What is sun damage (also called photodamage)?

Excess sun will damage skin over time resulting in thinning of the skin, wrinkles, telangiectasias, solar elastosis, brown spots (solar lentigos), actinic keratoses which are rough scaly patches or spots which can sometimes be tender and ultimately various skin cancers.

What is the treatment of sun damage?

Treatment depends on which manifestation of sun damage we wish to treat. If we’re aiming to treat the wrinkles, solar elastosis and thinning of the skin then lasers like Sciton Profractional or Sciton Contour TRL are suitable. If we’re aiming to treat manifestations such as brown spots (lentigos) or telangiectasias (broken veins), or redness then lasers such as Sciton BBL Heroic or Sciton Clearsilk or Vbeam laser are efficacious and give excellent results. The Sciton BBL Heroic also results in an incredible increase in skin collagen thickness which gives a rejuvenated appearance. If we’re aiming to treat manifestations such as actinic keratoses then Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is a great option. This involves the application of a photosensitising cream which we leave on the skin before illuminating the area with an LED light or outdoor sun exposure i.e. daylight PDT. This is much preferable to cryotherapy which has a number of drawbacks. It has recently been scientifically established that treatment with ablative lasers such as Sciton Profractional laser reduces sun damage and also reduces the risk of skin cancer going forward. As an added benefit it also improves the patient’s appearance from a cosmetic point of view. Traditionally sun damage has been treated with cryotherapy which is effective but tends to leave noticeable unsightly white marks in the treated areas. Also cryotherapy is painful. Another option is a chemotherapeutic cream called Efudix which we can mix with calcipotriol cream to treat actinic keratoses. However, even if applied for a relatively short time of 5 days it can leave the patient with unsightly redness, swelling and crusting for up to 14 days. In summary, Dr. Joe Murphy’s favourite treatment for sun damage is Profractional-assisted Photodynamic Therapy.