Hi, my name is Weilan Johnson and I’m a board-certified dermatologist for U.S. Dermatology Partners. Today I’m going to talk about skin discoloration and what are the common causes of skin discoloration as well as common treatments for skin discoloration.
One of the most common types of skin discoloration is a condition called melasma. Melasma is a condition typically that affects the face, but it can also affect the neck and the arms. It’s a darker discoloration of the skin in areas of the skin that tend to get exposed to sunlight. For example, the central forehead or the apples of the cheeks. This type of discoloration can also be caused by hormonal changes so about 90% of people that have melasma are actually women. Sometimes puberty can bring it on, pregnancy and menopause are also common causes of melasma. Thankfully, melasma can be treated by multiple different topical creams. These are all prescribed by board-certified dermatologists.
There are a few different ingredients in the treatments that we can prescribe, and we often will compound these medications together so you can get one or two or three different medications for melasma in one cream. One of our first active ingredients for treating melasma is a medicine called Hydroquinone. Hydroquinone is a great treatment for lightening up skin discoloration. We usually pair it with another medication class called retinoids and furthermore, we usually put a very mild topical steroid in there. The reason for that is because Hydroquinone and retinoids can be very slightly irritating to the skin, so the topical steroids help to improve tolerance and compliance with the two other topicals and other active ingredients.
Finally, there are other acids that sometimes we’ll prescribe. One is called azoleic acid, another one is called kojic acid and oftentimes these are prescribed in combination with one of the other ingredients that we discussed to treat skin discoloration. Also, we recommend adhering to very strict sun protective measures such as wearing a UPF hat, a wide-brim sun hat as well as sunscreen, and making sure to reapply frequently because UV light is a very common cause of melasma and this type of skin discoloration.
If you feel you’re having a concern with skin discoloration you can visit our website at USDermatologyPartners.com to find a location nearest you.
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