DARK SPOTS ON THE SKIN.
Report #7008; 1/29/97
As most people age, they develop dark spots on their skin, particularly in the sun-exposed areas on the face and back of the hands.
If you have dark spots on your skin, check with a dermatologist to make sure that they are benign keratoses, lentigines or other harmless lesions. As a general rule, you should be concerned about red lesions with irregular borders, red lesions that are very scaly, those that bleed, itch and burn, those that don't heal and those with multiple colors and irregular borders. The odds are overwhelming that the dark spots on your skin are harmless and will be called seborrheic keratoses or lentigines, and that your doctor will tell you that they are best left alone. However, if you hate the way that they look, your doctor can remove them by burning them with an electrocautery, freezing them with liquid nitrogen, destroying them with various acids or remove them by scraping them off.
If they are not elevated and are just dark discoloration, your doctor can prescribe a special combination cream made by mixing one ounce each of 4% hydroquinone cream, any sunscreen and 0.05% tretinoin cream. The first two you can buy over the counter without a prescription. The third component, tretinoin ream, requires a prescription, but you don't need it. Your family practitioner can prescribe these three creams which can be applied in combination twice a day for several months and the brown spots will usually fade with time.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
Health Reports from The Dr. Gabe Mirkin Show and DrMirkin.com