Hello. I am Lee Sang-ju, a dermatologist. Today, we will learn more about facial redness, which can worsen in chilly weather like these days.
What is facial redness?
Facial redness literally refers to the phenomenon of the face easily turning red. It's easy to understand it as a type of facial redness when our face turns red when we are angry or nervous.
Why does facial redness occur?
The causes of facial redness are very diverse.
- Constitutional factors: People with fair skin and visible blood vessels may experience facial redness easily.
- Environmental factors: Prolonged exposure to UV rays or cold weather can easily cause facial redness.
- Internal medical conditions: Facial redness can also occur due to certain internal medical conditions.
- Dermatological conditions: Dermatological conditions such as rosacea can also cause facial redness. Rosacea is not a disease caused by excessive alcohol consumption, but a condition where the face easily turns rosy red and inflammation occurs. Facial redness often appears as the earliest symptom of rosacea.
How can facial redness be treated?
There are broadly three ways to treat facial redness: medication, laser and light therapy, and daily management.
1. Medication: Oral and topical medications
Medication includes oral and topical drugs.
- Oral medications: Since facial redness is caused by easily dilated blood vessels, oral medications are those that induce vasoconstriction. However, they can affect the entire body, not just the face, so they are not widely used in clinical practice.
- Topical medications: Recently, topical medications that improve facial redness by inducing vasoconstriction have also become available. A representative example is Mirvaso, which has the advantage of calming redness from morning until evening when applied. However, such drug treatments aim for temporary symptom relief rather than fundamental cure, so it is advisable to combine them with other treatments.
2. Laser and light therapy: Methods to improve redness
Laser and light therapies like IPL improve redness by destroying the blood vessels that cause facial redness. Representative lasers include V-beam Laser and Synergy Kill Laser, which are pulsed dye lasers. These lasers selectively act only on blood vessels, destroying the vessels that cause facial redness.
Facial redness is known to be a very difficult condition to treat. In particular, it is not easy to treat in a clinic because redness appears and then subsides when it gets cold. Recently, new methods such as erythema-induced laser treatment, where a vasodilator is applied to the face to make it redder before laser treatment, are showing good results, and many research findings are being published.
Facial redness treatment: Remember these!
There are three important points in treating facial redness:
- Start treatment early: Facial redness is progressive and often worsens. Therefore, starting treatment as early as possible helps improve treatment outcomes.
- Consistent treatment: Facial redness does not disappear completely with a single treatment; consistent treatment is necessary to achieve good results.
- Good daily management: Facial redness is heavily influenced by external factors. Therefore, paying attention to general health management is very important for improving treatment outcomes.
Daily life management for facial redness
Even with treatment, facial redness can recur at any time if management is neglected. It is important to avoid environments that easily dilate blood vessels.
- Food: Avoid spicy and hot foods.
- Alcohol and tobacco: Alcohol is known to dilate blood vessels, and tobacco also dilates blood vessels, so it is best to avoid them.
- Environment: Avoid places with rapid temperature changes, such as saunas.
- Cosmetics: Always use sunscreen and moisturize sufficiently.
- Health management: If you are tired or stressed, the overall condition of your skin can worsen, so it is advisable to pay attention to your general health.
This has been dermatologist Lee Sang-ju.