What are spider veins?
Spider veins (telangiectasias) are broken blood vessels or capillaries. Spider veins and varicose veins occur when the veins are weak or damaged. Most spider veins are smaller than varicose veins, but both can be seen from the outside.
Blue, purple, or red can be the color of a spider vein. They can look like thin lines, webs, or even branches. People also call them “thread veins” sometimes. Most of the time, they are not painful or dangerous. Trusted Source, but some people might want to treat them to make themselves look better.
What causes spider veins?
Spider veins can be caused by a number of factors, such as getting older, gaining weight, being overweight, your genes, hormones (like during pregnancy, childbirth, taking birth control pills, or getting estrogen replacement therapy), rosacea (a long-term skin condition that makes the cheeks, nose, chin, forehead, or eyelids red), an injury to the leg, sitting or standing for a long time, or too much sun.
How to prevent spider veins?
The best way to avoid spider veins is to stay away from the things that cause them. For example, when you go outside, you should always wear sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher that also protects against the sun’s UVA and UVB rays. Keeping a healthy weight, working out regularly, and eating a diet high in fiber may also help. Spider veins in the legs can be prevented by wearing shoes with low heels. When you stand, it helps to try to shift your weight. Support stockings, which are also called compression stockings, are the best treatment that doesn’t involve surgery.
How to get rid of spider veins? – Treatment Options
1. Sclerotherapy
Sclerotherapy is an injection method that has been around since the 1930s and is used to get rid of unsightly spider veins. Sclerotherapy can be used to get rid of spider veins and reticular veins in the ankles, calves, and thighs. Reticular veins are small varicose veins that are between 1 and 3 millimeters in diameter. The goal of the treatment is to get rid of the veins and any symptoms they might be causing for good.
Are you a good candidate for Sclerotherapy?
Sclerotherapy works best on people who are physically and mentally healthy, don’t smoke, know a lot about the treatment, have realistic expectations, and are able and willing to follow all aftercare instructions.
People with blood-borne, infectious, or heart diseases, as well as those with high blood pressure or diabetes, may not be able to get sclerotherapy. Sclerotherapy is not an option for women who are pregnant, but their spider veins may go away on their own a few months after giving birth. Sclerotherapy is not recommended for women who are still breastfeeding until their child is no longer dependent on them.
How to prepare for sclerotherapy?
Before the procedure, the doctor will give you specific instructions, like not using lotions, sunscreen, or products with oil on the area that will be treated or not wearing shorts on the day of treatment. If you carefully follow these preoperative instructions, the surgery will go more smoothly.
How is Sclerotherapy performed?
During sclerotherapy, a bright light is directed at the vein while a very thin needle is used to inject the sclerosing agent into it. The sclerosant irritates the vein’s inner walls, which then narrow, collapse, and stop blood flow. This easy step gets rid of any swelling, bulging, discoloration, or pain that spider veins or reticular veins may have caused. The vein will go away in a few days or weeks.
Usually, you need an injection for every inch of vein. Each injection site has a cotton ball taped over it. After 48 hours, the cotton ball can be taken off. After the procedure, the treated area is often held up by a compression stocking. Compression garments are a common way to help people heal after surgery. It is very important to wear this stocking as your doctor tells you to reduce the risk of bleeding, bruising, hyperpigmentation, and blood clots.
How long take a sclerotherapy session and How many sessions are needed?
Sclerotherapy is performed on an outpatient basis in the doctor’s office or in a surgical setting for people who don’t need to stay in the hospital. It doesn’t need anesthesia, and the pain isn’t too bad. Depending on how many veins are being treated and how big they are, a sclerotherapy session can last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. Usually, two or more sessions are needed to get the best results from treatment.
What to expect after sclerotherapy?
After your sclerotherapy treatment, your legs may cramp for a little while in the first two days, but the pain is usually not bad enough to need medicine. Itching can also happen, and medication can help with that.
Before the veins look better, they will look worse. There will be bruises that might not go away for up to a month, so you might want to cover your legs until then. To prevent blood clots from forming, your doctor may tell you to walk a lot for the first few days after the procedure. He or she may also tell you not to sit or stand for long periods of time and to cut back on your exercise for about a month.
How long does it take for sclerotherapy to work?
Results will depend on your body, how well you follow your doctor’s instructions during the healing process, the type of sclerosing agent used, and the skill of the doctor. In about 3 to 4 weeks, patients should start to notice that their smaller spider veins are getting smaller or going away. Sclerotherapy may take up to 4 to 6 months to get rid of larger veins, like varicose veins.
2. Laser treatment
A laser can be used to treat small spider veins that are close to the surface of the skin. A strong, focused beam of light from the laser clots and dries up the spider vein. Because there are no injections, laser treatments are less invasive than sclerotherapy and closure systems. But laser treatments are usually not as good at getting rid of spider veins.
Laser therapy uses light to destroy the small blood vessels and make the skin look like it did before. It only takes 10–15 minutes, is safe, and gives results right away.
The laser only goes after the broken blood vessels, not the skin around them, and up to 70% of people get better after the first treatment. But after that, new spider veins can show up, which means the laser has to be used again.
With intense pulsed light, you can treat spider veins that are deeper under the skin (IPL). This newer method is like laser therapy in that it uses light energy to kill the vein without hurting the tissue around it. IPL is also used to get rid of small birthmarks caused by blood vessels.
As with most cosmetic procedures, laser or IPL treatment of spider veins is usually not covered by health insurance. Before getting treatment, you should always call your insurance company to find out what the terms of your plan are.
What are the types of laser treatments for treating spider veins?
There are various types of laser treatments, including:
IPL: Treatments with lasers and intense pulsed light (IPL) do not hurt the skin and do not use chemicals. It involves shining light from outside the skin into the veins. Treatments with IPL or a surface laser take about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on how big the area is. The most common side effect is a purple color to the skin that looks like bruising and goes away after a few days. There may also be some redness, swelling, or blistering for a short time.
Surface Laser Therapy: Small to medium varicose veins can be treated with a laser that goes through the skin, just like spider veins. Different types of lasers can get through the skin to the veins. The skin is cooled so it doesn’t burn, but people still say it hurts more than sclerotherapy.
Endovenous Laser Therapy: Larger varicose veins can be treated well with endovenous laser therapy (EVLT). Straight into the vein, a laser probe is put. As the probe is pulled out, the laser’s intense heat seals the vein from the inside, making it collapse. Sclerotherapy, which needs more than one session, is less effective than EVLT, which only needs one.
Is sclerotherapy or laser better for spider veins?
Sclerotherapy works best for spider veins on the legs and hands that are close to the surface. Laser treatment is more expensive, takes longer, and doesn’t work as well. People with darker skin also do better with sclerotherapy. Lasers make light that can make people with tanned skin look different. Laser treatment for spider veins costs more and is thought to hurt more. Laser treatments, on the other hand, are thought to be the best way to get rid of spider veins on the face.
Spider Veins Treatment Costs in Dubai?
The cost of sclerotherapy depends on your doctor, where you live, the type and length of your procedure, and other aspects. Prices for sclerosant can start at about 2000 AED per syringe. Patients may need one or two syringes per treatment session, and the best results may require more than one treatment. Depending on the area being treated, laser therapy costs between 1000 AED and more than 4500 AED per session. Since treating spider veins is seen as a cosmetic procedure, health insurance does not cover the cost.