If your idea of a vacation is a long day at the shore, you may have experienced some changes in your skin tone with the passing of the years. Does it seem like you have more and more freckles on your skin each time you go to the beach? You might be one of the millions of Americans over 40 years old who begin to develop 'age spots'.

In order to explore treatment methods, you need to know how to identify these blemishes. This article aims to inform you about how to identify and treat these bothersome skin blemishes.

What's the primary difference between sun spots, age spots and liver spots?

It's easy to get confused about sun spots, age spots and liver spots because these terms are just different ways to refer to the same thing. No matter what you call them, sun spots cause the skin to appear years older than it really is, making it necessary to seek out ways to fade age spots and other skin renovation alternatives.

What are the primary characteristics?

Age spots, sun spots or liver spots are usually brown specks similar to freckles that appear on the areas of the skin most commonly exposed to the sun, such as the face, hands, shoulders and back. Age spots are not always brownish and will range in color, depending on one's skin tone and the level of sun exposure. Sun spots are essentially pigments in the skin that have been damaged by the sun, causing the skin to look aged and/or worn.

What's the best way to get rid of sun spots?

Sun and age spots are mostly removed using simple but expensive medical and cosmetic procedures, or special aging skin care products. Those folks interested in skin regeneration should thoroughly investigate the different available programs for skin renovation today. The most common age spot remover methods are Microdermabrasion, Bleaching Creams, Laser Surgery and Chemical Peels.

How do sun spots occur?

Sun spots are a result of skin sun damage. Over-pigmentation occurs when the skin's melanocytes - cells located in the epidermis - begin to produce pigments in excess, following too much sun. Melanocytes produce the pigments that cause you to sun tan.

When your skin becomes over-exposed to the sun, melanocytes can malfunction and produce too much melanin pigment. This melanin overload causes the skin to turn red or brownish, resulting in what we call sun spots, and can also lead to melasma.

Finally, you should know that most sun spots are completely harmless and concerns about them are therefore usually cosmetic. However, average person's eye cannot distinguish skin cancer from harmless dark spots. It is extremely important that you see a skin specialist in order to verify that none of your sun spots are cancerous.