What is Rosacea and how can it be treated?

Since April is Rosacea awareness month, let’s discuss a condition that affects over 14 million individuals in the US. Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory skin condition where people blush or flush more easily than others. Redness usually occurs on the cheeks, nose, forehead or chin. In addition to redness, people can sometimes develop acne-like breakouts in the areas of redness. While prescription medications can help control the acne-like breakouts, reducing the redness requires a procedure such as laser treatment.

The redness seen in Rosacea is due to tiny capillaries that grow close to the skin surface. With certain triggers such as sunlight, alcohol, hot liquids and spicy foods, these capillaries swell up and this causes you to flush. Certain types of laser can target these capillaries and therefore reduce the amount of visible redness. I love the Aerolase Neo for treating redness. The Neo laser gently passes through the top layer of skin without damaging it and attacks the tiny capillaries with no downtime after the treatment.

Each treatment with laser reduces your redness by a shade (think about the different shades on pink/red a paint color card). The best way to get longer lasting results is to stack your treatments and schedule them 4-6 weeks apart, allowing you to build on your previous results.

Over time, your skin will develop new vessels on the surface so maintenance treatments to prevent the redness from creeping back are recommended. Many patients opt to have maintenance treatments every 6 months or so. Since laser treatments are not recommended during the summer months due to UV light exposure, it’s wise to schedule your maintenance visits in the early spring and in the late fall.

If you’re interested in laser treatment for Rosacea, or getting more information, click here to schedule an appointment.