Introduction to Melasma/Pigmentation
Melasma is a stubborn skin condition defined by blue-gray, brown, or tan spots, also seen as skin discoloration. The skin condition is most commonly seen in women in the middle of their reproductive cycles. Melasma is a variety of facial pigmentation, and it’s found in 3 different areas of the face: the cheekbones, the center portion of the beginning, and the jawline.
Though some will see Melasma on their forehead, nose bridge, and jaw, it may surface on different parts of the body, including the arms, chest, or neck—any patch of skin that comes into contact with the sun a lot.
Treatment Principles
Carbon Blasting
Carbon Blasting is a peeling treatment process that serves best for people with dull skin, oily skin, acne, blackheads, and enlarged pores on the face or body. It is an effective way to rejuvenate and shed the dull-dead skin, providing an immediate rekindling look while leaving prettier, firmer, and softer skin.
In this process, a liquid carbon layer is applied to the affected skin, penetrating beneath into the pores. Laser light is extremely attracted to the carbon parts. When the laser light hangs over the area, it damages the carbon, carrying away the oil, bacteria, dead skin cells, and infections with it. This method provides many benefits to the skin like shedding fat, reducing Acne, Cleansing, Exfoliating, and Revitalizing.
Cosmelan® Peels or ZO® Peels for Melasma
Cosmelan® Peel is a pharmaceutical procedure used mainly for treating different kinds of pigmentations of the face, neck, and hands. This peel is helpful in enhancing fairness and thus augmenting skin radiance. It takes less than 10 minutes to conduct a Cosmelan peel, and the patient can take off the peel with normal water at home.
ZO 3 Peel is an exfoliating peel worked in the Melasma treatment that works by promoting both ZO Skin regular healthy skincare routine and ZO Medical healing mechanisms to stretch and excite their potential. ZO® Peels are formed to be performed as a series of treatments for constant skin health revitalization and recovery.
ZO 3 peel layers off the external skin layers, replenishes the deeper layers of skin, and encourages skin cells’ functioning. It further helps decrease the skin burns caused by peels, pollution, hormones, and sun. ZO 3 peel also improves fine lines, wrinkles, large/open pores, acne, texture roughness, sun damage, and skin dullness. An exciting thing about the peel is that is suitable and safe for all skin type and tones.
Glycolic Acid and Priming
Glycolic acid is impressively beneficial in shedding and flipping up the skin to ‘bounce’ out the unnecessary pigmentation. Performed slowly, chemical peels can significantly improve with treating Melasma.
o improve the actual impact of glycolic peels in the treatment of Melasma, priming agents, particularly and retinoic acid (0.025%) and Hydroquinone (2%), are commonly used on the skin to make the skin for the peel and also help in removing out the excessive pigmentation.
Salicylic and Glycolic acid is technically equivalent in terms of efficacy. The pre-peel priming of the skin using topical Tretinoin may be crucial before beginning the peeling treatment for Melasma. Priming facial skin using topical Tretinoin before performing peeling for melasma treatment is predominantly suggested for better efficacy.
Chemical Peels
Light chemical peels involve the method of using salicylic acid, glycolic acid, or other chemical syntheses to drop off the top layers of skin from the desired areas of the face for an also even skin tone and texture. After completing the procedure, the skin will become sensitive and pink—many say it feels almost like a mild sunburn. After several days, the skin will begin to peel. Superficial skin peels can be sent every two months.
Mesotherapy
This treatment course involves injecting small quantities of pharmaceutic drugs, vitamins, plant extracts, homeopathic, removing agents, anti-aging composites, and other ingredients just below the surface of the skin via injection. This direct penetration mainly affects the targeted area immediately and produces apparent effects with reduced downtime.
For intensified pigmentation like Melasma, skin imperfections, post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation, and this process of Mesotherapy function most desirably to bring lightening agents such as Vitamin C and Glutathione to direct into the layers of skin. Notable change can be seen in just 3-4 sittings.
Not just an optimum treatment for Melasma, but it additionally helps in peeling off the wrinkles and fine lines, rectifying sun-damaged skin, and serves as a jewel glow treatment. Scar filling, critically caused by acne, can be performed upon by delivering ingredients like hyaluronic acid into the afflicted areas.
Medication
- Hydroxyquinone (HQ)
It is the best possible and still frequently used the first-line agent, both solely and combined with other agents, although there are concerns about adverse effects with long-term use. This is the most common treatment choice for Melasma and is also regarded as the standard gold treatment by the National Institutes of Health for treating Melasma; one can procure the most effective cure for the problem.
- Tretinoin
Owing to Tretinoin’s potential to promote and facilitate the effects of Hydroquinone and improve the effectiveness of other treatments, your dermatologist may guide Tretinoin.
Sometimes prescribed as an addition to HQ, added boost of help for some cases that don’t react to HQ solely. Sequences of Tretinoin with Hydroquinone HQ, with topical or without a topical corticosteroid, have been excited.
- Corticosteroid
Many healthcare experts promote prescription products that contain three ingredients: retinoid, corticosteroid, and Hydroquinone. These factors are a by-product of vitamin A and increase keratinocyte turnover, helping speed up skin cell turnover and decreased melanocyte activity, decreasing inflammation..
They also uplift the acceptable capacity of the epidermis, allowing for better administration of add-on treatments. It is quintessential to abstain from guiding systemic retinoid therapy to pregnant or planning to become pregnant.
Mandelic Acid
Received from the sour almonds, Mandelic acid is an alpha hydroxy acid. However, the Mandelic acid is calibrated to perforate less intensely into the skin but is quite gentle on the skin. But following the above two steps makes for the peel’s pathway to go deeper into the skin.
Presently, Mandelic acid is a go-to anti-aging substance in the cosmetic care industry. Application of Mandelic Acid two days before Cosmelan Therapy is mainly fruitful to increase cell turnover by dispensing the tiny bonds that bind skin cells together, assisting in eliminating dead skin from the skin’s surface cause fine lines, wrinkles, and dull/pale tones.
Mandelic acid also helps in increasing collagen that gives the young skin firmness. This expedited flow of scraping thins out the surface skin layer called the layer corneum.