So, the summer is fast approaching and most of us are starting to pull out all of our old sunscreen bottles and thinking about buying more.   Hopefully, my regular patients are already applying sunscreen on a daily basis at least to their face, neck, chest and hands.   If you are not you should be, because if you don’t have brown spots yet, you will….and then you will be going to a dermatologist or plastic surgeon asking how to get rid of them.  Let me assure you, it is not easy to get rid of those dreaded brown spots, I have lasered my back and chest multiple times, with good results and bad results.  I wish that I had just worn sunscreen from the start.  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a patient say, “Well when I was young, they didn’t have sunsceen, we used baby oil and iodine.”.  Now we do have sunscreen no more excuses.  So what kind should you be using?

The key is this, make sure that whatever you use it is broad spectrum or says UVA/UVB coverage on the bottle.  If it does not stop both types of rays, I am not going to waste my time applying it to my skin or my children’s skin.  So what is the difference in these two types of rays? UVB light penetrates the skin and causes tanning, burning and skin cancer.  UVA light comes right through glass windows and penetrates our skin more deeply than the UVB light.  It’s effects on our skin are those that we associate with aging, wrinkling, dullness, discoloration and likely skin cancer as well. 

Believe it or not over 50% of the sunscreens available to us at our local drugstores are not broad spectrum.  Personally, I look for a few specific ingredients, if the sunscreen does not contain at least one of these ingredients, I will not use it. 

Parsol 1789 (Avobenzone)

Helioplex

Mexoryl

Zinc Oxide

Titanium Dioxide

Avobenzone was developed in the late 1980s and was the first decent sunscreen to address UVA light but it breaks down in sunlight, it is not stable.  Mexoryl and Helioplex are two recent chemical sunscreen advancements that address UVA light and remain stable for longer periods of time than Avobenzone does by itself.  Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide are physical blockers, sunblocks that physically shield your skin from the sun much like your clothing does.  Thankfully newer micronized versions of these sunsceens have been invented which have made the application of some sunscreens much more cosmetically elegant. 

How much should you use?  One full shot glass, every two hours if you are out between the hours of 10 am to 4pm.  Seem like a lot?  Ask me that question again when I am giving you quotes for laser procedures to remove wrinkles and brown spots, or after a biopsy to rule out skin cancer on your nose.

In my next blog, I will break down each of the sunscreens sold on this site so that you know what their active ingredients are and what situations they are best used in.