Sunspots – New Daylight PDT Treatment!

What is a Sunspot?

Sunspots (also known as actinic keratoses) are dry patches that occur on sun exposed areas of your skin, these patches come and go and and can be a little bit tender. The commonest sites are the face, hands and arms although they can occur anywhere. They have the potential to turn into skin cancer (Squamous Cell Carcinoma or SCC) and therefore should be removed if possible. 

Treating Your Sunspots:

Until now treatment options for removing Sunspots have been rather unattractive for various reasons. This list existing treatments includes freezing (cryotherapy), excision (cutting out), Efudix cream (5-FU), Aldara cream (imiquimod), and Picato cream (ingenol mebutate). Cryotherapy and excision can cause scarring. Efudix, Aldara and Picato give very little mark afterwards but cause unsightly redness, crusting and burning during treatment which may last a few weeks. With a big long list, it is hard to decide on the best option for you.

Now there is a new option that gives a similar cure rate to previous therapies but usually has significantly less downtime.

Daylight PDT – New Treatment

“Daylight PDT” is an effective treatment conducted at Lotus Dermatology that involves applying a photosensitising cream to the face and exposing the face to visible light for two hours before washing it off. Afterwards the skin is pink like a sunburn and will peel over the next week, but in most cases avoids significant redness, crusting, or erosions that are commonly experienced with other treatment options. Using daylight instead of a concentrated light source means this new PDT is also generally less painful than other treatments. An attractive option amongst others for treating and removing your sunspots.