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Getting rid of years’ worth of sunspots and other UV damage isn’t easy. At-home treatments such as apple cider vinegar or green tea lack scientific backup, and many patients fail to find relief despite trying every topical remedy they can find. So, what can you do when you’re plagued with sunspots that just won’t quit?

The reason sunspots are so persistent is because they are caused by extra pigmentation in the skin. When you go outdoors without sunscreen, UV radiation makes melanocytes (or pigmentation-producing cells) multiply, resulting in these flat, dark spots on your skin. Topical remedies don’t necessarily do anything to remove that extra pigmentation. You need a solution that addresses pigmentation at the source, such as the IPL photofacial.

What is the IPL Photofacial?

Also known as photorejuvenation or the fotofacial, the IPL photofacial is a non-invasive outpatient cosmetic procedure that can minimize sun spots, rosacea, and hyperpigmentation. It can also address textural issues, such as light wrinkles or enlarged pores.

How an IPL Photofacial Works

IPL stands for intense pulsed light. An IPL handpiece applies concentrated light energy to damaged spots on your skin, heating and destroying the melanin that creates the sun spots.

This is different than other types of facial treatments, such as laser skin resurfacing. Laser treatments actually remove the top layer of skin, and accordingly, they have a healing process that’s longer and more uncomfortable. IPL targets melanin without damaging your skin, and most patients report that it’s pain-free.

What to Expect During Your IPL Photofacial

During your IPL photofacial, you’ll wear an eye mask to protect your vision from the pulsed light. Your care provider may apply a cooling gel to your skin to keep you comfortable during the procedure. After this preparation is finished, your care provider will apply targeted light to your skin using a small handpiece. You may feel a slight snapping sensation, like a rubber band being snapped against your skin.

The length of your treatment may be as little as 5 minutes, or it may take a half hour or longer. This depends on the size of the area being treated. Right after your IPL photofacial, you might experience some redness and visible capillaries on the treated area. This is temporary, and it usually goes away within hours. Some patients have post-procedure redness for longer, up to a week or so. This is common if you had a larger area treated, or if the skin damage you’re treating is more severe.

After Your IPL Photofacial

Make sure to avoid UV exposure and wear sunscreen for two weeks after an IPL photofacial. Your skin is more vulnerable than usual right after this procedure, and sun damage during the healing period can lessen your results. Other than that, there’s literally no downtime: you can schedule an appointment during your lunch hour and return to work right after your treatment.

You’ll probably return for two to four more treatments after the initial one, spaced two to four weeks apart. The number of treatments you need depends on your skin, so discuss your IPL photofacial with your care provider.

If you take good care of your skin post-procedure, you can expect the results of your IPL photofacial to potentially last for a year or more between touch-ups. The IPL photofacial is an excellent cosmetic tool for smoothing facial texture and reducing sun-related hyperpigmentation, including sunspots.

Ready for better, clearer skin? Schedule your appointment with Bella MedSpa now to take advantage of this innovative cosmetic technology for yourself. Call 813.773.1327 to speak with Dr. Yvette Suarez’ team today.

Sources

• https://www.docshop.com/education/dermatology/facial/photofacial
• https://www.realself.com/photofacial
• https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/a19551890/photo-facial-review-cost/
• https://www.healthline.com/health/sunspots-on-face#treatment
• https://www.healthline.com/health/ipl-treatment

The winter holidays are just around the corner, and it’s the perfect time to add some dazzle to your look as you gear up to host friends and family. The ultimate facial includes a four-fold combination of Microderm, Botox®, Juvéderm™, and HydraFacial treatments to bring the skin of your dreams home for the holidays.

What makes each of these procedures so ideal for jazzing up before the holidays? The benefits of each include:

• Non-invasive outpatient procedure
• Short procedure time (sometimes under 30 minutes)
• Fast results
• Quick recovery (return to work right after)

Time is essential during the holiday season. You don’t have time to cover up and recover for weeks after a skin rejuvenation procedure when you’ve got Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, the office holiday party, Christmas, and New Year’s Day in quick succession.

Here’s what you need to know about each component of the ultimate holiday facial: Continue reading “Sparkle and Shine for the Holidays: The Ultimate Facial” →

The natural aging process changes your face in many ways, including with deep wrinkles and reduced contour as your face gradually loses its natural volume.

You may notice that your cheeks are starting to look “deflated” with age. This is a phenomenon known as age-related midface volume loss. It creates a prematurely fatigued and sagging face, but you can fight back with Juvederm Voluma XC! Juvederm Voluma is an innovative dermal filler that uses hyaluronic acid to restore lost volume to your cheeks and help you once again feel youthful and radiant.

The Science of Juvederm Voluma XC

Juvederm Voluma XC uses hyaluronic acid to fill your cheeks with renewed volume. Hyaluronic acid also occurs naturally in your skin, tendons, and muscles, but it diminishes over time just like collagen and elastic.

As soon as smooth hyaluronic acid is injected into the apex, apple, and hollow of your cheeks, Voluma immediately goes to work to boost the skin with the volume it was previously lacking. This dermal filler creates results so quickly that you’ll see visible cheek volume before you even get to your car! Continue reading “Restoring Contour to the Cheeks: What You Need to Know About Voluma” →

Is there anything that Botox can’t do? Once only known as a quick and easy way to minimize wrinkles between the brows and along the forehead, Botox is now used for a growing number of impressive aesthetic purposes. If you want to preserve the youthfulness of your face without too much hassle, these Botox hacks will do the trick.

How Does Botox Work?

Botox is a neuromodulator that is injected directly into the specific facial muscles that cause wrinkles (or other cosmetic problems) to form. The purified proteins in Botox relax muscles by blocking the signals that control contractions. The same principles that reduce wrinkles can also achieve the following results.

Manage Acne By Slowing Oil Production

Botox isn’t commonly associated with acne, but the ability of Botox to reduce muscle activity can also be harnessed to minimize oil production in the forehead. Less oil leads to fewer breakouts and less noticeable acne. It’s important to only apply very small quantities of Botox superficially in the forehead in order to reduce oil production but maintain facial expressions.

Plump Up Your Lips

Thanks to Kylie Jenner, we all want sexy, voluminous lips. Dermal fillers are best known for creating instantly plumper lips, but Botox can actually have the same effect! Just a tiny injection of Botox along the upper lip border will roll the top lip upward so it appears plump and youthful. Continue reading “5 Ways You Can Use Botox to Treat the Face” →

It’s tempting to take a more relaxed approach to your beauty routine after summer ends, but the truth is that you need to maintain your beauty routine all year long. This is especially true in the fall, since your skin needs to recover from a full summer’s worth of sun exposure and damage. Use these treatments to create a stellar beauty routine and keep your skin looking vibrant.

Microdermabrasion for Regular Skin Rejuvenation

Microdermabrasion is one of the fastest cosmetic treatments available to restore healthy, attractive skin. You can use it as an isolated treatment, but it’s far more effective as a monthly part of your routine. Over a span of six treatments that only last 30 minutes each, microdermabrasion minimizes and reverses dull skin, hyperpigmentation, enlarged or clogged pores, and rough skin texture. Continued microdermabrasion can even reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, and acne scars by stimulating new collagen production.

IPL Photo Rejuvenation to Reverse Sun Damage

IPL photo rejuvenation is a laser skin treatment that directly targets the root causes of sun damage on your skin. The laser might be tuned to the red blood cells in your blood vessels or the brown pigment called melanin in your freckles, age spots, and birthmarks.

The light beam passes through your skin and is absorbed to either damage the blood vessel walls or force melanin pigment to break into fragments. The tiny vessels and melanin pigment are then absorbed by the body and flushed out of your system. The result? Brighter, clearer skin!

The IPL Photofacial is the ultimate treatment to help you maintain healthy, vibrant skin. It can be completed annually to support continued collagen growth, restore youthfulness to your complexion, and ensure that bothersome imperfections never return. Continue reading “Don’t Ditch Your Beauty Routine Just Because It’s Fall” →

The holiday season is a time of decadent meals, family gatherings, and countless pictures to commemorate the festivities. You want your smile to look perfect, but thin lips or deep wrinkles might be getting in the way. It’s actually possible to reverse those signs of aging without any drastic or expensive procedures. All it takes is the strategic use of dermal fillers to enhance your appearance and smile confidently all winter long.

Plump Your Lips and Wipe Away Vertical Lip Lines

Whether you struggle with thin lips, vertical lip line wrinkles, or both, Juvederm Volbella can transform your smile quickly and effectively. Volbella is specifically formulated to add subtle fullness to the lips. Its gel-like consistency gently contours your lips to enhance overall appearance without looking overdone. The same properties also gently fill vertical wrinkles above the top lip to keep you looking young and healthy.

Make Nasolabial and Marionette Lines Disappear

Some dermal fillers are formulated specifically to minimize bothersome nasolabial and marionette lines. Nasolabial lines are the laugh line wrinkles that run from each side of your nose to the corners of your lips, while marionette lines are the creases that run from the corners of your mouth down to your chin.

Restylane Refyne can quickly and easily make these unwanted wrinkles disappear. This next-generation hyaluronic acid filler actually flexes within the skin to support your face’s natural expressions. This product literally “moves with you” so you enjoy natural wrinkle-free results at rest and when you show expression. Results last as long as 12 months!

Juvederm Vollure is also a popular dermal filler known to fill nasolabial and marionette lines for up to 18 months. Its Vycross technology is smooth, malleable, and easy to inject into your areas of concern. You can use Vollure to subtly and gently lift sunken skin and fill out wrinkles. Continue reading “Perfect Your Smile For the Holidays” →

After a long, harsh summer in the Florida sun, your skin might be looking less than its best. You don’t want to welcome the celebrations of the autumn and winter seasons will dull, lackluster skin. Fortunately, the following treatments can help you reverse skin damage and improve your complexion.

Microdermabrasion

Microdermabrasion is a versatile treatment choice for damaged skin because it isn’t limited to solving just one or two skin concerns. A handheld microdermabrasion tool exfoliates the skin by sloughing away dead, dull, and tired skin cells. At the same time, a light vacuum suctions the cells away to leave the skin clear and smooth.

Since this process removes the top layer of skin, it accelerates cell regeneration and reveals undamaged, youthful skin. As a result, microdermabrasion can minimize and even reverse fine lines, age spots, acne scars, hyperpigmentation, dullness, large pores, rough texture, and more!

In addition to being quick and painless, microdermabrasion is also a cumulative treatment. In other words, if you receive a microdermabrasion treatment on a regular basis, you will notice dramatic results over the long term. The exfoliation process, especially when done consistently, prevents dead skin from accumulating and dulling the face. It also ensures that skin cells are efficiently renewing themselves. This prevents signs of damage from lingering on the surface of the skin. Continue reading “Fighting Dull Skin? 3 Ways to Fix Your Complexion” →

It’s easy to overlook your neck and jawline until you enter your forties or fifties. That’s the point when many women and men realize that excess fat and sagging skin are making them look older than they should.

Unfortunately, the jawline is nearly impossible to sculpt and chisel with just healthy eating and exercise habits.  If you want to embrace elegant, swan-like features along your neck and jawline, the following non-surgical treatments can help.

CoolSculpting

CoolSculpting has changed the bodies and lives of countless men and women since it became FDA-cleared to eliminate stubborn fat from the stomach, waistline, and thighs. However, CoolSculpting can do much more than sculpt the body; it can also contour the jawline.

CoolSculpting uses controlled cooling to safely freeze, kill, and eliminate the “double chin” effect that is usually resistant to diet and exercise. This simple and painless treatment creates results over a three-month period. As long as you maintain a healthy lifestyle, your longer, slimmer, more defined jawline will last indefinitely. Continue reading “Contouring the Jawline Without Surgery” →

Cosmetic injectables like Botox and Juvederm are powerful aesthetic tools for men and women who want to fight signs of aging like wrinkles and sunken cheeks. Though they are best known for reversing existing signs of aging, injectables actually offer powerful preventative properties to stop aging before it begins. Here’s what you should know about using injectables to slow the hands of time.

Hyaluronic Acid Slows Volume Loss

Your face slowly loses its youthful plumpness and volume as a result of reduced collagen production over time. Fillers like Juvederm and Restylane that are formulated with hyaluronic acid can actually trigger new collagen growth by “stretching” the skin in a way that stimulates wound healing.

Research suggests that this collagen stimulation continues even after the dermal filler metabolizes into the body. This means that hyaluronic acid fillers not only reverse signs of aging by filling wrinkles and replacing lost volume, but they also help the skin repair itself. You can expect a more youthful and rejuvenated appearance with the preventative use of dermal fillers. Continue reading “Injectables as Preventatives: How to Slow the Hands of Time” →