Barnacles Of Aging: Causes, Symptom And Treatment, Liquid Nitrogen Therapy

Barnacles of aging, or known by doctors as seborrheic keratoses are harmless areas of skin growth or spots that appear later on in adult life. It is mostly women that are concerned with these spots because of their appearance. Though some can be quite dark in pigmentation and resemble warts, they start out as light brown spots.

Though there are a number of reasons why these barnacles of aging appear, part of the reason is too much exposure to the sun. The breakdown of the skin plays an important role in the development of these as well because the top layers of skin become thinner and the skin as a whole becomes much less flexible. Spots and wrinkles appear as a result of this.

Liquid Nitrogen Therapy and the Side Effects

Barnacles of aging can be removed by using liquid nitrogen. This treatment needs to be applied on three separate occasions. This freezes the areas as well as the warts and pre-cancers.

There are some side effects that the individual should know about before going through with the treatment. Since the skin has been frozen, it will feel like it is burning as it is thawing out, and the skin looks red and develops blisters. After approximately four weeks, a crust will develop on the skin and will remain. Once the crust does go, the itching will disappear also. There is a chance that a permanent scar may be in that place. If the treatment doesn’t work, it can be repeated.

There will be additional itching from clothing rubbing against the treated areas but this can be reduced by alpha-hydroxy lotions and various mild topical steroid creams. If these continue to bleed or to itch then they are advised to be removed. This can be done using glycolic acid.

Aside from the already mentioned treatment, the keratosis can also be removed with a curette by scraping it off. This is usually only used when there are one or two spots. For any spots that are dark brown, a biopsy should be done first to ensure that it is not a spot of cancer.

Prevention

There are no known preventative measures for barnacles of aging at the moment. The darkening pigmentation of the skin may be heightened because of the UV rays but they do come with aging. Properly moisturizing the skin may delay the appearance of these spots but as age increases, so do the number of spots.

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