Beauty Tips, Skin Care

How Important Are Sunglasses For Skin Protection?

The Aurora Skin & Vein team has long been focused on eye care. Many of our treatments address protecting the skin around the eyes. After all, helping people minimize the signs of aging is our specialty. Those fine lines and wrinkles around the eyes are often age giveaways. For healthy skin, we often promote the need to maintain a healthy diet, get plenty of sleep, use sunscreen and wear sunglasses. They all help to keep both your eyes safe and your appearance youthful.

In today’s blog, we’d like to pay little closer attention to that last piece of advice. Sunglasses make us all look cool, don’t they? As you’re likely aware, they serve a much greater purpose than simply being attractive accessories. Shades protect our eyes from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Not enough can be said about how important such protection is.

Believe it or not, eyelid cancer is a thing.

We all know that melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer. So, as a result, most of us apply sunscreen regularly. We also wear hats and long-sleeved shirts to avoid being overexposed to the sun. However, the skin around our eyes is among the most sensitive and delicate on our bodies. Naturally, it deserves special attention. Our eyelids – an area where we often miss putting sunscreen – are susceptible to cancer without proper protection.

“Eyelid skin cancers, including basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and melanoma, account for 5 to 10 percent of all skin cancers,” reports Dr. Rene S. Rodriguez-Sains for the Skin Cancer Foundation, “Most occur on the lower lid, which receives the most sun exposure. BCCs make up about 90 percent and SCCs 5 percent or more of all eyelid cancers, while melanomas account for 1-2 percent.”

How do sunglasses protect our eyes?

Your shades cover your eyes, helping to reflect the sun’s rays away. As Venkatesh Vaidyanathan explains on ScienceABC.com, good sunglasses are incredibly effective “light conditioners”. Essentially, they modify the incoming light that reaches your eyes.

“There are two fundamental ways that we see colour,” he writes, “Direct light goes straight from the light source (e.g., the sun) to your eyes. Too much direct light can wash out the details of your surroundings and make it almost painful to try to focus your vision on any one thing. Reflected light, usually in the form of glare, is light that bounces off a reflective object before entering your eyes.”

You have two weeks left to take advantage of our August promotion!

We understand that you can’t wear sunglasses all the time. So why not use products that help in protecting the skin around your eyes? Until the end of August, you can enjoy a special promotion on all of our Alumier and Vivier kits. Visit our clinic to receive 20% off the kits of your choice! The kits offer a variety of fantastic products from both Alumier and Vivier. They include Alumier’s Retinol Eye Gel, AluminEye® and Vivier’s GrenzCine™ Eye.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to call us at 403-358-5818. You may also email us at amlvc@telus.net.