saw it started noticing some subtle brightening kind of effects and some slight fading of some long-term persistent post inflammatory hyperpigmentation that I personally have on my face as a result of my teenage years using the st. Ives apricot scrub so yeah bad news bears of that one that's one that if you're using stop doing that because it's a that
caused my post inflammatory hyperpigmentation for sure yeah it takes a long time I mean okay so I had eliminated the st. Ives years ago you know I've been wearing sunscreen which is something I'll talk about in a bit I've been wearing sunscreen diligently like every single day for years from decades still had the post inflammatory hyperpigmentation and not until I started at the retinoid and was doing well on the red wine there was no irritation from the retinoid you know six six eight months down the road then I started saying hey didn't I used to have some some dark stuff over here and I
don't really see it as much anymore okay so that's just my personal journey everyone's gonna be different you know so I can't speak on behalf of you you know it's it's all very individualized and like I said it depends on where in the skin the pigment is for you and in my case the pigment that I saw that faded probably was you know up higher in my skin but you know regardless of what you do okay treatment begins with sunscreen I'm belabor this point in pretty much every blog of mine and that's kind of my agenda on here okay is pushing sunscreen because I know as for a fact you know as a dermatologist that whatever you pursue in you know treating your hyperpigmentation melasma dark spots it's kind of
futile is futile if you don't have rigorous sun protection onboard I mentioned this yesterday but I'm just gonna reiterate it today sunscreens that you should be using are those that are zinc or titanium dioxide here in the u.s. they offer a good protection against UVB definitely the Sun the wavelength of Sun that burns our skin and that contributes to skin cancer but they also offer a fairly respectable on protection against UVA okay and for you guys and gals out there battling post
inflammatory hyperpigmentation melasma UVA is something that you definitely need to be cognizant of that's that is a key driver in post inflammatory hyperpigmentation and melasma it is not the wavelength from the Sun that burns you okay you will not perceive UVA in your mind okay you will not there's not a sensory response to UVA okay you don't feel it or anything like that it's just hitting your skin aging it and contributing to discoloration wrinkles and also can
contribute to skin cancer okay so UVA protection is important you know for everybody but definitely in the setting of post inflammatory hyperpigmentation melasma here in the u.s. sunscreens that contain zinc or titanium dioxide in them offer good protection into those wavelengths however they have this shortcoming of the fact that they don't really have much cosmetic appeal okay so they leave behind this unsightly white shield I you know completely sympathize
with that nobody wants that nobody wants that white cast it is unsightly okay so there are our formulations where they micro sized the particles to get them gonna tip to blend into the skin a little bit better and those are nice and you know then you're kind of left with the other type of sunscreens which are the chemical sunscreens and here in the US are chemical sunscreens the filter within them that Texas for the most part against UVA is a mob endzone okay it does a decent job of that however it degrades pretty quickly alright so you know regardless of what the sunscreen that you
have chosen is I think a really really important thing for you to understand is that you have to continuously reapply it because you know a you wipe it off throughout the day even if you're not even if you don't realize that you certainly do and be you know the coverage is just not lasting the protection is not lasting the third component that you should look for it's something called iron oxides and that tends to be present in your tinted sunscreens and your mineral makeups
iron oxides protect a little bit more into the visible range of light invisible white we're finding out actually can contribute on a low level to post inflammatory hyperpigmentation in melasma and dark spots so selecting a sunscreen that contains zinc titanium dioxide and iron oxide really is you know kind of your abet BFF if you will and the iron oxide the tint to those sunscreens can kind of help with that white cast so I can let some down below admittedly I'm not impressed with the color spectrum that they offer so you know please share if you have a tinted sunscreen that you use and like and let me know if it comes in you know more than light medium and dark because to me that's just not
enough I mean people coming far far more shades than that and so you know we need more more more more of a spectrum but and with sun protection not only is it the SPF not only is it the sunscreen but it's also just not like sunbathing and going out and like laying out you know all day in the Sun you know where I had embraced wearing a broad brim hat and looking like like you know kind of a little batty your skin will thank you for it so it's being cognizant it's those behaviors that are really necessary for everybody but key definitely for getting rid of dark spots for sure and I
can list some my favorite sun protection down below as well but after you've done those things you know the next thing is like well what other creams are there that can like bleach the skin that can brighten the skin that can whiten the skin and part of brightening effect there are a few ingredients that are very effective at helping along the way and you know they can inhibit some of the biology pigment cell production and in that kind of thing yesterday I talked all about Trenton Owen for this so I'm not even going to that I'm trying no one in the United States is available by prescription
only and try looma likewise I talked about yesterday so if you missed that blog go check it out I talked about tread Nolan and tri luma they're both great for melasma and post inflammatory hyperpigmentation and I talked about their you know individual shortcomings and that sort of thing so I won't get into that here as far as hydroquinone I talked a little bit about it yesterday I've talked about it in other blogs hydroquinone is safe however it does have side effects that you know irritation and when used on a long-term basis it can actually cause something called pseudo okra noses um where
in you know it has some off-target effects on certain enzymes in the skin and can leave these kind of deposits in the skin and result in discoloration of the skin and that is for the most part although not exclusively seen with using hai hai hai % shrinks like higher than 4% for example for an extended period of time like greater than a year okay there's a lot of controversy around hydroquinone you know it was banned and it's been banned in many countries and over-the-counter products you know there's a lot of fear around it and but for the most part what we know about its safety it's
been used for a long time I get a lot of questions is hydroquinone cost cancer and no it doesn't the biggest risk with hydroquinone honestly is the irritation and that potential risk of okra nosis with long term use so generally it's cautioned that hydroquinone not be used continuously for more than 16 weeks at a time without a break and definitely not continuously you know for like greater than a year okay and so people always want me to address know the nuances of that like well like how how many weeks of a break and going back to it and that's something you need to discuss with
a treating physician period because depending on how irritated you are from the hydroquinone you mean it may be something you should never go back to you but maybe you got a little irritation you took a break from it the irritation got better and the physician the physician felt like the hydroquinone could be resumed okay so it's very individualized but do you know that it can help a lot it's kind of the gold standard for these things but it does have that risk and you know and over-the-counter products here in the US it's sold my 2% strength the four percent strain that you can get in a prescription is you know a lot more effective and then in combination with threatenin and a corticosteroid and tri luma as i mentioned yesterday is very effective okay so you know you can get