Exclusive: Dr. Alexander Rivkin talks prevention and FDA sun screen regulations

By April MacIntyre Jun 16, 2011, 21:22 GMT

"With regards to sun screen products, please follow the tips for re-application, don\'t apply just once and forget it, and heed the new FDA regulations about UVA protection."

With the recently announced FDA sun screen regulations, we wanted to find out some sunscreen advice for your pre summer consideration from board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Alexander Rivkin, a Yale-trained cosmetic surgeon renowned for non-surgical alternatives to commonly performed cosmetic procedures.

As a physician educator, he teaches other doctors nationally on the state of the art in non surgical techniques. He contributes his medical expertise and commentary regularly to Monsters and Critics consumer health section, and has been featured on the TODAY show, The DOCTORS show, the Tyra Banks Show, EXTRA, Univision, PBS, KNBC-TV, KABC-TV and in numerous national publications for the innovative procedures he has invented.

He was the first physician in the country to offer the Non-Surgical Nose Job, his signature method for non-invasive correction of cosmetic nasal irregularities.

Daily, Dr. Rivkin helps patients refine and repair skin that was damaged by sun. I asked him what the best advice was for anyone regarding preserving their skin.

"Don't be an "if only" person," explained Dr. Rivkin. "Every day I see patients in my practice who say, 'if only I had used sun screen and taken care of my skin better when I was young! but we didn't know then what we know now.' "

"Invest in your skin health, it's a lot more certain to pay off in the long term than some of the financial instruments that have been in the news so much recently.  Prevention is always much easier, cheaper and less painful than trying to reverse the damage years down the road," says Dr. Rivkin.

"With regards to sun screen products, please follow the tips for re-application, don't apply just once and forget it, and heed the new FDA regulations about UVA protection."

New FDA regulations on sunscreen

The benefit of the new FDA regulations is now there will be increased knowledge and transparency to the consumer for the UVA protection in products and education of SPF designations which only addressed UVB protection

Since SPF designation relates to UVB protection from getting a sunburn, these new regulations help consumers understand that it is actually the UVA rays which penetrate the skin deeper and cause harmful effects on the skin from aging to cancer.

Dr. Rivkin's recommendations:

How often should you apply sunscreen?

When in the sun directly (at the beach, outside) apply sunscreen at least every two hours.  If you are sweating or swimming, reapply every 30 minutes after significant water exposure.

When you are in and out of the sun, apply your sunscreen 2 or 3 times throughout the day .

What are the most important ingredients to look for in a sunscreen?

Find a sunscreen with a physical blocker such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide (both work to block out full UVA and UVB spectrum).

Most sunscreens have excellent UVB protection, so with products that don’t have those physical blockers, look for UVA blocking chemicals including:         

Parsol1789 (aka Avobenzone)

Ecamsule

Mexoryl

Antihelios

Helioplex

Here is a non-profit group, Environmental Working Group, that ranks and rates all sun screens: LINK

Dr. Alexander Rivkin can be reached at Westside_Aesthetics