By Lorea Bagazgoitia, dermatologist. Ruber Juan Bravo Hospital Complex. Madrid.
Concern about spots is common both in the dermatology office and in the pharmacy office. People who suffer from them, most often women, come in search of a remedy that can clear them up, and most often they have a cream in mind.
However, creams or cosmetics are not always the only option; many times, they are not the best either. Cosmetic products tend to be of limited effectiveness and, in general, for more satisfactory results it is appropriate to resort to medical options, whether topical, oral or physical therapies.
The objective of this article is to describe the different types of facial blemishes that can occur and to point out the best therapeutic options available for each one.
Most frequent types of acquired spots
- Efelides: Commonly called freckles, they are millimeter pigmented lesions with a uniform distribution on the cheeks and nasal dorsum. Frequently they are usually present since childhood, always accentuating in summer. Given that it is something that can accompany us throughout our lives, it is usually attributed more to genetics, and its aesthetic repercussion is not usually as great as the cases that we will assess in the following sections.
- solar lentigines: lentigines are brown spots, with a more or less clear but irregular outline, which appear dotted in areas where the sun has hit us over the years. Also called “cemetery spots”, one or multiple spots can appear in isolation, as is often seen on the back of the hands. Their size is highly variable: they can measure only millimeters or reach 1-2 centimeters.
It is common to attribute the appearance of solar lentigines to age. This is partly true, but only partly, because in reality they are not so linked to the years lived, but rather to the time that skin has spent under the sun. At the same time, with less sun, those lentigines probably wouldn’t be there.
- Melasma: melasma is also known as chloasma or “pregnant cloth”. It is a type of stain typical of women of childbearing age, with the average age for its appearance being 28 years. Its greater frequency occurs in those who have been pregnant or who take contraceptives. However, it is not at all uncommon for women without any of this circumstance to also suffer from it. And, although less frequently, it can also occur in men, especially, as in women, in those with a brown skin tone.