Here it is, nearing the end of another summer and I finally get the sunscreen issue addressed. My sincerest apologies for that. We are still working the kinks out of our new blog page, but hopefully you are finding it useful. I will say that some good has come of my delay. The FDA has recently announced some new regulations on sunscreen that we can address in the process. Here are a few of the questions we providers get on a routine basis.

Question: What is SPF?

Answer: SPF stands for “sun protection factor” and it is a measure of only UVB protection. Basically the SPF number is a measure of a person’s additional protection from developing erythema (redness) in the presence of UVB light. For example, if I put my arm into a UVB light box and after 2 minutes in the box I develop erythema on my arm, my minimal erythema dose is 2 minutes. So if I now use an SPF of 15 on my arm and do the same test it will take 30 minutes before I get red. The most common misconception is that this number is a time like 15 means 15 minutes of protection. How long SPF protects people is dependent on their skin type.

Skin type is rated on a scale from 1 to 6 and basically indicates how your skin responds to sun. For instance, I am a skin type 2 because I burn pretty easy but I can tan and don’t have to burn to do so. A skin type 1 always burns and never tans. A skin type 6 would be a very dark person that never burns.

Question: What SPF should I use and how often should I reapply?

It’s that time of year when our skin is once again barraged by the sun throughout the day and those pesky insects all night. Not surprisingly, many of my patients have been asking questions about both sunscreens and insect repellents. To that avail we have devoted this first series of educational questions to those precarious pest preventers, the “bug sprays”. Stay tuned though as we will deal with sunscreens very soon.

Here are a few of the insect repellent (“bug spray”) questions I’ve been getting.

Question: What’s the best bug spray?

Answer: I’m going to answer this without really naming any specific products but I think if you are good about reading the labels it will be helpful. There are a host of chemicals on the market for use as insect repellents. These include the most well known one DEET (or NN-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide) as well as several other less commonly known chemicals (indalone, Rutgers 612, Dialkyl phthalates). There are also some essential plant oils like citronella oil, lemon oil, eucalyptus oil and soy bean oil that can be used. In the last few years, the newest one of these to come to market is a compound called ‘picardin’ which has the effectiveness of low strength DEET but tends to be safer.

I would recommend either using a DEET containing spray or a Picardin containing spray. While the oils sound great because they are certainly going to be fairly safe, they have not shown to be very effective. Another one to avoid in my opinion is skin-so-soft. It’s great if you are in an area with only “one or two mosquitos” but really not good otherwise.

Question: Is DEET safe for children and pregnant women?

Dear Friends of Affiliated Dermatology:
Welcome to the first of future blogs. We have a wonderful group of patients in our practice. Many of you are very interested in learning more about how to take good care of your skin. During your visits we enjoy sitting down to talk with you at length about your concerns. Additionally we have developed this blog as a way to provide further information to those who are interested. Each month we intend to cover new topics all relevant to skin care, the content of which has been created by the very same providers you know and trust your skin care to in our practice. We will cover topics like sunscreens, “brown spots”, moisturizers, anti-aging, and many others. We sincerely hope you find it useful.