Facial Chemical Peels
Facial chemical peels comes in a variety of strengths. These facial chemical peel treatments include alphahydroxy acid (AHA) peels, trichloroacetic acid (TCA) peels, and phenol peels.
AHA peels are the most superficial, smoothing the surface of the skin. An AHA peel may be as simple as the physician wiping the affected area with a pad saturated with the chemical peel. TCA peels are the next level of facial chemical peels. These peels smooth the skin and may be helpful with fine lines. Like the AHA peels, TCA peels do not help acne scars alot. The benefit to these peels is the skin looks overall clearer and healthier. Phenol peels are the strongest of the peels.
Weak to mild facial chemical peels are peformed at day spas and provide superficial acne scar treatment. They are great for improving tone and texture and the overall appearance of the skin but they do not truly improve acne scars.
Stronger facial chemical peels can penetrate the dermis at a very deep level and give permanent, long lasting results. These peels should be performed only by qualified physicians as they can cause permanent damage to the skin if applied improperly. The biggest drawback with a strong facial chemical peel is after the redness is gone the skin is left with a white, ghostly color and acne scars may or may not be significantly improved. And there is a permanent line of demarcation between where the strong facial chemical peel was applied and where it was not, even on fair skin. A phenol peel should never be used on dark skin tones because of the skin discoloration.
Strong facial chemical peels are performed by applying a chemical acne solution to the dermis. The application results in the skin blistering. During the next few days the skin peels off to be replaced by new skin. For mild acne chemical peels there is little peeling. Though there may be a mild pinkness to the skin, there is no downtime.
We recommend facial chemical peels only for mild skin peeling.Very mild peels can freshen the skin and help it look healthier and glow. Because of the discoloration that is likely to result in stronger peels we do not recommend them as an acne scar treatment.
