Vitiligo is a disorder in which patches of skin lose their color. The discolored areas tend to get bigger over time. The pigmentation loss can affect any part of the skin on the body. Hair and the inside of the mouth can be impacted as well.
Melanin is the pigment that is responsible for the hair and skin color. When cells that produce the pigment melanin die or cease working, vitiligo tends to develop. Vitiligo affects any kind of person, however, it is more visible in those who have darker skin. Vitiligo is not a life-threatening or communicable skin illness. It could be stressful and make you feel insecure.
Vitiligo treatment may help to restore color to the damaged skin. However, it does not prevent further skin color loss or a recurrence.
Symptoms of Vitiligo
The Signs of Vitiligo Include:
- Patches of skin discoloration appear on the hands, face, and around body openings including the genitals.
- Hair on your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, or beard that is prematurely whitening or greying
- The tissues lining the inside of your mouth and nose have faded in color (mucous membranes).
Generally vitiligo appears in people mostly below the age of 30. Depending on the skin type vitiligo can affect:
Almost all of the skin’s surfaces. The darkening affects practically all skin surfaces in this type of vitiligo, known as universal vitiligo.
There are numerous sections of your body. The discolored patches on related body parts frequently proceed similarly in generalized vitiligo, the most common kind (symmetrically).
Only one side or a portion of your body is affected. Segmental vitiligo is a kind of vitiligo that occurs at a young age, progresses for a year or two, and then disappears.
Only one or a few parts of your body are affected. This type of vitiligo is referred to as confined (focal) vitiligo.
The Hands and Face: The skin that is damaged on the face and hands, as well as the surrounding body such as the eyes, nose, and ears, is known as acrofacial vitiligo. In case you have noticed any of the symptoms, reach out to vitiligo skin disease treatment in Coimbatore.
It’s difficult to predict how your condition will progress. The patches may stop growing if you don’t get treatment. The loss of pigment tends to spread and as a result affects the majority of your skin. On rare occasions, the skin regains its original color.
There are various treatments to treat vitiligo, a few of them include:
To help restore skin color or balance out skin tone, medications and light-based therapies are available, albeit results vary and are unpredictable. Furthermore, some treatments have severe negative effects. As a result, your skin specialist at a vitiligo hospital may advise that you initially try modifying the appearance of your skin using self-tanning or makeup.
If you and your doctor decide to use a medicine, surgery, or treatment to treat your disease, the evaluation process could take months. And you might have to try a few different treatments or a mix of treatments before you find the one that works best for you.
Sun Protection
If you have vitiligo, sunburn is a serious concern. You should avoid using sunbeds and apply sunscreen to protect your skin from the sun.
When skin is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, it creates a pigment called melanin to help protect it. However, if you have vitiligo, your skin is not protected because there isn’t enough pigment in it. The treatment of leucoderma in Coimbatore can help you with the skin issues.
To prevent your skin from sunburn and long-term damage, use sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or higher. If you have fair skin, this is especially crucial.
Light Therapy
Active vitiligo can be treated using narrow-band ultraviolet B (UVB) phototherapy, which has been found to stop or delay the growth of the disease. When combined with certain medications, it may be more effective. Two to three times a week, you’ll need therapy. It may take one to three months to detect a difference, and it may take six months or longer to see the entire benefit.
Combining Psoralen with Light Therapy
This treatment combines a plant-derived substance called psoralen with light therapy to restore color to the bright patches (photochemotherapy). You’re exposed to ultraviolet A (UVA) light after taking psoralen or applying it to the affected skin. While effective, this method is more difficult to implement, and narrow band UVB therapy has largely supplanted it in many practices.
Depigmentation
In case your vitiligo is extreme and other treatments have failed to show any effects, this therapy may be an alternative. Unaffected portions of skin are treated with a depigmenting chemical. Over time, this lightens the skin, mixing it in with the discolored areas. The therapy is done once or twice a day for about nine months.
Surgery
When light therapy and topical treatments do not show any effect. Surgery may be the option to treat the condition:
Skin Graft: This procedure is generally performed by your doctor by replacing very small amounts of healthy, pigmented skin to places that have lost color. If you have minor areas of vitiligo, this technique may be performed. Reach out to the best vitiligo specialist in Coimbatore to understand the treatment that suits your condition.
Blister Graft: In this surgery, your doctor uses suction to produce blisters on your pigmented skin, then transplants the blisters’ tops to discolored skin.
Cellular Suspension Transplant
In this medical procedure, your doctor eliminates some pigmented skin tissue, dissolves the cells in a solution, and then transplants the cells to the damaged area. Within four weeks, the results of this repigmentation technique are visible.
There are various ways to treat the condition, it is important that you immediately visit your skin specialist as you notice even the slightest symptoms.