Legs You’ll Love
Sorry to have been quiet over the last fortnight – there has been so much going on at Illuminate HQ including giving a presentation at a big expo last week. I promise to make up for it this week!
With winter coming this is the perfect time to focus on leg thread veins. They are really very common – from small fine patches where you’ve knocked yourself on the side of your leg, to quite widespread networks of blue veins. Whilst thread veins in their own right don’t cause pain, they are unsightly and bothersome. Many of my patients won’t even wear skirts because they don’t like the way their leg veins look. While there is no easy way to get rid of them, there are options.
The gold standard for treatment is a technique called microsclerotherapy, where we use multiple small injections with a very fine needle to introduce a sclerosing agent into the thread veins. This causes an injury to the lining of the blood vessel, and once all the blood has been emptied from the vessel the lining cells will stick together to seal the blood vessel permanently. You should expect to need more than one treatment – possibly even 3 to 4 – and these will be spaced a few weeks apart. Depending on the location of your threadveins and the size, we may do some Thermavein treatment first to reduce the risk of small vessel matting after treatment.
Why is winter the perfect time to deal with thread veins? Firstly you need to avoid sun exposure on your legs throughout your treatment. And secondly you will need to wear compression stockings or tights for a week after treatment – not too pleasant in a warm, sticky summer.
What other options are out there? The one that you will read about is laser, but unfortunately this is far inferior to microsclerotherapy and particularly unsuccessful on blue veins.Why not book in for a consultation and we can talk about the best way forward to give you back legs you’ll love!
Disclaimer: Please be aware that results and benefits may vary from patient to patient taking into consideration factors such as age, lifestyle and medical history.
