As part of our Skin Care Series, Conrad Bosmans interviews Dr. Arian Mowlavi of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Institute about the best ways to reduce sun spots and blemishes.

Q: What are sun spots and why are they a problem?

Dr. Mowlavi: Facial skin blemishes are associated with increased creation of brown pigment which gets activated by exposure to the Sun’s ultraviolet rays. This results in unsightly brown blemishes throughout your face that make you look older. This is especially true after a summer of sunbathing and going to the beach.

The good news is that we have an amazingly safe, comfortable, and affordable procedure that makes you look younger by reducing sun spots and blemishes. This procedure only requires a single, thirty-minute treatment with no sedation and minimal down time.

Intense Pulse Light (otherwise known as “IPL"), is a safe focused light treatment that uses a single filtered wavelength that targets and eliminates sun spots.

Q: What precautions should patients take before their IPL treatment?

Dr. Mowlavi: The most important precaution is to avoid sun-tanning and/or long hours in the sun for two weeks prior to your treatment.

This is so that your baseline skin is as light as possible in order to create a definite color contrast between your natural skin tone and the unsightly sun spots. Ideally, what we want to do is target the dark spots against a lighter skin background. If you are tanned throughout, then the IPL will be absorbed by your background skin rather than the unsightly spots. Ideally, we want to target the undesirable dark spots against a lighter skin background.

Q: What happens during and after your IPL treatment?

Dr. Mowlavi: You’ll feel tolerable warmth on your skin which dissipates over a few hours.

The next three days, you are going to notice all of the brown spots working their way to the surface of your skin, like coffee grounds, and then falling off.

We instruct our patients to use a wash cloth to gently remove the "coffee grounds" off of their skin. Most patients find their treatments very tolerable and convenient. 

A little moisturizer and application of routine make-up is all you need for your aftercare.

Q: What kind of results can you expect from your IPL treatment?

Dr. Mowlavi: You’ll notice a dramatic reduction of those annoying sun blemishes and feel the improved confidence of knowing you look your best. 

Q: How long will my IPL treatment last?

Dr. Mowlavi: Since IPL blasts the pigment molecule and not the cell, your pigment cells are still alive and they will start producing new sun spots over time. This means your sun spots will return every six to twelve months depending on your sun exposure. 

My regular clients return for their IPL treatments once or twice a year (especially after the summer).

Q: Why do so many doctors advertise IPL as a series of treatments?

Dr. Mowlavi: This is typically just a gimmick. When I offer a series of IPL treatments as a special, my clients are informed that the series will keep them going for a whole year or longer. Beware of a treatment series advertised as part of a single treatment session.

The key is to hone in on the ideal IPL energy setting at the time of your single treatment session. Choosing the optimum energy will ensure optimum reduction of brown spots while avoiding a burn injury. This requires experience and a quick evaluation dose that I perform for all of my first time patients. After gauging your skin coloration and degree of pigmentation, I pick an area near the ear where I will administer a range of energy pulses in order to identify the optimum energy setting for you. This gives you optimum reduction of those unsightly sun spots in a single IPL session.

Machine strength matters. If the IPL machine does not have a coolant in the hand piece it will not be able to provide the power required to maximize pigment removal potential. This is because without a hand piece coolant, you cannot safely attain the energy levels required to most effectively burst the pigment molecule without burning your skin first. If you are considering getting IPL, make sure you inquire whether the provider’s machine has a coolant in the hand piece.

Q: What’s type of sunscreen should people use?

Dr. Mowlavi: As of June 2015, the F.D.A. has recommended the use of sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher. There is also legislation that outlaws companies from advertising SPF labelling greater than 25 as there is no scientific data for greater protection over an SPF of 25. 

Other recommendations involve personal habits and include:

• Limiting time in the sun, especially between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the sun’s rays are most intense.
• Wearing clothing that limits skin exposure to the sun; for example, long-sleeved shirts, pants, sunglasses, and broad-rimmed hats.
• Reapplying sunscreen at least every 2 hours or more often if you’re sweating or jumping in and out of the water.
• Also, while there are three harmful ultraviolet rays, SPF only measures protection against the most harmful Ultraviolet Ray B. Here are some additives you may see in the sunscreens you are considering and how they protect you:
  • Zinc oxide provides protection against both UVA rays and UVB rays.
  • Titanium oxide provides protection against short wave UVA and UVB.
  • Oxybenzone provides protection against short wave UVA only.
  • PABA is only effective against UVB.

Click here to learn more about Reducing Sun Blemishes With IPL

(In our next installment, Dr. Mowlavi shares How To Tighten Loose Skin)