Vitiligo is a skin disorder that causes milky white patches to be formed on the skin. Although it is not contagious or life-threatening, however it can have a great impact on the quality of life of a person. It can make you feel low on self-esteem and can even lead to depression due to its effect on your social life. Choose a good dermatologist in Delhi to treat this condition and restore your self-confidence and social life.
Characteristic symptoms
Small white spots start forming on areas such as the face, wrists and arms. The spots start increasing in size and form gradually. In some people pigmented lesions are also seen around the eyes, nose, mouth, navel and genitalia. The spots may also be restricted to a particular location on the body or they may spread all over the body.
Treatment Options
UV Therapy
Exposing the affected areas to Narrowband UVB lights helps in restoring the natural skin color to the areas. The UV light helps in stimulating the skin pigment cells to produce melanocytes and thus restore the natural skin colour. As compared to drugs and medications, this treatment option does not have any risks or complications. This treatment can also be used in combination with other topical treatments.
Skin grafting techniques
Taking treatment from a good dermatologist in Delhi is important in order to get the maximum benefits of the surgical treatment options.
- Melanocyte Transplant
Melanocyte transplant procedure involves transplantation of normal skin cells from a healthy area of the skin on the white spots thus giving perfect skin pigmentation. The advantage of this procedure is that since the melanocytes are taken from the patient’s own skin, there are very minimal chances of foreign body rejection and other associated adverse reactions. The procedure can be completed within a couple of hours. Areas such as the fingertips, eyelids, joints and lips can be treated using this method. - Punch Grafting
For white patches on the legs, hands or on bigger areas, punch grafting is a recommended technique for the management of vitiligo. In this surgical procedure, small punches of normal skin are taken and are placed on the vitiligo affected area. These small skin punches get fixed into the normal skin and produce the skin pigment thus making the affected area look like normal, healthy skin. Punch grafting requires skill to perform and hence you must go to an experienced dermatologist in Delhi to get yourself treated for vitiligo. - Blister grafting
Blister grafting is generally performed in areas where good cosmetic results are important such as the face, lips etc. In this technique, the dermatologist creates blisters on your vitiligo affected skin by using suction. Similar sized blisters are created on healthy, pigmented skin on the thigh. These blisters are then grafted on the depigmented area. In a few days the healthy grafted skin transfers the melanocytes on the affected site and gets shed off. In a couple of months, the melanocytes that have been transferred help in repigmentation of the affected skin.
Make sure you choose a good, reputed and specialized dermatologist who has multiple years of experience and training in performing such procedure because the results of this procedure will stay with you for life.