Your face can turn 50 shades of red when you’re angry, embarrassed, or shy, but typically, the crimson tint fades with the emotion. With rosacea, you carry a scarlet badge across your face wherever you go.
What’s more, other embarrassing and frustrating complications of rosacea can crop up, especially if it goes untreated and progresses.
Not only can rosacea take a toll on your self-esteem, but it can become more widespread if it goes untreated.
Our team of experts at Warrenton Dermatology & Skin Therapy Center knows how frustrating rosacea is for you and the more than 14 million others living with the condition. That’s why we make identifying and treating rosacea a key focus of our comprehensive services.
Here’s a closer look at rosacea and your treatment options.
Just below the surface of your skin is a complex network of blood vessels. These blood vessels usually stay hidden, but may temporarily reveal themselves when your body temperature rises. With rosacea, they’re constantly visible, causing redness in your face.
Some people with rosacea may develop small, swollen, red bumps that look like pimples. For others, rosacea causes dry, irritated, and swollen eyes. Rosacea can also lead to a condition known as rhinophyma, where tissue buildup enlarges your nose.
The exact cause of rosacea isn’t known, but those who are most at risk are:
Fortunately, there are a variety of treatments available to reduce the appearance of rosacea or resolve it completely.
Rosacea, especially when diagnosed early, is highly treatable and manageable. We often use a combination of treatments customized to you and your needs. Here are a few we recommend most often.
Over recent years, new rosacea medications have become available, and we often begin your rosacea treatment with oral medications to reduce the redness in your face.
There are many types of gels and creams we can prescribe for rosacea. Depending on your needs, we may recommend topical medications to constrict blood vessels or products that work to reduce the pimples and bumps associated with rosacea.
For persistent rosacea, we offer laser therapies that use minimally invasive techniques to carefully close off the dilated blood vessels causing the redness.
To support your treatment plan and avoid rosacea flare-ups, we help you avoid some common triggers. For example, we encourage our rosacea patients to avoid:
It’s also wise to avoid certain drugs, such as blood pressure medication that dilates blood vessels, but you should consult with your doctor before stopping any prescriptions. Some have also found success in masking some of the redness by applying green-tinted makeup.
If you’d like more information about how to get rid of your rosacea, you can request an appointment online, or call our Warrenton, Virginia office at 540-212-7081 today.
