Rosacea is a very common, but often misunderstood and misdiagnosed skin condition. The effects of rosacea are mostly redness and swelling of the face, but it can also appear on the back, chest, neck, and scalp. Rosacea can get worse, progressing to persistent redness, facial burning or itching, pimples, bumps, and visible blood vessels. If left untreated for too long, treatments for rosacea will become less effective.

What is rosacea?

Rosacea (say "roh-ZAY-sha") is a skin disease that causes redness and pimples on your nose, cheeks, chin, and forehead. People sometimes call rosacea "adult acne" because it can cause outbreaks that look like acne. It can also cause burning and soreness in the eyes and eyelids. Rosacea can be embarrassing. If the symptoms bother you, see your doctor and learn ways to control rosacea.

What causes rosacea?

Experts are not sure what causes rosacea. It tends to affect people who have fair skin or blush easily, and it seems to run in families. Rosacea is not caused by alcohol abuse, as people thought in the past. But in people who have rosacea, drinking alcohol may cause symptoms to get worse (flare).Rosacea often flares when something causes the blood vessels in the face to expand, which causes redness. Things that cause a flare-up are called triggers. Common triggers are exercise, sun and wind exposure, hot weather, stress, spicy foods, alcohol, and hot baths. Swings in temperature from hot to cold or cold to hot can also cause a flare-up of rosacea.

What are the symptoms?

People with rosacea may have:

• A flushed face and pimples or bumps on or around the cheeks, nose, mouth, and forehead. Sometimes the flushing or redness can last for days.
• Tiny red veins on the face that look like spiderwebs.
• Burning or stinging facial skin, especially when they apply lotions or medicines. The face may feel increasingly dry, sensitive, or sunburned.
• Dry, red, irritated eyes. The eyelids may look red and swollen, and vision may be blurry. If it is not treated, rosacea can cause serious eye problems.

Without treatment, some cases of rosacea can cause knobby bumps on the nose and cheeks that can multiply. This is advanced rosacea, known as rhinophyma. Over time, it can give the nose a swollen, waxy look.

We recommend contacting Green Laser clinic if rosacea:

• Limits and hinders your social/professional life
• Makes you feel uncomfortable in social situations
• Has a negative effect of your self esteem
• Or if you just want to improve your rosacea’s condition

Treatment options for rosacea: Many rosacea treatments are applied to the affected skin lesion. Creams, lotions, foams, washes, gels, and pads that contain a topical antibiotic, azelaic acid, metronidazole, sulfacetamide, benzoyl peroxide or retinoids may be prescribed. Topical treatments are effective, but improvement can take time. A slight improvement may be seen in the first three to four weeks. Significant improvement usually takes about two months.

Persistent redness can be treated with laser light. Laser treatmnet can also reduce the background skin redness as well as the papules and pustules.