Sunscreen WARNING!!
This is important! (and it’s true)
You may have the WRONG sunscreen and it can leave your face seriously damaged!!
I recently treated a patient that tried to do everything right. After a very extensive (and expensive) full face procedure that she waited months to schedule, she almost ended up looking worse rather than better and waiting another year to start over. During the critical recovery period she protected her face with a nationally known brand of sunscreen that is advertised as SPF 70 and having some of the most amazing new chemical blocks that are the latest and greatest ways to protect yourself. NOT!!! And, this is not the only patient I’ve seen have problems using this product! So read on if you want to learn how to protect yourself and how to choose the right sunscreen.
With Summer coming and all that Florida Sun, serious skin damage (yes, even skin cancer) can be only a day away. As I tell everyone of my patients, over and over, the first and most important thing you can do for your skin is “to use sunscreen”. The second thing I tell them they should do is … re-apply sunscreen every hour or two. But if you’re using the wrong kind of sunscreen, it’s not going to help you at all. The more ingredients you put on your skin (sunscreens with dozens of ingredients), and then expose to broad spectrum radiation (sun), then add heat (summer temperatures) and moisture (sweat), the more likely you are going to have a bad reaction (rash, burn, acne, allergic reaction, blisters, hyper or hypo pigmentation, etc.). “But it says it has SPF!” or “It had the biggest number thingy!” Please, just try to remember this: the words “titanium dioxide” or the words “zinc oxide” should be in the list of ingredients and they must total AT LEAST 10%. Or, just call me.
“But, what about UVA and UVB and these chemicals that can absorb 10000 times more of UVXYZ??” And, “What about this newest sunscreen/block/barrier/dam from Europe/Africa/Mars that has an SPF of 800++??” The SPF rates only the UVB protection. If you research how the FDA determines the SPF value of a sunscreen you’d realize that to actually have protection equal to the rated SPF, you would typically have to use the entire contents of your tube of sunscreen on just the surface of your face, assuming you had the larger tube. No, that doesn’t mean ‘blending it into the skin’ either. That is why, if you’re not going to use sunscreen a 16th of an inch thick (and then not sweat), you need to keep re-applying it every 45 to 90 minutes. As long as you have an SPF of 30, you’re fine. The words “broad spectrum” on the tube does not mean it covers UVA well. You need Titanium dioxide or Zinc Oxide, the most common ingredients on the market and the least likely to have any adverse side effects. They are the best blockers of UVA, proven safe for decades, and are truly “broad spectrum” screens.
Just because you don’t get “burned” does not mean the sunscreen has worked. Many people experience long term darkening after sun exposure resulting in uneven skin tones, spots and changes in pigmentation, not to mention the cancer issue mentioned above.
There are over a thousand different sunscreens out there to sift through. Everyone’s got their gimmick. Just try not to get burned by them.
