Have you ever strolled down the sandy shores of Newport Beach and wondered how seemingly everyone had such perfectly smooth legs? Did you wear a cover-up to hide the bulging veins pushing visibly against the skin of your legs? If so, sclerotherapy at Coastal Vein in Corona Del Mar, CA may be right for you. To discover how many times you can receive this treatment, and the answers to other questions you may have, read on!
How Many Times You Can Get Sclerotherapy
One of the most compelling benefits of sclerotherapy is that the treatment is non-invasive. Since it’s not invasive, it takes hardly any time out of your busy daily routine, doesn’t cause pain, and requires no extensive downtime or recovery. Unfortunately, a single session may not be enough to remove every spider or varicose vein you have. You may need several sessions to reach your cosmetic and medical goals. Fortunately, there is no limit to the number of times you can receive treatment.
How Long Your Session Should Take
If your spider or varicose veins are fairly close to the surface of your skin, your sclerotherapy session should take no more than 15 minutes. It is when your gnarled, twisted, diseased veins are deep beneath the surface of your skin that ultrasound is required to locate the veins precisely and ensure there are no blood clots attached to the problem veins. If your case is complicated, your session can take up to 30 minutes.
When you come in for your initial evaluation, we can give you a better idea of how long you can expect your treatment to take. If you have problem veins in several regions of your body, such as your hands, abdomen, and lower legs, your treatment may take closer to an hour than half of an hour. You may need to schedule a little time off from work to treat several regions in one treatment session.
How Many Times You Will Need Treatment
When this treatment is used to destroy spider veins and small varicose veins, only one session is necessary unless we need to target several areas of your body and you can only come in during your lunch break. However, when used to treat larger, deeper, more gnarled veins, you may need a second session to destroy the diseased vein completely.
How Long the Results of Treatment Will Last
Another incredibly compelling benefit of this treatment is that the results are permanent. Once the sclerosant has irritated the inside of the vein wall sufficiently, it will collapse in on itself. Once this happens, blood cannot travel through it, so it will starve. Once it has starved, the cells comprising the vein wall will die. Once the vein dies, it will be absorbed into the surrounding tissue. The dead cells of the venous wall will not come back to life. Blood will simply be rerouted to healthier veins.
With that being said, you may need follow-up treatments once you have rid your body of varicose and spider veins the first time. Although the treated veins are destroyed completely, you may develop spider or varicose veins again in the future. Whether you suffer from recurring disordered veins or not depends largely on why they arose in the first place.
Risk Factors for Recurring Varicose Veins
A jaw-dropping 98% of varicose veins are idiopathic. Put another way, they can be accurately diagnosed due to their characteristics, but there is no way to tell why they exist. That’s why it’s so important to look at risk factors of recurring varicose veins, specifically factors that you can change. The importance of knowing factors that increase the risk that you can’t change is having the understanding that you should be sure to negate every factor that applies to you that you have control over.
Obesity
One of the leading risk factors for recurring varicose veins is obesity. To be diagnosed with obesity, you must have a body mass index of 30 or greater. When you have enough mass on your frame that you suffer from obesity, some of that excess weight is found in your abdominal region. Unfortunately, excess weight carried in the abdomen causes excessive pressure on the veins in your lower extremities.
This excess pressure is very likely to cause venous failure over time. The longer you are obese, the greater your chance of developing varicose veins. If you have only been diagnosed obese recently, make losing weight one of the top priorities in your life. If you are overweight and carry excess abdominal fat, you are still in a high-risk category, but you are less likely to develop varicose veins.
A Sedentary Lifestyle
Another significant risk factor of recurring varicose veins is a sedentary lifestyle. Most people are set in their ways and will come up with excuses daily to not change their habits. They’re too busy working two sedentary jobs to exercise. Their knees hurt. There are people who stare at them every time they try to go to the gym.
If you’ve been making excuses for why you can’t make your physical health a priority, strongly consider starting today. Even committing to walking around the office once an hour or parking farther from the store is better for your circulation than sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week and parking as close to the store as possible. To mitigate the risk of recurring varicose veins, make small changes that eventually add up to you walking at a moderate pace for 2.5 hours weekly to support your circulatory system.
Family History
While you can’t change your immediate family’s medical history, it’s important to be aware of their medical history. If an immediate family member, such as a parent, grandparent, or sibling, has suffered from varicose veins in the past, there is a very high chance that your varicose veins will come back in the future.
Unfortunately, since 98% of varicose veins are idiopathic, there’s nothing you can do that will definitely prevent them from recurring. Nevertheless, you can, and should, take steps to mitigate your risk of developing future varicose veins. Risk mitigation steps you can take include:
- Moving more
- Watching your diet
- Elevating your legs when you sleep
Moving More
All varicose vein risk mitigation techniques come down to improving circulation. Moving more is one of the best things you can do to support a strong circulatory system. According to the American Heart Association, you should engage in moderate physical activity for 2.5 hours a week to maintain weight or five hours weekly to lose weight. If you don’t have 2.5 spare hours in your week, engage in high-intensity exercises, and cut your recommended exercise time in half.
Watching Your Diet
To mitigate your risk of developing future varicose veins, eat a heart-healthy diet including plenty of soluble fiber and monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Minimize your consumption of saturated fats and sugars, drink at least eight cups of water, coffee, and tea daily, and don’t eat more than two grams of sodium per day.
Elevating Your Legs When You Sleep
If your job requires you to sit or stand in one place for hours on end, you can help your circulatory system at the end of the day by elevating your legs while you sleep. If you don’t have a bed that allows you to adjust the elevation of your legs, place a couple of throw pillows under your ankles to elevate your legs above your heart, using the force of gravity to return blood from your legs to your heart rather than fighting against it.
Alternative Varicose Vein Solutions
RFA Vein Closure
Using a sclerosant to irritate diseased veins to death is a great solution for most people due, in part, to its non-invasive nature. However, it is not right for everyone. That’s why we offer several varicose vein treatments, including RFA (radiofrequency ablation) vein closure. If you’re not a good candidate for sclerosant-based vein treatment or laser-based vein treatment, then you are probably a good candidate for radiofrequency ablation vein closure.
What makes RFA vein closure more ideal than laser-based treatment is that it is safer for a greater number of people. Although laser technology has come a long way in recent years, it is still not completely safe for individuals with dark skin or pale skin and fair hair. RFA vein closure uses radiofrequency energy to heat the insides of the venous walls, just like laser treatment, but it doesn’t affect your skin.
The Importance of Treating Varicose Veins
Most people come in for the treatment of their varicose veins for obvious reasons. The diseased veins bulge uncomfortably against the surface of the skin, occasionally causing pain but always causing discomfort. These veins are visibly diseased and affect self-confidence. Since blood struggles to return to the heart, blood often pools, causing unattractive very visible bruising. Furthermore, irritating itching and tingling can occur, affecting your ability to focus at work and your overall quality of life.
However, there are also less obvious reasons to seek treatment for varicose veins. Varicose veins can lead to a myriad of dangerous medical conditions, including those that are potentially life-threatening. The best example of the potential side effects of varicose veins is pulmonary embolism.
The Risk of a Pulmonary Embolism
Although varicose veins are more likely to cause deep vein thrombosis or peripheral artery disease, there is a significant chance that varicose veins will lead to pulmonary embolism. An embolism is a superficial blood clot that forms outside of the vein. This type of blood clot has the potential to break off from the bulged, twisted vein and become lodged in the lung. A blood clot lodged in a lung, or pulmonary embolism, is potentially lethal.
Discover the Best Varicose Vein Treatment Method for You Today
You don’t have to settle for itching, tingling, or aching legs. You shouldn’t put your health, and life, at risk. If you have varicose veins, they need to be treated. To discover if sclerotherapy is the best way to destroy your varicose veins, please reach out to our experts right now at Coastal Vein in Corona Del Mar, CA to schedule an immediate appointment. We can’t overstate how important it is to treat varicose veins and hope to hear from you very soon.