Rosacea
Rosacea is a chronic skin condition composed of prominent redness, inflammation and sometimes acne-like breakouts on the face. It tends to occur in the central part of the face around the nose, cheeks, chin and/or forehead. Typically patients will notice a tendency to blush easily, have increased vascularity (visible broken blood vessels or facial veins) and burning or stinging of the skin. Long term rosacea may produce rhinophyma, an enlarged nose, typified by W.C. Field’s nose.
The Major Goals of Rosacea Treatment are to:
- Understand your unique condition
- Identify and avoid the factors that cause flushing for you and that flare your rosacea
- Control the active symptoms and signs of rosacea
- Achieve optimum maintenance of your rosacea and its complications
- Understand that this is a chronic condition
Medical Treatment for Rosacea:
- When rosacea is more severe, topical therapy must often be combined with oral treatment
- Creams and oral antibiotics are not effective in treating the flushing of the face, or the broken blood vessels
- Laser treatments can help treat the symptoms of rosacea quickly by restricting blood vessels on the face, encouraging healthy cell turnover and preventing bacteria formation.
There are many cosmetic treatments that can be used to help reduce or eliminate the symptoms of rosacea. Peels can help to gently exfoliate dead skin cells and remove bacteria that cause acne-rosacea. Laser treatments can be most effective at treating skin redness and symptoms associated with rosacea. The Laser Genesis and Lightwave treatments can help eliminate facial redness by restricting capillaries in the skin and speeding healthy cell turnover and collagen production. The Coolglide laser is an effective treatment for skin vascularities including broken blood vessels and facial veins associated with rosacea, this safe and effective treatment collapses veins and redirects blood flow to veins deeper below the skin’s surface.