Maintaining Good Health Even When You're Busy

Tips For Dealing With Your Rosacea

by Caitlin Obara

Rosacea appears in different ways. You may have mild redness on your cheeks, or you could have red skin, red eyes, and bumps on your skin. Rosacea can even cause a thickening of the skin on your nose that gradually changes its shape. Since the skin condition affects your appearance, you want to find an effective treatment so you won't be embarrassed by facial discoloration or bumps. Here are a few things that might help.

Avoid Skin Irritation

Skin irritation may trigger a flare up of your symptoms. For that reason, you should be gentle with the skin on your face. Protect it from the sun, cold temperatures, and dry conditions. Avoid harsh exfoliants, soaps, and lotions. Don't use cleansers that contain alcohol, and avoid rubbing your skin with your hands or a rough cloth. Your dermatologist can help you choose facial products that keep your skin clean and moisturized without making your rosacea worse.

Choose The Right Cosmetics

When you have rosacea, you want to buy makeup that is gentle on your skin, but you also want foundation that will conceal redness and bumps. Green-tinted foundation tones down skin redness and white concealer covers bumps. You may need to work with a dermatologist or an esthetician to find the right cosmetics for your skin type that cover your rosacea flares while still giving your skin a natural appearance.

Try Prescription Medications

Your dermatologist may recommend prescription drugs when your rosacea flares up. There are a variety of medications used to treat rosacea. Some of them are topical creams that you spread on your skin and others are oral medications. Your doctor may want to try antibiotics or acne drugs. The goal of the medication is to reduce inflammation and swelling so the redness of your skin subsides and the small bumps reduce in size. Since there are several medications to choose from, you may need to try a few different ones before you find something that works well.

Consider Laser Treatments

Medication and cosmetics are usually enough to manage mild cases of rosacea, but if you have a more severe case that causes enlarged blood vessels on your face or thick skin that affects your nose, then laser treatments could be an option. Your doctor uses the laser to zap the tiny vessels so they clot off and shrivel away. Lasers or traditional surgery may be needed if you want to reshape your nose. However, that is usually only necessary when you have had severe rosacea for many years and other treatments have not been able to stop it from damaging your skin.

While rosacea isn't necessarily a serious medical problem, it is more than just red skin. If it affects your eye area, you may need to see an eye doctor as well as a dermatologist so you can keep your eyes from being dry and irritated. No matter what type of rosacea you have, the most important thing you can do to keep it under control is identify the things that usually trigger a flare up and then avoid them as best as possible.

For assistance, talk to a professional like East Carolina Dermatology and Skin Surgery, PLLC.

Share