Sunday, June 15, 2008
You can do a lot of damage to your skin before the age of 18.
Unfortunately, baby boomers weren't exactly hip to the benefits of sunscreen when we were young, which is why many of us are seeing strange new spots on our faces these days. But how do you know which spots are normal signs or aging and which are skin cancer?
I went to my dermatologist and removed all my makeup to find out.
Video
Baby Boomers feeling effects of ‘sun worshipping’
Baby Boomers feeling effects of ‘sun worshipping’
Dermatologist Dr. Buxton said, “You do have some of the lentigoes, which are the light brown spots. You have a large one here on your jaw line; a few others just scattered across your face. And they can certainly get fairly dark, over time, like the one on your forehead.”
Lentigos, while unsightly, are not cause for alarm. Neither is a seborea keratosis, in spite of its scary name.
“Seboreah keratosis are thickening of the skin that people get as they get old,” Dr. Buxton said.
So how can you differentiate between these irregular spots and those that might signify skin cancer?
Dr. Buxton said, “Normally when a person gets these larger freckles, called lentigoes, they tend to get quite a number of them at the same time, or soon, one after the other. So when you're developing a number of things that look very similar, the chances of them all being cancerous are less. So you're looking for things that are outlying. Very unusual colors, not just a uniform light brown, but multiple colors mixed in. Things that have a texture, things that have redness, things that are easily irritated or bleed.”
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