by Dr. Sanjay Gheyi
I often hear patients say ‘I have my mothers hands’ or ‘my hands make me look older than I really am’. Can something be done about this?
Most of us look after our faces very well, but our hands take a lot of abuse and we may pay little attention to their care and protection. The skin on the hands also tends to be thin. As we age we lose the hyaluronic acid in our skin, this is a natural molecule that binds water and keeps younger skin nice and plump. With a reduced amount of this substance in ageing skin the water content goes down resulting in crepey texture. We also lose collagen and accumulate pigment spots and broken capillaries on skin resulting in visible changes of ageing hands.
Using a hand cream with SPF 25 and exfoliation helps, but there are many effective treatments to help correct the signs of ageing. You can have a combination of treatments to reverse visible imperfections or pick and choose a treatment to best address the concerns that you have.
For discoloration and brown age spots a course of intense pulsed light treatments can help significantly. Brown discoloration will be lightened with each session. If deeper pigmented spots is your main concern, powerful lasers such as the Q-switched Nd: YAG or alexandrite laser can lighten them very effectively.
If you have sun damage generally, then fractional CO2 laser peel can provide global improvement with some downtime.
Restylane Vital® is also commonly used for hand rejuvenation. Three sessions at monthly intervals can provide dramatic results as shown here. These also have a preventative value as HA has been shown to have antioxidant action.
Some other fillers such as Radiesse and fat can also be injected but I prefer hyaluronic acid based fillers.
If you are after a maintenance treatment and the next step up from hand creams then a course of gentle chemical peels and or diamond microdermabrasion is all you need.
Modern technology and medical expertise now makes it possible to reverse ageing changes in your hands- whatever you feel your hand age is, it is never too late and best of all these are all ‘knifeless procedures’ and very affordable.
Dr. Sanjay Gheyi MBBS MS FRCS FP Cert. BCAAM
Dr. Sanjay Gheyi has triple board certifications in Surgery, Family Medicine and Anti-ageing Medicine. He is Medical Director and Laser Surgeon at the Coltishall Cosmetic Clinic in Norfolk. He specialises in ‘no downtime’ gentle laser facials to more invasive laser resurfacing procedures and ‘knifeless’ laser surgery for lumps, bumps and skin tags in addition to botulinum toxins, dermal fillers and leg vein treatments.
His professional affiliations include International Academy of Cosmetic Dermatology, British Medical Laser Association, British association of Sclerotherapists, World Society of Anti-aging Medicine and American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine.