Cosmetic Surgery Blog

As a kid, I spent my summers on the beach at the Jersey Shore. We would go down the shore (no one from New Jersey says they are going to the beach, we all say we’re going down the shore) full time the day after school ended and go back home the day before school started, and I spent a large part of almost every day on the beach.

This was back before sunscreen was invented. This was the age of the ads with the little Coppertone girl and her dog pulling her panties down in back to show her tan line. This was when the conventional wisdom was to purposely get a sunburn early in the season so that you spent the rest of the summer tanning.

After this misspent youth, the only reason I do not resemble an old baseball glove now is genetics. I have olive skin and got lucky in the gene sweepstakes in that I don’t have too many wrinkles. Then again, I also have spent the last few years either staying out of the sun or using large amounts of sunscreen with big SPF factors.

But there are still a lot of people out there who think that tanning is a good idea. Get this through your heads, folks: Tanned skin is damaged skin. The leading cause of old-looking skin is sun exposure. Sun exposure leads to wrinkles, pigmentation problems, dryness, and loss of elasticity. What is pretty about that? Yet people still go to tanning salons to get a “healthier” look.

The first thing any good plastic surgeon or dermatologist will tell you after you have had any cosmetic procedure is to stay out of the sun so that you don’t undo all that costly work. (The second thing they might tell you is that if you had stayed out of the sun or used sunscreen regularly you might not have needed that costly work in the first place.)

And wrinkles and old-looking skin (and cataracts and a depressed immune system, while I am on the subject) aren’t the worst of part of excessive sun exposure. Wrinkles may not be on anyone’s wish list, but no one ever died of them. Excessive sun exposure causes skin cancer, and skin cancer kills.

May is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month. It is a good time to examine your skin and check for moles, spots, and odd patches. This is like doing a regular breast self-examination and is just as important. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) gives excellent instructions on how to perform a skin self-examination at http://www.aad.org/public/exams/self.html. Do this regularly and get to know the spots on your body (everyone has a few and most are harmless).

So what should you look for? Check for changes in spots or new ones. Check every spot and freckle on your body and think “ABCD”.

A - Is the spot asymmetrical? Is it round, or is one half unlike the other half?
B- Check the border of the spot. Is the border irregular or scalloped?
C – Look at the color. Look for spots that are not all one color and have different shades of brown, tan, white, or red in them.
D – Diameter is important, too. Look for any spots that are wider than a pencil eraser.

If you have any moles, freckles, birthmarks, or other spots that are suspicious, see your regular doctor or a dermatologist.

The AAD also sponsors free skin cancer screening around the country during the month of May. Go to http://www.aad.org/public/exams/screenings/index.html to find one near you.

And remember to wear a hat and put on sunscreen if you are going to be out of doors. OK?

This just in: If you love to use lip gloss, it might not be a good idea when you are out in the sun. Clear lip glosses that do not contain any sunscreen may be acting like a magnifying glass on your lips, magnifying the sun’s rays and allowing more of them to penetrate into the skin. This can lead to a type of skin cancer called squamous cell cancer, which is usually not too aggressive but can be when it happens on the lips. Less seriously, too much sun on your lips causes actinic keratoses, which are ugly freckles and scaly spots. Not what you call kissable.

So either switch over to lip glosses that have at least a 15 SPF or put on a lip balm with an SPF of 30 under your lip gloss. Or switch to plain old-fashioned opaque lipstick. Revlon’s Fire and Ice, anyone?