What is Rosacea?

Rosacea is a common skin condition, it predominantly affects those who have fair skin, but it may affect all skin types, particularily people aged between 40 and 60 years old. The skin condition is more common in women but when affecting men, it can pften be more severe. Rosacea tends to start with a tendency  to blush easily. After a while, the central parts of the face become a permanently deeper shade of red, with small and dilated blood vessels, bumps and pus-filled spots. It most commonly affects the cheeks, forehead, chin and nose. There may also be an uncomfortable inflammation of the surface of the eyes and eyelids. Overtime, the inflammation can cause capillary damage, which is why the condition is often associated with red veins.

Can I treat Rosacea?

IPL laser treatments will quickly reduce the inflammation of the condition and calm the skin down, while the long term aim with the laser is to strengthen the skin, so that the hormonal changes occuring in the body cannot trigger the side effects of Rosacea to come back. A laser consultation will be done before your first IPL treatment so that we can do a small test patch, fill in a medical questionnaire and answer any questions you may have. We also recommend keeping a ‘trigger diary’ when the Rosacea flares happen, as it is often something to do with your lifestyle and diet that can cause a Rosacea flare up, for example, stress, alcohol, spicy food and hot drinks. Rosacea is an on going skin condition so the IPL laser will intensely reduce the symptoms of Rosacea but there is the possibilty that flare ups can happen.

How many sessions are needed?

Typically, 2-3 sessions are needed to dramatically reduce the symptoms of Rosacea but we do recommend frequent treatments for example, once a month or every 6 weeks to keep the flare ups from happening, especially if your lifestyle is busy and stressful!