McKeown Medical
167 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4SQ
Date posted — 13.08.24
Sun damage is, as the name suggests, changes to the skin due to long term exposure to the sun’s UV radiation.
And as the word ‘damage’ suggests, these are not positive changes.
These are changes to the structure and function of the skin that are initially visible in the way the skin looks and can eventually become severe enough that cancer cells start to develop.
So sun damage is a real problem, and something we should all take seriously.
If you think about the skin on a baby or a toddler and what it looks like, it’s usually quite pale, even in colour and smooth in texture.
Of course, this starts to change through the teenage years and the onset of puberty when the skin can become thicker with more sebaceous glands making the skin more oily.
But in general the skin remains relatively light in colour and smooth in texture.
The skin on the face doesn’t tend to stay that youthful dewy way for long.
By the time most people are in their 30s and 40s you can see visible changes have happened to the skin that continue to get worse into the 50s and 60s and beyond.
Almost all the changes we see to our skin as we age are the result of exposure to our environment and by far and away the biggest exposure is to the sun.
The next biggest environmental exposure is nicotine, although thankfully that is something we are seeing less and less of now.
To a much lesser extent, the changes to the skin we see are the result of environmental pollution and sugar (yes, too much sugar makes the skin look older too).
The first change that we see from sun damage is usually to the pigmentation of the skin.
The production of pigment – melanin – is the skin’s natural defence to protect our DNA from the harmful effects of the sun’s UV radiation.
This is the pigment we see when our skin looks tanned.
When we are young, most of us think a tan looks nice, which is why so many of us tan and don’t think about future consequences.
But years of over-production of melanin in our skin makes the mechanism by which we produce it become less well regulated, and so we develop patches of irregular pigmentation – often referred to as age spots, or hyperpigmentation.
The next change that you can see from chronic sun damage is to the vascular system on the face.
When the skin is exposed to the sun, blood is diverted to the skin to help defend it and restore normal function.
In the short term we see this as redness, often referred to as sunburn.
Due to chronic exposure, we eventually develop disregulated blood vessels on the face which cause patches of redness and visible dilated blood vessels, even when the acute effects of the sun have worn off.
This causes redness and thread veins.
The chronic inflammation caused by sun exposure also causes disruption to the collagen and elastin fibres in the deeper layer of the skin – the dermis – which is responsible for giving the skin its physical structure.
Healthy skin has well-organised patterns of collagen and elastin but with chronic sun exposure this becomes more hectic and chaotic.
The disruption of these structural molecules leads to changes to the texture of the skin – roughness, fine lines (rhytids) when the face moves and eventually even when the skin is at rest (static rhytids).
Over time, the elastin fibres can become so disorganised that they form visible little bumps on the skin referred to as ‘elastosis’ or ‘solar elastosis’ to indicate that it is caused by sun exposure.
Eventually the disregulation to the structure and function of the skin leads also to the formation of growths on the skin.
Sometimes these growths can be harmless, but sometimes the growths can become cancerous.
The effects of sun damage on the skin are cumulative – which means that they get worse over time.
I often hear patients tell me that they can’t have sun damage because they wear SPF every day and yet when I look at their skin they have plenty of signs of sun damage.
That’s because they may well take care of their skin now, but they didn’t when they were younger and it’s catching up with them now!
Discover what ‘True Skin Age’ means, how it’s measured using VISIA, and the evidence-based ways to improve your biological skin...
Pigmentation, redness and texture issues all have different causes. Learn what’s happening beneath the skin, and why VISIA analysis helps...
Skin quality is the missing piece in aesthetic medicine. Discover why tone, texture and clarity matter—and how lasers and VISIA...
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Discover what ‘True Skin Age’ means, how it’s measured using VISIA, and the evidence-based ways to improve your biological skin...
Pigmentation, redness and texture issues all have different causes. Learn what’s happening beneath the skin, and why VISIA analysis helps...
Skin quality is the missing piece in aesthetic medicine. Discover why tone, texture and clarity matter—and how lasers and VISIA...
And this is why HA fillers have never gone out of fashion in our practice!
This lovely patient had all the classic signs of volume loss in her face and there is no other non-surgical treatment that can address this quite as quickly, effectively and non-invasively as HA filler. Of course, it needs to be carefully and sensitively applied.
This patient had a total of 10mls of HA as well as some wrinkle relaxing on the upper face. She is delighted with her restoration. What do you think?
Upper eyelid surgery isn’t just for ageing eyes! Some patients naturally have excess upper eyelid skin from a young age due to their anatomy, like this 29-year-old patient who had a congenital upper eyelid fold and recently underwent an upper blepharoplasty with the ever-talented @bramhallplasticsurgery.
The excess eyelid skin rested directly on her eyelashes, causing irritation and a persistent feeling of heaviness around the eyes which had been bothering her for several years. Upper eyelid surgery can address both functional symptoms and aesthetic concerns, helping patients achieve a lighter, more open eye appearance.
This patient is just 7 weeks after surgery. At this early stage of healing the scars are still maturing and in younger patients this process can take slightly longer. The incision is placed within the natural eyelid crease and as healing progresses the scar typically fades and becomes extremely difficult to see, often blending into the natural eyelid fold.
She`s delighted with the results so far, and we`re grateful to her for allowing us to share her results with you.
What do you think?
Thank you once again to another lovely patient who has allowed us to share her photos with you.
She came to see me wanting a refresh and was open to suggestions, surgical and non-surgical. Her biggest concern however was wrinkles and lines and skin texture problems.
Surgery doesn’t help with this and injectables are limited too - the gold standard here is laser resurfacing, which is what we went with. We did a full field ablation of the full face including her eyelids.
This is her a month or so later. You can see she is still a bit red, especially around the eyes where we went the deepest, but she is already loving life with her new skin.
What do you think?
The non-surgical facelift!
You might have heard us talking a lot recently about combination treatments, using different treatment modalities to create synergy in non-surgical rejuvenation. The reason this works so well is that the different layers of the face age in different ways.
We focus a lot on skin tightening, which is super important, but that’s only the outer layer of the face. Below that the fat, bone and muscle are all changing too.
This lovely lady was relatively new to aesthetics and wanted a more comprehensive rejuvenation without surgery. We decided to do the combination approach using @sofwave.uk to tighten the skin of the face and neck, whilst using HA to restore volume to the fat and bone.
This is her a few months later - her whole face looks tighter, softer, less tired - but in a way that looks completely natural. She is delighted with the result that still looks like her, just a really refreshed version.
What do you think?
HA Fillers are making a comeback! Here are my thoughts on the how and why 👀
How long does a facelift last? One of the most common questions we hear, but it doesn’t have a straightforward answer. Here is our facelift expert @bramhallplasticsurgery talking about some of the nuance.
I’ve been getting lots of questions about what I’ve been up to with my own skin recently. So here you are… the full uncensored version 👀
Introducing Julaine - a new biostimulator I am very excited about!
To explain the background, we need to start with Sculptra - which is having a bit of a moment again on socials. Sculptra is made of PLLA which stimulates your own body to create more collagen, which sounds instantly appealing especially for patients who want to avoid HA fillers.
The problem is that 1 in 5 people who have Sculptra develop nodules which is why - despite the beautiful results we often see from it - I have never used it in my practice (at least not in the face). The trade off in terms of the risk of nodules is just too high for me to feel comfortable with.
We now have a new version, called Julaine, made from a Swedish company called Nordberg. The scientists at Nordberg have refined the manufacturing process to make the PLLA particles smaller and smoother and in doing so have eliminated the problems associated with Sculptra.
I have only just recently started working with Julaine (it’s been around for a couple of years now, but I never like to be the first to use it - I always want to make sure the real world data matches up to what the pharma companies tell us). The treatment is delivered over three sessions, one month apart, with gradual tissue regeneration and volumising occurring slowly over time.
The course of 3 sessions costs £3000 and results typically last up to 2 years. It’s a great addition for other regenerative treatments like Sofwave skin tightening. It’s also great for patients who’ve had HA fillers and feel like they need something else, but aren’t quite ready for more HA yet.
What do you think?
One of Dr Kavita’s breast reduction patients sent this gorgeous bouquet of flowers after her follow up - simply because she felt so grateful for her result and the care our team provided.
Moments like this remind us why we do what we do and why ‘how’ we do it is so important. Surgery has traditionally been a very male-dominated world, but Kavita brings something different - exceptional technical skill combined with empathy, warmth and a genuine understanding of women’s bodies and aesthetics.
There can be a lot of pressure on women in surgery to abandon their femininity to fit in. Kavita hasn’t done that. She’s succeeded by being completely herself.
And that’s exactly why our patients love her (and why we do too).
We’re very proud to have her as part of the McKeown Medical team.