With the cooler months here you may want to be pro-active about reversing any visible sun damage you have. 

Sun damage is a major risk factor for developing skin cancer. Research confirms that active treatment of visible sun damage can help prevent skin cancers from developing.

A staggering 3 out of 4 Townsville residents develop skin cancer so it makes sense to do everything you can to reduce your own risk if you live in Far North Queensland.

Click below to watch Lee Kernagen share his concern regarding our national skin cancer statistics:

Do YOU have pre-cancerous sun damage?
Pre-cancerous sun spots are scaly raised skin spots. Though you can scratch the scale off (often revealing a pink or red flat spot underneath) in a matter of days it starts to grow back.  

Why should you bother treating sun damage?
The presence of scaly sun damage dramatically increases your chance of developing skin cancer in that area of your body. Furthermore many people feel quite self-conscious about the scaly appearance of sun damaged skin.  Treatment  that also removes scale and roughness can certainly give a welcome boost in confidence. 

What can be done to treat established sun damage? 
Though it can work quite well for a single solitary spot, we now know that freezing sun spots with liquid nitrogen is not a terribly effective treatment for more widespread sun damage.  It will only be a matter of time before new sunspots spring up in the area and excessive freezing is also likely to cause unsightly pigment loss on your skin.
 
Research has shown us that a ‘field treatment’ is far more effective. 
Popular field treatments include the creams Efudix, Aldara, Picato and Solaraze.  They have varying effectiveness, side effects and lengths of treatment. 
 
Another especially effective treatment for sun damage that is particularly helpful for preventing future skin cancer is a light treatment known as Photodynamic Therapy (PDT). 

If you are interested to learn more about PDT please click on the video link below:  

Pictures above show before and after treatment with PDT

The skin cancer doctor you see at Skin Repair to discuss management of your sun damage will carefully weigh up your suitability for each available treatment modality before presenting you with the pros and cons of those that best match your requirements.

So, if you want to take advantage of the cooler months to treat your sun damaged skin thereby helping to prevent future skin cancer please make an appointment with one of our highly trained skin cancer doctors.