Vitiligo Treatments - Learn The Important Therapy Routes Available to Patients
Many doctors advise Vitiligo patients to go for Phototherapy. This is a widely used treatment, which entails exposure to ultraviolet rays causing the skin to tan. This is not unlike to the method used for thermage. The patient is required to use a substance called Psoralen either orally or by soaking the treatment area with it and the UVA rays are then directed at the affected area to stimulate melanocytes, the melanin producing cells.
Skin grafting is another popular Vitiligo treatment. This is a surgical way of re-pigmentation the skin. In this treatment, a melanocyte graft is used to replace the white patch so that the pigmentation process can be restarted.
Sometimes the disease ends up affecting almost the entire span of the patients skin. In such cases, artificial de-pigmentation of unaffected skin is an option. White patches cannot be distinguished from the normal skin after this treatment, which is cosmetically a better alternative for most patients. However, this is an extreme measure and it should be considered as a last resort.
Alternative Vitiligo treatments based on natural therapies are also available. Peppermint oil and a naturally occurring substance called Ginkgo biloba are frequently used in such therapies. Special cosmetics are also available in the market for covering Vitiligo affected areas.
The above-mentioned Vitiligo treatments provide some sort of relief to the patients of the disease, and there is hope that soon the causes and a complete treatment of the disease can be found. With the fields of biotechnology and genetics advancing day by day, a better cure could be on the horizon.
