Chemical peels or derma peeling, is also named chemexfoliation. It is among one of the best methods to make improvements to your skin’s appearance. Even though chemical peels are utilized mainly on the facial skin, they could also be utilized to make improvements to the skin color on the neck and hands.
Chemical peels are normally done for the face and neck areas of the skin. Sometimes they are used on the hands too. The treatment involves having a chemical solution applied to your skin and this solution will cause your skin to blister and then the skin will peel off after a certain amount of time. The new skin is generally smoother, softer, as well as, less wrinkled. The new skin will be very sensitive to sun exposure but that will subside with time. Though, you should always use a sun-screen thereafter.
What Can Chemical Peels Do?
- Decrease fine lines that are around the mouth and under the eyes
- Lessen wrinkles that are caused by aging and the sun.
- Improve the look of some mild scars.
- Treat some acne types
- Reduce brown spots caused by the sun, freckles, and melasma, those dark patches on the face from birth control pills or pregnancy
- Make improvements to dull looking skin
- Remove pre-cancerous keratoses – these are scaly or red spots
What Chemical Peels Can’t Do
Chemical peels can’t remove deep wrinkles or sagging skin. Face lifts are good for those types of problems.
What Skin Types Can Chemical Peels Treat?
People who have fair skin will benefit the most from from chemical peels. People who have darker skin color types might also experience good results, but that depends on the problem being treated. Nevertheless, there may be a risk of having skin tones that are not even after the chemical peel for people who have darker skin tones.
The Procedure For Chemical Peels
Chemical peels can be done in a doctor’s office or as an outpatient procedure in a surgery center. Before your chemical peel, your physician might tell you to not to take some medications. You might have to prepare your skin by using some topical preconditioning medicines like glycolic acid, Renova or Retin-A. You might be prescribed some oral antibiotics.
The skin is carefully cleansed using an solution which removes excess skin oils. The hair and eyes of the patient are protected. Some of the chemical solutions that are used are, carbolic acid, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and lactic acid. The solution is applied to the skin areas that are being treated.
Most patients will experience some burning that could last up to 5-10 minutes, and then a stinging sensation. Compresses that are cool might be put on to relieve the stinging. Deeper chemical peels might call for pain medicine during or soon after the procedure.
After the Chemical Peel
Based on the kind of chemical peel, a response much like sunburn happens following your procedure. Peeling generally will involve redness, then scaling which stops around 3 to 7 days. Mild chemical peels might be repeated at 1 to 4 week time periods till the preferred effect is accomplished.
Medium-deep chemical peels might cause inflammation because water blisters will occur and they might crack, crust, and turn brown. After about one or two weeks, the skin will start to peel. Medium-deep chemical peels could be repeated in 6 to 12 months, if needed.
Soon after treatment, a few chemical peels might need bandages to be put on part or even all of your skin that’s been treated. Bandages are generally taken off after several several days.
It’s very important to stay out of the sun for some time following your chemical peel because the new skin color will be fragile and much more vunerable to sun burns and infections. Your doctor may recommend the appropriate follow-up treatment to lessen the possibility of developing irregular skin color soon after the peeling process.
Chemical Peels- The Complications
In particular skin color types, there’s a chance of having a short-term or long term color alteration of the skin soon after the chemical peel. Using birth control pills, a pregnancy, or even having family members that get brown patches or spots on their face could increase the chance of getting irregular skin tones.
Even though the risk is low for scarring from a chemical peel, some people are more vulnerable to scarring. Should a scar develop, it generally can be successfully treated.
Also, for patients that have a history of cold sores, they may experience some outbreaks. These can be treated with prescription medication before, as well as, after your chemical peel.
Before your chemical peel, it’s essential for you to tell your doctor about any history of experiencing keloids or if you tend to scar easily. You should also inform your doctor if you have had any laser skin treatments. Doctors usually perform a full medical history before performing chemical peels on their patients.