Wearing daily sunscreen is one of the most important actions any person can take to prevent unnecessary premature ageing of the skin, as well as skin cancer. A recent study in America showed that whilst 35% of women use sunscreen regularly, only about 10% of men do the same. Men may have tougher, thicker skin than women, but the accumulation of UV exposure (especially in fair skintypes) leads to just as much skin cancer as women.
Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, with 2 in every 3 people diagnosed with some form of skin cancer at some time in their life.
Fortunately, the vast majority of these non-melanoma skin cancers aren’t life threatening, but they can result in substantial disfigurement especially if surgical excision of lesions on the face has occurred. Since most people don’t just get one skin cancer, the cumulative effect of multiple excisions can really create severe cosmetic disfigurement, and as you can well imagine, with that comes sometimes devastating psychological sequelae.
So, it’s a really great idea to protect your skin from sun damage isn’t it?!
Your initial consultation with Dr Teska will almost certainly include a detailed review of your current sun protection routine, so please bring along your current sunscreen so that we can see if it is actually protecting you as much as you think it is.
One of the greatest public health problems facing Australians today is the false sense of sun protection gained from the use of once daily applications of chemical sunscreens.
The second major public health problem is the lack of education given by GPs, dermatologists and plastic surgeons (& even from some Cosmetic Physicians) about sunscreen choice. Our role here at Skin Temple is to ensure that our clients are not only looking their best today, but will remain that way even in another 20years time!