Whether you have had a dusting of freckles on your face and arms since you were a child or have recently observed developing age spots, freckles and brown spots are conditions affected by the brown pigments in your skin. Understanding how to distinguish between the two types of spots and how to minimize their appearance--if desired--can help you to determine if there are any treatment options for you.
Significance
One of the chief ways your skin gets it color is via a pigment called melanin, according to Kids Health, a website from the Nemours Foundation. When your skin is exposed to the sun, this stimulates melanin pigments in the skin, which causes your skin to tan. Freckles are collections of melanin pigments in the skin and are most common in young people with fair complexions. Melanin also is responsible for brown spots. As you age, melanin pigments become clumped together, leading to the development of age or sunspots.
Types
While freckles typically appear when you are young and then slowly fade, other brown spots may appear with age, according to DermNet NZ, a dermatologist-written skin care website. Examples include lentigines, or age spots. These flat, brown spots tend to be larger than freckles and may be irregularly shaped. While brown spots can be a natural part of aging, those accelerated by sun exposure also are known as solar lentigo, signifying the sun caused them. Other types of brown spots include those caused by hormone fluctuations and areas of discoloration that occur due to acne scarring, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology.
Identification
Freckles typically appear when you are a child. They are typically small, round areas of pigmentation and range in color from tan to light brown, according to Kids Health. If you see what you think may be a large freckle, look closely. It often is a conglomeration of several freckles overlapping. Age or sun spots are flat to the skin and range in color from light brown to black, according to Medline Plus. They most commonly appear on areas where the skin receives the most sun exposure, including the arms, hands or forehead.
Prevention
The most common cause of freckles and brown spots is sun exposure. For this reason, reducing the amount of sun exposure you receive can help to prevent the sun's harmful effects. Avoiding the sun during peak hours, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and wearing a sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 15 or higher can help to prevent damage, according to the Mayo Clinic. Be sure to use a broad-spectrum sunscreen to protect against different ultraviolet radiation types and wear the sunscreen year-round---the sun can affect your skin, even on cloudy days.
Treatment
Although creams promising to fade freckles and brown spots abound, these products do not always prove successful in fading your brown spots, according to the Mayo Clinic. Examples of active ingredients in fading creams include hydroquinone, deoxyarbutin, glycolic acid and kojic acid. These creams require several months of frequent application before they can prove effective. If you desire faster results, consider treatments such as chemical peels or cryotherapy, which freezes dead layers of skin, according to DermNet NZ. Advances in laser therapy also have made it possible to treat freckles and brown pigments. Examples of these lasers include green-light devices, red-light devices, intense pulsed light and fractional lasers.
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