Lesson 3 : What to aware of when choosing a skin pigmentation treatment

Do you know that there are many failures in treating skin pigmentation can be avoided if you spend a little bit of time on this article? I am Alexander Ho, a Chinese medicine physician from Malaysia. I had been treating Melasma and freckles by Chinese herbs since the year 2008.

Almost every day, I had been receiving many e-mails that complaining about their skin pigmentation treatment. I have heard enough of that, and I need to do something in order to create an awareness for those who really suffering from melasma or freckles, I want everyone to know more before they choose the right skin pigmentation solution. It is very important to make sure you get the result without damaging your skin.

There are millions of cream in the market that claim to remove dark spots. To make it easy to understand, those creams normally work as exfoliate the surface of your skin, they usually involve peeling or bleaching effect. The formula often combined with Fluocinolone, hydroquinone, tretinoin etc. Those products often giving promising result, they give very quick result, that people will find their skin tone become fairer , dark spots fade out, skin texture become smoother and soft as baby skin in a very short period of time.

But after a while, the users will notice their skin become very sensitive, although they might still receiving the benefit of dark spots or patches are fading off very quickly. However, those creams give many side effects while treating your skin pigmentation issues, they removed and break down your outer layer of skin, that create a false impression that your skin become very smooth and soft, but the fact is your skin is getting thinner every day. When the skin cells immunity become lower, it gradually losing the ability of protecting the skin against the damages from sun (UV rays), haze, dusts and environment pollution. As a result of that, the oxidation level in skin has increased and the inflammation of skin often make the production of Melanin become faster. Therefore, the skin become very sensitive, such as redness developed, irritation，itchiness and pain occur like burning sensation, some even complain their skin peeling off. Apart from the allergic reaction, the dark spots or patches become very stubborn and even more difficult to get rid off.

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The example :

Hi Dr. Ho. Are there any side effect of long term using Triluma cream for my liver spots on face? I had been using this cream for 3 months, I see visible result, the liver spots are healed almost 80%. However, I noticed my skin become very sensitive during the second months. I always felt the burning sensation on tge cheek area. There are small tiny broken blood vessels are also noticeable on my cheek area. So, I decided to change the way of application of Triluma cream, I apply a moisturizing cream first, then I will wait for another 15 mins to apply Triluma cream. Besides that, I decided to apply Trimula cream every other day, this mean to reduce the usage of Triluma cream. Unfortunately thing get worst just in 2 weeks, those liver spots come back again. I was so frustrated, I will have to switch back to the original Trimula routine -- apply daily. This time I apply Triluma cream first, then follow with moisturizer after 15 minutes. Now, the liver spots seem to disappear again. But my face become sensitive again, the burning sensation make me feel very uncomfortable. Even when I apply my moisturizer, the burning sensation still there. I want to know if there are side effect after using this cream? I am thinking of apply to my eyes area, as there are some dark spots I want to get rid off. Please help.

Answer :
Your Tri luma cream contain steroid, it deliver very fast result, but it will cause skin thinning, the most you use , the worst your skin become. The tiny blood vessels on your cheek bone mean your skin surface are very thin. People get very sensitive skin after using this cream, it often develop very serious skin burning sensation when apply. The longer period of time in using this cream, the skin damage badly, but if the user try to reduce the dosage, or do it every alternative day or try to stop it, the skin might become more dark. It is a very suffering decision to make, because the user are in the dilemma that giving them no choice. You will have to choose between  a temporary result but will gradually damage your skin? Or using natural herbal product that won't burn your skin? There are side effects in your cream. If you apply to your eyes, worst thing might happen that the harmfulness ingredient of Tri luma cream can penetrate into your eyeballs through the skin near by your eyes. You don't simply appear dangerous steroid cream to your eyes area. When your eyes become blind, how?

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I used to use Triluma, it was great at first but it made my skin very very thin. I had no idea that my facial skin was very thin until one day I waxed my face!!!! My skin peeled out, just image the pain and horror I went through.

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In the cosmetic market, there are products with combination or specially formulated with hydroquinone, a phenolic hypopigmenting agent, azelaic acid, and retinoic acid (Tretinoin), nonphenolic bleaching agents, and or kojic acid. Some are prescribed by doctor, which the side effects are being monitored. However, there are cosmetic companies who seek for higher profit, they produce pigmentation creams that secretly added the above ingredients. Consumers may not know the side effects that will harm their face in the future. Therefore, you need to understand the purpose of treating skin pigmentation and you must be aware of face creams that contain harmful ingredients. It is not good to rise up new problems such as making your skin allergic, skin thinning , visible blood vessels and new spots.

Find out if the ingredients of your face cream can caused cancer, tumors, teratogenic (harmful to your baby) and mutagenic. There are bleaching cream with high acidic level could over stimulate your skin that produce white spots, dryness and desquamation.

For those who have used millions of cream and notice the Melasma or Freckles become very stubborn to get rid off. I am so sorry to tell you that it is not so easy to cure, because for the multiple bleaching or peeling effects from very acidic creams, the repeated skin inflammations make the Melanin sink and very difficult to remove. This is what we called "Exogenous Ochronosis". The skin often become very rough, sensitive, with all kind of old and new dark spots or patches that usually come with very dark colour.

Lasers treatment or Intense Pulse Light (IPL) may be used in Melasma and Freckles. These kind of treatments might be very effective in breaking down the dark spots immediately and deliver fast result. However, there are no 100% satisfaction guaranteed the skin pigmentation will completely removed. It really depend on what type of skin pigmentation issues and the shade of the dark spots. Patient need to know there are many type of laser and IPL machines in the market, the quality and safety of the machine and the skills or experiences of a doctor are very important contribution for a successful treatment.

The higher is the the energy light , the skin might bleed, swollen, red, scab formed or peel off. Although doctors mentioned the spots or patches normally become darker in 2-3 months, and it will be fully disappear after that down time. But from what we see, many are not fully recovered from the treatment. What happened is their skin tone become darken and their dark patches increase in size or new dark spots seem to develop. Therefore,  when choosing for such a treatment method, a patient must mentally prepared to face the side effects.

We believe no methods can treat Melasma and Freckles effectively, if we do not treat the root. That is the causes of skin pigmentation. If we don't shut down the machine that keep on producing Melanin, there will be very little result from treating the surface of skin. In Chinese Medicine theory, we treat skin issues from the inner, that is to make the organs function at it peak, so when the entire body become healthy, we will be able to combat dark spots effectively.