Everyone wants to look their best for summer. With hot days, summer fashions and plenty of opportunities to show your legs, you don’t have to have another summer where you cover up due to unsightly or uncomfortable leg veins.
Whatever type of varicose veins you have; purple or blue thread veins (or spider veins), networks of green reticular veins or lumpy and disfiguring varicose veins, all of these can be removed using the latest techniques many of them pioneered and researched at The Whiteley Clinic. These treatments have shaped our unique way of treating veins called The Whiteley Protocol®.
Our award winning research has helped us understand the treatment of leg veins over the past 16 years, but we still can’t speed up the healing process!
Now is the time to book your appointment as it is essential to get your treatment started early enough to make sure your legs look as good as possible for your summer holidays and events.
There are a variety of different types of veins that we treat at The Whiteley Clinic; each with a specific treatment or a series of tailored multiple treatments.
Thread veins are often mistakenly thought of as being cosmetic problem. Many patients will go to a beauty salon or cosmetic clinic to have them lasered or injected. In fact, our research shows that 90% of these small surface veins are linked to hidden varicose veins which cause blood to remain in these surface thread veins. In 40% of patients, the hidden varicose veins are major superficial leg veins that have lost their valves.
For these reasons, many patients who have thread veins treated without first treating the underlying cause often end up with their veins returning or even worsening.
At The Whiteley Clinic, we believe that everyone should have a duplex ultrasound scan, performed by a Clinical Vascular Scientist, looking for any underlying hidden varicose veins before treating their thread veins.
If you are one of the lucky 10% who does not have any hidden varicose veins underlying the thread veins, or if you have had the underlying veins identified and treated by The Whiteley Protocol®, you may go on to have microsclerotherapy
Best results following the treatment of thread veins are achieved in patients who wear compression stockings for a minimum of 14 days and preferably 21 days. Results may, only start to become apparent at 8+ weeks after the last treatment session. With more time, the results get even better.
If you want your legs ready for summer, please don’t delay – book with us now. Typically we can start your treatment immediately but may need up to 6-months before you complete your treatment and give your legs a chance to get the cosmetic result that you want.
The single green veins or networks of green veins that many people get on their legs are called “reticular veins”. Often these are the feeding veins into thread veins on the surface. Sometimes they just exist by themselves, particularly if the skin is very pale or thin.
As with thread veins, the majority of patients with reticular veins have underlying hidden varicose veins. Successful treatment relies upon expert venous duplex ultrasound scanning performed by specially trained vascular scientist, to identify exactly which underlying veins are causing the problem.
Once the underlying cause has been found, the optimal treatment pathways can be advised using The Whiteley Protocol®.
If you only have reticular veins, or if you have already had the underlying cause identified and treated by us, we may then proceed with ultrasound guided foam sclerotherapy of these veins. The Whiteley Clinic has won prizes for our research on how to optimise ultrasound guided foam sclerotherapy.
Just like micro-sclerotherapy for thread veins, the best results rely on compression of the treated veins for a minimum of 14 days and nights and preferably 21 days and nights if really good results are desired. Once again, the best results may not be seen for eight weeks after treatment, and as a second treatment or other thread vein treatment may be needed, we need time to make sure that you have the correct treatment and also have time to heal well enough to show a great cosmetic improvement.
Hidden varicose veins may be the underlying cause of bulging varicose veins on the surface of your skin, we use a duplex ultrasound scan to confirm this and would treat these first. Treating the surface veins without treating the underlying veins not only leads to the veins coming back again, but can lead to a worsening of the cosmetic problem which might not be easily treatable in the future.
The treatment of varicose veins or hidden varicose veins varies depending upon the size or location of the vein in question and also how straight or tortuous it is. The Whiteley Clinic offers various treatments specifically tailored to you.
As you might expect, treatments take time to heal and can delay any subsequent treatment of reticular veins and then thread veins afterwards. As such, it is best to get any varicose veins or hidden varicose veins treated as soon as possible so that any other treatments that are needed for summer can be planned in plenty of time.
Having read the sections above, you will realise that this cannot be answered without a duplex ultrasound scan of your veins performed by a The Whiteley Clinic trained sonographer.
If you have the very simplest thread veins, you will need a minimum of eight weeks before they start to look how you would like after treatment … and they will look even better the more time they have to heal. For the 90% of people who will have underlying problems, the answer is to get your scan performed as soon as possible so that we can plan your treatment and give you the best possible result for next summer.
Don’t leave it too late, book now or spend another summer with your legs covered up.
To give yourself a great chance of having great legs by Summer 2016 book an initial appointment and scan today or contact us on info@thewhiteleyclinic.co.uk or 01483 477180
0330 058 1850
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