Rosacea Treatment

Rosacea is a common, chronic skin condition that can negatively impact your quality of life. It typically affects fair-skinned people more than individuals with darker skin. People with rosacea often feel self-conscious about the visible redness, blood vessels, and blemishes associated with the persistent ailment. Our dermatology professionals offer effective, tailored rosacea treatments near Wesley Chapel and Tampa, FL, in our Trinity, Port Richey, and Spring Hill locations.

What Causes Rosacea?

Even though researchers haven’t identified a specific cause of rosacea, a spectrum of triggers can cause flare-ups or exacerbate the condition. These triggers include:

• Sun exposure
• Stress
• Extreme temperatures (such as hot baths or showers)
• Hot beverages
• Alcohol
• Spicy foods

Not everyone diagnosed with rosacea has the same triggers, and it’s helpful to identify yours when discussing treatment options with one of our dermatology providers. Treatments can’t cure rosacea, but they can help:

• Minimize (and in some cases eliminate) visible signs of rosacea
• Ease discomfort
• Prevent the condition from becoming worse

The condition more frequently affects women than men, and symptoms often appear between ages 30 to 50 and may become more severe as time passes.

How Do You Treat Rosacea?

Our dermatology professionals create treatment plans after assessing the severity and type of rosacea. The 4 different sub-types of rosacea require different treatments because the condition affects the skin in different ways. Symptoms of rosacea include:

• Flushing, redness, and the appearance of small blood vessels
• Redness along with acne-like breakouts
• Thickening of the skin, usually on the nose
• Redness, burning, and itching around the eyes

Depending on your symptoms, a dermatologist may recommend topical or oral medications, specialized skincare plans, or laser or light-based treatments to reduce visible symptoms.

Rosacea treatment options include:

Sciton® Broadband Light (BBL®)

BBL is an advanced type of intense pulsed light (IPL) treatment that delivers a broad spectrum of wavelengths. These pulses of light penetrate the skin’s outer layers and target broken capillaries and more general redness. Unlike laser skin treatments, which concentrate energy on a specific area, BBL rapidly treats large areas of redness. BBL is sometimes called a photofacial because it also treats sun spots, age spots, fine lines, and wrinkles.

You typically need more than one treatment to produce the desired results. Because the skin needs to heal after each procedure, the treatment sessions are usually scheduled about 3 to 4 weeks apart. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, using light therapy such as BBL to treat visible blood vessels reduces their appearance by up to 75% after 1 to 3 treatments, with some patients seeing a 100% reduction. The results often last 3 to 5 years, although new, visible blood vessels may form.

For patients with rosacea whose skin is thickening, especially on the nose, laser skin resurfacing can help improve the nose’s appearance. This type of laser is typically more aggressive than the BBL procedure.

Medications

Because the symptoms and type of rosacea differ from patient to patient, our dermatology professionals customize your treatment. Treating rosacea with medication may include topicals, such as anti-inflammatory gels or antibiotics. Oral antibiotics are another option but are usually prescribed for moderate to severe cases of rosacea.