Tretinoin is a natural, first-generation retinoid found in many hydroquinone combination therapies in concentrations of up to 1%. Tretinoin-hydroquinone combination treatments often include a steroid to help combat irritation, as tretinoin is the most irritating topical retinoid.
Both products are used to keep enhancing your skin's color and glow after popular procedures like Botox or Acne treatments. Hydroquinone and Retin-A can be used together following the instructions below. Skin-bleaching agent results.
Apply Hydroquinone in the evening after Retin-A and in the morning for 2 to 6 weeks prior to the procedure. It helps to stop the production of pigment in the skin and will help prevent the skin from hyperpigmentation (darkening of your skin) after the procedure.
Apply a thin layer of medication to the affected area, including about 1/2 inch (1.5 centimeters) of normal-appearing skin around the affected area, once daily 30 minutes before bedtime or as directed by your doctor. Rub the medication into the skin gently and completely.
Conclusions: Hydroquinone is superior to tretinoin as a priming agent in maintaining the results achieved with peels and in decreasing the incidence of postpeel reactive hyperpigmentation.
Avoid using hydroquinone with peroxide products such as benzoyl peroxide or hydrogen peroxide, which can cause discoloration. Avoid alpha hydroxy acids. The combination of hydroquinone and alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) can irritate your skin.
While it can be used to treat focal areas, it is often best to apply this agent to the whole face and apply a heavier amount over the darkest regions. This helps prevent a blotchy complexion.
The drug works by inhibiting new epidermal melanin production. Hydroquinone has been proven to be safe and effective for treating hyperpigmentation in patients aged 13 years and older when used as directed.
What happens when you stop using hydroquinone cream? Hydroquinone may prove beneficial for a maximum of five to six months. Once you stop using it, you may experience irritation on the affected parts of your body. This may lead to inflammation.
Tretinoin Does Not “Bleach” Your Skin
Contrary to popular belief, tretinoin is not a “bleaching agent” or medicine designed specifically to lighten your skin tone. While tretinoin can even out patches of hyperpigmentation and cause a mild change in your skin tone, it doesn't affect melanin synthesis.
That's why Vitamin C works best when combined with other potent skin lightening agents, like Hydroquinone. Hydroquinone with Vitamin C is especially effective because the vitamin also provides some protection against sun damage, which is a major contributor to skin discolorations.
“It is safe to use in 2% to 4% formulations twice a day for 12 weeks max. Then skin then needs a break from the chemical.” Some experts also believe that hydroquinone works better on fairer skin tones. There is some research that the ingredient may worsen hyperpigmentation in darker skin tones.
Hydroquinone may be helpful in epidermal-type melasma. Concentrations vary from 2% to 10% and hydroquinone may be used twice daily for 12 weeks. Hydroquinone may cause local skin irritation, however, and thereby leading to post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, making the skin pigmentation worse.
Lightening of the skin should be noticed within 4 weeks of initiation, if no change is seen in 3 months, contact your dermatologist for further recommendations. Side Effects: Normally hydroquinone is very well tolerated, however side effects may be seen.
Additionally, the highest strength that is commercially available with a prescription is a hydroquinone 4% cream. A cream with 6, 8, or 10 percent hydroquinone can only be obtained from a compounding pharmacy with a prescription.
This increases the concentration of melanin in the epidermis, creating a temporary darkening of the spots. So, the darkening is what you want to see. It means the pigment is coming up and is ready to be shed away. You might be tempted at this point to over-exfoliate in an attempt to speed up the process even more.
In conclusion, kojic acid along with hydroquinone is a superior depigmenting agent as compared with other three combinations in our study. Its combination with hydroquinone is synergistic. However, larger studies overcoming above mentioned limitations are required to obtain more conclusive data.
The results of the study show that 4% Hydroquinone cream is a better topical hypopigmenting agent with rapid rate of clinical improvement when compared to 0.75% Kojic Acid cream.
Results Hydroquinone treatment alone and treatment with the combination of hydroquinone and glycolic acid had a significant effect in reducing skin pigmentation compared with baseline (P<. 001).
Skin Discoloration
Tretinoin can fade spots on the face, evening out your skin tone and helping to hide the blotchy coloration that can affect many people's facial skin. In some cases, however, tretinoin can also cause small patches of skin to darken, producing noticeable skin discoloration.
Hydroquinone is applied topically just to the hyperpigmented skin only, twice daily for 3 months, after which time many patients maintain their improvement by using it twice each week. If there has been no benefit after 3 months of treatment, then the hydroquinone should be stopped.
According to several of the derms we spoke with, skin-lightening agent hydroquinone is one of the most effective ingredients for fading acne scars.
Sheila Krishna, it's totally fine to use vitamin C with over-the-counter retinol products or dermatologist-grade retinoids—which, BTW, is the broader term for vitamin A derivatives, including retinol, tretinoin, and adapalene, just to name a few.
Retinol and tretinoin are both retinoids, which means they are compounds that come from vitamin A. They're both commonly used in topical creams to treat a number of skin conditions. Though they're similar, tretinoin is more concentrated than retinol.