For more information about prescription skin care, our Portland, Oregon-area staff is ready to help you!
Peter Goodkin M.D.
9775 SE Sunnyside Road #500
Clackamas, Oregon 97015
P / 503-654-7546
F / 503-786-3542
The simplest, least invasive, most conservative method of improving the look and feel of your skin is achieved by applying creams, lotions, gels, and solutions. This is how one starts on the road to cosmetic improvement. This is all many people want or need. These topical preparations can:
There is a vast array of skin care products available to achieve the above goals, but a little understanding of the ingredients and how they work will help you participate in making the best choices for yourself. We sell MD Forté® skin care products at our Portland, Oregon area practice, and therefore, we have our own bias. There are a number of other lines that probably work just as well, but we have chosen to become familiar with this one and have been using it for years. Schedule a consultation with Dr. Peter Goodkin to find out more.
Dr. Peter Goodkin, a dermatologist for more than 25 years, has treated thousands of skin cancers and has seen many patients frustrated by the cosmetic deterioration of their skin. The sun causes most of these changes — not all of them, but a high percentage. If Dr. Goodkin could get you to put one skin care product on your skin on a daily basis, it would be sunscreen. It should be applied every day without regard to the weather, even if you plan on being indoors all day. Form the habit! It takes about three months. After the three months you won't feel right going out without sunscreen.
Which one should you use? In truth, a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 is all you need to prevent skin cancer. It blocks about 94 percent of the damaging burning rays. A sunscreen with an SPF of 30 blocks close to 96 percent, but it usually blocks a broader range of light, not just the burning rays. Newer ingredients are becoming available for blocking the harmful longer wavelengths. Brown pigmentation is another issue. Pigmentation is super-sensitive to light. Here an SPF of 30 or an even higher number might help prevent the annual darkening and accentuation of the uneven, leathered look of some individuals' skin.
So, use a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or 30. Use one that feels and smells good on your skin and doesn't curdle or cake other products you're using. Women often prefer a moisturizing sunscreen. Men usually prefer something with more alcohol, like aftershave lotion, sports gels, or anything non-sticky. Sunscreen as skin care, even in Portland, Oregon, is nothing to shrug off.
Glycolic acid and its partially neutralized salts are the main active ingredients in MD Forté® skin care products. The use of these kinds of ingredients dates back to Cleopatra and ancient Egypt.
Within about two weeks of starting these products, your skin usually feels softer and smoother. Improvements in the texture, brown blotchiness and translucence are slow, can take up to a year, and often require the addition of other topical skin care preparations or treatments.
Glycolic acid products tend to tingle when first applied to the skin. The tingle stops as your skin adapts to the product. When the tingling feeling stops, it is probably time to advance to the next-higher concentration of the active ingredient. In the MD Forté® line, the strengths are listed as Roman numerals: I, II, and III. Not everyone can tolerate the higher concentrations; they can irritate, causing dryness, redness, or peeling. The same ingredients in higher concentrations are used in chemical peels. To learn more about your skin care options, contact our Portland, Oregon area practice.
Tretinoin and other vitamin A-related skin care products can be wonderful if you are not irritated by them. The most common prescription-strength vitamin A-related products we use are Renova™ and Avage™. They are approved by the FDA for treating fine line wrinkles around the eyes. These products make the dead outer layer of the skin thinner and more compact while returning the layer of the epidermis to a more youthful, thicker level. The reason these skin care products help wrinkles, though, is because they stimulate new collagen formation in the dermis. These effects may take a year to appreciate.
If your skin has lots of flat, smooth, brown patches, it definitely may be improved with the use of glycolic acid and Renova™ or Avage™, but if the problem is more pronounced you may need a bleach skin care product, at least temporarily. The most common bleach among over-the-counter and prescription products is hydroquinone. Only the concentration differs. Other bleaches include kojic and azeleic acids.
Hydroquinone tends to be irritating, so in prescription strength it is often compounded with an added corticosteroid ("cortisone") to block the irritation. Needless to say this should only be used for a few weeks.
Antioxidants such as green tea, ferulic acid, idebenone, polyphenols, and vitamins such as E, C, and A should be helpful (theoretically) as skin care aids in humans, but there isn't much rigorous data on the subject. In theory, they should protect the skin from free radicals produced by ultraviolet light and other environmental toxins. These free radicals react with components of cells such as DNA, RNA, proteins, and cellular membranes. They cause damage that can lead to skin cancer or aging. The antioxidant is thought to react with the free radicals before they cause damage.
Many of these skin care products and ingredients can be irritating. If you start with too much, you may get nothing but redness, dryness, itching, and swelling. They need to be initiated under supervision and then adjusted or changed depending upon your response or even with the weather! Our aesthetician Joy Wallace and the other members of Dr. Goodkin's staff are ready to answer all of your questions. For great skin care products, contact our Portland, Oregon area dermatology office.