What Are Spider Veins?
Spider veins are small, red, purple, or blue veins just below the skin surface that become swollen with stagnant blood causing them to be more prominent and visible on the skin surface.
What Caused My Spider Veins?
Many things can cause spider veins, however, heredity, pregnancy, certain occupations that require prolonged standing or sitting, age, obesity, and a prior injury or trauma are the most common causes.
Do I Have An Underlying Medical Issue?
Spider veins are often fed by improperly functioning deeper veins that are not visible on your skin. If you have any of the below symptoms, you likely have deeper, hidden vein disease:
- Itching
- Heaviness/tiredness
- Aches/pain/tenderness
- Burning
- Ankle swelling
- Day/night cramping
- Restless legs
- Skin changes
It is important to know that spider veins are like roots, which are fed by deeper veins under your skin. Medically treating your deeper veins, before cosmetically treating spider veins, is imperative. If deeper veins are left untreated, your spider veins will not go away, likely keep coming back, and can sometimes even become worse. If your vein care specialist suspects a deeper vein issue, an ultrasound will be recommended.
How Are My Spider Veins Treated?
The “gold standard” for treating spider veins is sclerotherapy. Sclerotherapy is the injection of a solution into your vein that irritates the lining of your spider vein blood vessel. This causes the spider vein to die, allowing your body to then absorb the dead spider vein(s).
Sclerotherapy is the best treatment available for your spider veins because the injected solution travels through the weeds and into the roots, treating not only the spider veins you see, but also the “roots” (veins) as well.
Trident Vein Center secret for world-class cosmetic results is foam sclerotherapy. Liquid sclerotherapy is more commonly performed, however, foam allows us to eliminate your spider veins more effectively, with less needle-sticks, and less treatment sessions than other treatment centers.
How Many Sclerotherapy Sessions Do I Need?
You cannot get rid of spider veins in just one session. In cosmetic medicine, it is important to not over treat. Treating spider veins is like creating a masterpiece, it takes several coats of paint!
Our average patient requires 3, thirty minute sessions and by the 3rd session we are usually left “searching” for any additional spider veins. Other centers may require monthly sessions for 12 or more months to achieve what Trident Vein Center can achieve in 1-2 months.
Larger spider veins and green, “reticular” veins are treated in the first session and smaller spider veins are treated at subsequent sessions. Two to three weeks must pass before sclerotherapy is repeated in a treated area. However, we can accelerate the disappearance of your spider veins by using a larger volume of foam in a smaller area of your legs at each session. This means we can treat another untreated area of your leg in as little as 24 hours. Every spider vein patient is unique! We offer free consultations to assess your individual problem, give you a customized treatment plan, and provide you an accurate estimate of the costs.
How Long Before My Spider Veins Disappear?
Treated spider veins always look worse for 1-3 weeks before they look better. It takes months for your body to absorb dead spider veins. The larger your veins, the longer they take to disappear. Wearing a graduated compression hose a few weeks after each treatment will help you look better much faster.
Why Is Trident Vein Center Different?
Total sclerotherapy cost cannot be determined by cost per session! Some centers charge by syringe and others by area of your leg treated. Our session cost is based on total safe volume of sclerosant foam. Trident Vein Center uses the maximal allowable dose which is your best value. You may pay less money for each session of liquid sclerotherapy elsewhere but it will take more sessions and more needle sticks to get the same or better results at Trident Vein! Our average patient looks great after only 3 sessions, where other centers may take 9-12 sessions or more. We may cost more per session but our special foam technology treats more veins, more effectively, with fewer needle sticks.
Sclerotherapy training, skill, and experience are important considerations. You will not get the same results at any center. Treating spider veins is not a commodity. It is an art and a science and takes considerable experience to perform well.
Will My Spider Veins Come Back?
Properly treated spider veins will not come back. However, new spider veins will develop over time and you will need “maintenance”. Spider vein treatment is like hair color and highlights, Botox and fillers, just not as often. You may want additional spider vein treatment every year or so. If your spider veins do not respond quickly to our treatments or new spider veins form quickly, it means you have a deeper, medical vein issue that we can investigate.
If you are interested in scheduling an initial consultation, give us a call at (615) 455-3000.
