Treatments and Skin Care

Online Dermatology Advice / News Letter / Message Board

Contents

Steroids
Care of Dry Skin
Hair removal by IPL (Intense Pulsed Light therapy)
IPL (Intense Pulsed Light therapy) and Laser therapy
Cosmetic surgery
Surgery for tumor removal
Information about how to take care of your skin in the sun (this link connects a different page).
 

Steroids
Steroids are chemicals naturally produced by the body and have anti-inflammatory actions. They are also produced synthetically in preparations to be taken by mouth, by injection and onto the skin in creams. The creams are mainly used in the treatment of eczema. Creams are available in very weak forms such as 1% hydrocortisone, or in much stronger formulations. It is important to take medical advice about how strong your steroid creams are and in what quantities you should be applying them onto the skin. Strong steroids (either internally or onto the skin surface can have side effects after prolonged use).

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Care of Dry Skin
Certain types of skin disorder are related to loss of natural oils from the skin. Washing the skin with soap and water further reduces the skin's natural content of oils and these oils need replacing. The following instructions should help:

Oily Baths The addition of pure corn oil (e.g. Mazola), bought from a normal shop, is always helpful. 1 - 2 egg cups full of Mazola should be added to your normal 9 inches of bath water. You should remain in the bath water for at least ten minutes on two occasions per week. Other oily bath additives are also available. The addition of oil to the bath water will make the bath surface slippery so be extra careful. The bath can easily be cleaned afterwards with any household surface cleanser.

Soap should only be used for the armpits, groins, hands and feet. To any dry skin areas on the arms, body and legs, you should always use a soap substitute cream such as Aqueous cream BP, oily cream BP, emulsifying ointment, or E45. These soap substitutes can also be applied to the skin as frequently as you like during the day to moisturise any dry skin.

If you are also using creams for your eczema, these should be applied in the normal way, twice a day, to inflamed skin and these applications should be fitted around instructions 1 and 2.

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INTENSE PULSED LIGHT (IPL) AND LASER THERAPIES
Very intense light aimed onto the skin is capable of destroying various skin tissues. The medical benefits of this treatment are dependent upon the light being able to kill off the problem tissues without destroying valuable nearby tissues and hopefully without leaving too much of a scar or other mark.

As an example - if you have a blood vessel exaggeration of a severe type (referred to as a port-wine stain or PWS) the aim of treatment is to SELECTIVELY remove the unwanted blood vessels WITHOUT at the same time destroying other nearby skin tissues.

Similarly, if you want to remove unwanted hair, the aim is to destroy the hair follicles in the skin without disturbing the appearance of the skin overlying the hair follicles.

There is a section in the current News Page discussing some aspects of laser therapy for wrinkles, resurfacing, etc.

We are very shortly going to introduce a picture gallery of conditions at this site for you to get some idea of what conditions can be treated by these types of therapies - please revisit soon!!

Hair removal

Here are photos of a male who wanted his beard area treated - the photos show the result after 21 days at 2 test treatment sites each roughly corresponding to the rectangles shown. The hair in the treatment areas is very much diminished and the few remaining hairs in the sites are very small and shrunken - they will probably disappear after a second treatment. Due to the cyclical nature of hair growth - hair removal treatments need to be spread over a period of months to catch dormant hairs (in the telogen phase of the cycle) as they start to regrow.

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COSMETIC SURGERY PROCEDURES

 There are many different types of procedure which fall under this heading. I feel that it is really the subject of another full website which we are constructing soon. I am also going to list for you some good contacts on the Links page but I need to investigate the sites first so that you receive sensible information. Please let me know if you want us to visit your own site and list it or if you have knowledge of helpful sites please let us know.

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Skin Surgery

Skin surgery is usually performed for the removal of skin tumors. Many skin tumors are entirely benign (non-cancerous) but some are malignant (cancerous). The commonest cancerous skin tumor removed is the Basal Cell Carcinoma. Most skin surgery is performed under local anesthetic (an injection into the skin under the tumor to turn the area numb). Therefore most patients can eat and drink in the normal way and are fit to return home immediately after surgery. Taking drugs which thin the blood and therefore promote easy bleeding can complicate surgery - these drugs include warfarin (coumarin) and aspirin. You need to discuss your drug medications with your doctor before attending for surgery.

Sometime stitches are put into the skin but on other occasions the skin is left to heal naturally - it depends on what type of skin surgery you are having. Either way, it is usually advised to keep the treatment area completely dry for 3 - 5 days after surgery and protected with a dressing.

SKIN SURGERY
Skin Surgery can involve a stitching or a non-stitching type of approach. Most Skin Cancer surgery requires stitches - the resulting scar is located along the lines of natural skin creases, eg eye wrinkles, giving the best cosmetic outcome.
 

Dressings are especially important overnight in bed where accidental scratching or rubbing can cause bleeding , irritation, etc. After this first few days it is possible to wet the area for only a couple of minutes (e.g. a very very quick shower) but the treatment site should then immediately be dried with a hair dryer and an antiseptic spray or cream applied. The antiseptic should be repeated twice per day until healing has occurred. Stitches are typically removed 7 - 14 days after surgery. Scalp wounds can usually be rapidly shampooed and then dried in the same way.

Surgery scars heal according to the body site and the tension on the skin. The worst areas for healing are the skin sites stretched over any prominent bone such as the shin bone, the breast bone and the tip of the shoulder. In general a skin scar will remain red for about 2 - 3 months before gradually turning white and becoming much less visible.

There are several more specialised branches of skin surgery which we aim to provide further details about soon - these include laser surgery, plastic surgery, Moh's surgery, liposuction, etc.

 We shall shortly be providing a comprehensive medical register of doctors involved in skin surgery. If you would like to be included in this new service and you are medically qualified please contact us with details.

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