacts with small veins and individual skin cells. Combined with the regular effects of aging, UV light can contribute to areas of uneven texture and color.
UV light also dries out the skin, causing it to look and feel rough, cracked, and unevenly colored. Thankfully, these symptoms can be reversed, and it’s always a good idea to apply a sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher if you plan to be outside for more than just a few minutes.
Loose Skin (Skin Laxity)
Of the two structural proteins responsible for skin health, it’s elastin that gives our skin that youthful bounce. Collagen supports skin by hydrating and healing it, but elastin keeps skin tight and responsive. Aging and UV light combine to reduce collagen and elastin production, leading to sagging and a loss of firmness.
In this area, photoaging may accelerate or worsen jowls, turkey neck, or loose skin along the jawline. These unwanted features—more than many others—contribute to a drastically aged appearance. But here again, that loose skin isn’t set in stone. Numerous treatments exist to tighten skin non-surgically.
Visible Blood Vessels
UV radiation weakens blood vessel walls, causing blood to pool or spill out beneath the skin. Naturally, this contributes to a bruised or flushed appearance. But like hyperpigmentation, these smaller, weakened blood vessels aren’t permanent. In many cases, these veins aren’t vital or necessary.
Once closed by a precision laser, these veins will fade away, and the blood they carry will find newer, less visible paths to get wherever it needs to go.
Combatting Photoaging: Advanced Treatments
At Regeneris Medspa, we offer a range of advanced treatments to combat the effects of photoaging and rejuvenate skin. In many cases, our leading-edge aesthetic treatments can create permanent results, removing the unwanted features that hold you back from living authentically and confidently.
IPL Photofacials
What UV light causes, another form of light can repair. Intense Pulsed Light therapy (IPL) targets the hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tones caused by photoaging, resulting in a more youthful complexion.
By using powerful bursts of light, IPL photofacials can target dozens of skin concerns in each sitting. In fact, this light is powerful enough to scatter the discolored skin cells that form age spots, liver spots, and other instances of hyperpigmentation. Once disbanded, these blemishes never surface again in the same place or way as before.
Better still, IPL treatments use light (and therefore heat) energy to supercharge production of both collagen and elastin. As a form of comprehensive facial rejuvenation, our IPL treatments in Boston, MA tighten skin, improve skin quality, and deliver results that last for weeks on end.
Lase MD & Genius RF
As our skin ages, it tends to underreact to certain forms of damage. But with a little encouragement, we can enhance and direct our skin’s natural healing response, putting it to work where we need it most. Lase MD microdermabrasion and Genius RF radiofrequency treatments take a multimodal approach to skin rejuvenation.
First, our Lase MD laser uses powerful laser light to scour your skin, removing the outermost layer of dead skin and allowing healthier cells to grow. Next, our Genius RF sends radiofrequency energy into lower skin layers where it’s absorbed as heat. This heat boosts elastin and collagen production for tighter, healthier, and faster healing skin in the treatment area.
With results that last for months and a comprehensive approach to rejuvenation, our Lase MD and Genius RF treatments are a match made in heaven—especially for those suffering from photoaging.
Laser Skin Resurfacing
Our skin operates on something like a 28-day cycle. Every 28 days, our skin grows, thrives, and dies, leading to complete cellular turnover across your whole body. But as we age, this process slows. Dead skin may linger for 30 days or longer, contributing to a lusterless complexion and even exacerbating chronic skin conditions, such as acne.
Laser skin resurfacing treatments hit the reset button on skin health. By using a powerful, ablative laser, this treatment blasts away dead skin, oils, toxins, and other contaminants on the surface while penetrating deeply enough to kick start production of structural proteins.
By removing the outermost layer of dead, gray skin, resurfacing stimulates collagen growth and reveals a smoother, more youthful tone and texture.
Stem Cell Facials
Not everything treatment requires a laser. At Regeneris Medspa & Cosmetic Surgery, we specialize in regenerative medicine techniques. Rather than just treating the symptoms, regenerative medicine sets its sights on the causes of skin damage. Few of our regenerative techniques work quite as powerfully as our stem cell facials.
You have untapped stem cells in your body right this moment—hiding in fatty deposits or tucked away in bone marrow. By extracting these stem cells from your fat and combining them with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) from your bloodstream, we’re able to create a regenerative serum that goes nearly anywhere and does nearly anything.
Stem cells form new skin while PRP rejuvenates existing cells that could use a boost, leading to newer, healthier, and more resilient skin wherever you need it.
Reclaim Your Youthful Glow
Understanding photoaging is the first step towards preserving your skin’s vitality and youthful appearance. Regeneris Medspa is dedicated to helping you navigate this journey with tailored treatments designed to address your unique concerns.
From IPL Photofacials to cutting-edge laser technologies, we’re committed to helping you rediscover your radiance. To discover which photoaging treatment is right for you, or to schedule your consultation today, call Regeneris Medspa at (781) 412-1309 or contact us online.
Don’t Live with Signs of Photoaging—Fight Them Instead!
Skin damage is a fact of life, but it doesn’t have to be a lasting fact. Your skin is a living, breathing part of you that just needs a little encouragement to remember how to heal, thrive, and glow. At Regeneris Medspa & Cosmetic Surgery in Boston, MA, Dr. Ryan Welter and his team employ the latest aesthetic tech to reverse photoaging wherever it’s found. Discover a treatment that’s perfect for you by calling us at (781) 412-1309 today or contacting us online. Don’t forget to check out our latest special offers while you’re at it!