What is the Treatment for Vitiligo?
Treatment may help your skin look better. The type of treatment depends on:
- Amount of white spots
- How long the spots have spread
- The treatment that the person elects to follow.
Some treatments are not suitable for everyone. Many of the treatments can have unwanted side effects. Treatments may be delayed too long and sometimes may not produce results. The treatment options for vitiligo include medical, surgical and others. Most treatments focus on restoring the color to white patches.
Medical treatments include:
- Medications (such as steroid creams) that apply directly to the skin
- Medicines taken by mouth
- Phototherapy (PUVA, for its acronym in English), which consists of drugs and ultraviolet A (UVA)
- Remove the color or pigment from other areas of the skin to resemble the white spots.
Surgical treatments include:
- Skin grafts taken from the same patient’s tissue. The doctor removes skin from one area of the body and transplanted to another area. This is sometimes done with people who have small patches of vitiligo.
- Tattoos in small areas of skin.
Other treatments include:
- Filter or sunscreen
- Cosmetics such as makeup or dye to cover the white spots
- Counseling and support.