Chemical Peel
Chemical rejuvenation of the face is one of medicine's most
astonishing accomplishments, the reversal of signs of aging through
a medical process. The skin is never touched by a scalpel.
While perpetually youthful appearing skin has always been one of
man's and woman's most ancient desires, until the past several decades,
this goal was unattainable. The ancient Egyptians and great civilizations
sought means of smoothing wrinkled skin through applications of substances
such as honey and milk, and even practiced rather crude measures
of mechanical dermabrasion using alabaster stones. Today the procedure
consists of creating a controlled wound on the area that needs to
be treated. The depth of the wound is controlled by the chemical
used by the length of time it is applied and the strength of the
chemical. After the wound is created, it will take a week to 10 days
to heal and as the healing progresses, a more youthful appearance
will be apparent.
The procedure is usually done in the operating room, unless the
area to be treated is small and requires a small amount of sedation
so that the patient is comfortable during the procedure. It takes
1 to 1 1/2 hours to perform and the patient goes home the same day
with instructions concerning care of the face. For a week to 10 days
the patient will limit social commitments and around seven to ten days the
patient is able to start applying make-up and go out in the world
again.
The first several months after the reddish-pink color fades naturally
the healing process is accelerated by medication that we provide.
The pink color is usually gone by six to eight weeks after the performance
of the procedure. Regardless of how long the natural fading takes,
the color can be concealed with cosmetics. In some people,
during the first several months, the skin tends to be dry (due to
inactive oil glands), but this is easily corrected by the use of
moisturizing creams.
Generally, once the pink color has faded the new skin may be slightly
lighter than it was before and less apt to tan. Since sun tanning
may have been one of the factors that caused the skin to age prematurely,
the patient will want to reduce the chances of burning and tanning.
Therefore, we advise proper sunscreen which will reduce the chance
of burning and will help keep the skin from becoming aged again.
The procedure can be done for a series of other conditions that
affect the skin, i.e., hyper pigmentation, small superficial lesions
of the skin (age spots) and damaged skin.
In summary, chemical facial rejuvenation is a modern medical process
to permanently (depending on age, of course) remove wrinkles and
other outward signs of aging skin. For safety and comfort, it is
often performed under anesthesia and requires seven days spent away
from normal activities. Expecting the need for some cosmetics, female
patients generally return to work and social functions within ten
days, men possibly sooner. |
