The customized Polaroid camera, invented four years ago but rarely used in doctors' offices, is built on the same principle as a contraption that dermatologists have used since 1903, the Woods light. When you shine a filtered UV light onto the skin, it is selectively absorbed by the melanin, or skin pigment. The light accentuates blotches of excessive melanin or shows where it is absent. Unlike the Woods light, the camera gives a permanent record. I used to go into the tanning booth.
Damage done by the sun can also lead to skin cancer.
Doctors believe that 80 percent of all the sun damage to your skin is already done by age 20, so doctors would like to see the camera used on teenagers, college students and others most likely to go in for heavy-duty sun tanning. The UV Detect camera is most effective on fair-skinned people but can detect vitiligo in those with dark skins. Men are just as vulnerable to skin damage as women. Very young children show almost no sun damage, so their UV Detect photo looks nearly identical to a normal picture. Benge, who grew up in Holland and South Africa, has miasma, a hormone-induced browning of the skin common in pregnancy that can be made worse by the sun.