Rosacea

What Is Rosacea?

Rosacea is characterized by reddened raised skin patches, visible blood vessels, small red solid bumps, and pus-filled pimples. While rosacea often appears similar to acne, there are no blackheads, and rosacea can be accompanied by swelling and pain.

It typically begins as a flushing or redness on the cheeks, nose, chin, or forehead. Over time, this redness worsens and becomes more persistent. Left untreated, other symptoms may appear, such as pimples, a thickening of skin on the nose, and reddening of the eyes.

Who Gets Rosacea?

Rosacea affects roughly 10% of the population. The condition is most common in fair-skinned people who flush or blush easily and is more prevalent in those of northern or eastern European descent. While more women are affected, rosacea tends to be more severe in men. People of any age can be affected by rosacea, but studies have found that it most commonly appears after age 30.

Subtypes of Rosacea

The flushes and pustules associated with rosacea change the look of the face, often making patients self-conscious about their appearance. Unfortunately, make-up only irritates the skin and worsens the problem, so concealer isn’t an effective option.

Medical experts and dermatologists have identified four different subtypes of rosacea:

• Subtype 1 – Erythematotelangiectatic rosacea: Symptoms include persistent redness, flushing, and visible blood vessels.
• Subtype 2 – Papulopustular rosacea: Symptoms include raised red bumps and pimples, often filled with pus.
• Subtype 3 – Phymatous rosacea: Symptoms include red skin plaques (raised skin patches) and skin thickening, often leading to an enlarged nose due to excess tissue.
• Subtype 4 – Ocular rosacea: Occurs when rosacea manifests in and around the eyes. Symptoms include sties, burning, tearing up, dry eye, swollen eyelids, and corneal damage, which can lead to vision loss.

Rosacea patients can experience several of these subtypes at once, or they may occur individually. Although rosacea does not necessarily evolve from one subtype to another, each symptom can worsen, progressing from mild to moderate to severe.

Because of the potential long-term effects, we recommended that patients suffering from rosacea seek early diagnosis and treatment to minimize the condition’s impact.

Treatment Options

Rosacea can have a severe impact on the psychological well-being of sufferers. While rosacea is considered an incurable skin condition, some treatments can effectively control symptoms and prevent them from worsening.

To provide a gentle and safe treatment for all types of rosacea, we use IPL photofacials. This treatment uses intense pulsed light to penetrate the skin and target the darker rosacea areas.

The light heats and causes controlled damage to pigmented areas and visible blood vessels, which triggers the body’s natural healing response. As the body repairs the damage, the targeted areas are naturally reabsorbed and vanish, leaving behind clear skin.

Glacial® fx is a newer treatment option that was designed with rosacea and chronic inflammatory skin conditions in mind. Its precision cooling technology targets cytokines to reduce redness and inflammation. By calming the skin and encouraging healthy cell turnover, the result is remarkably clearer, more evenly toned skin. 

Certain medical-grade skincare products can help, too. To augment your daily skincare regimen, we offer a SkinCeuticals rosacea skincare package, which includes everything you need to keep flare-ups under control. Each product is designed to intensely hydrate the skin, ease redness, and soothe inflammation to improve your complexion and reduce discomfort from the irritation associated with flare-ups. Studies have found that SkinCeuticals’ Redness Neutralizer can reduce redness by as much as 30%!