Causes and treatments of facial redness

What is facial redness?

Facial redness refers to red cheeks or visible blood vessels on the face due to an excessive number of superficial blood vessels. These can range from tiny blood vessels that give a generalised redness and flushing to obvious discrete capillary blood vessels called broken capillaries (also called telangiectasia)

For more information see Broken Capillaries.

What causes Facial Redness?

Facial redness can be caused by a number of conditions including:

1. Genetics
   A tendency to facial redness often runs in families.  There especially seems to be a genetic predisposition with people of Celtic background.

2. Environmental Damage
   Anything that inflames your skin can accelerate the development of facial capillaries. In Australia this is largely sun but can also be caused by inflammation from excessive wind or cold.

3. Rosacea
   This is a common skin condition that usually affects the face and typically flares up intermittently.  It may be associated with acne in which case it is termed acne rosacea.
   For more information see Rosacea

4. Medications
   Certain medications such as oral prednisolone or prolonged use of topical hydrocortisone creams can contribute to the formation of facial capillaries.

5. Congestion
   Facial capillaries especially around the sides of the nose can be exacerbated by congestion from such conditions as sinusitis, hayfever and rhinitis.

What aggravates facial redness?

If you have a tendency to facial redness then anything that raises your body temperature will accentuate the condition as the body dissipates heat by sending more blood flow to the skins surface. Common things that raise your body temperature are exercise, alcohol, hot spicy foods, saunas and hot showers.

How can facial redness be treated?

The first principal of treatment is to avoid causative factors especially factors that inflame your skin such as excess sun, wind and cold. In this regard a good quality suncare product is essential.

The second principal of treatment is to avoid aggravating factors such as alcohol, hot spicy foods, saunas etc.

The third principal of treatment is to treat and remove the facial redness,  The best treatment option is to use a vascular laser. The choice of which vascular laser is the most appropriate will depend on the severity and cause of facial redness.

What type of laser is used?

At the Cosmetic and Laser medical Centre, we have a number of vascular lasers including the V Beam, Diode and Medlite lasers. The choice of which laser is most appropriate will depend on your particular problem and skin type.