Chemical Peel Treatment Of Acne Scars
Acne scarring may be treated with an application of one or more chemicals and this is known as a chemical peel. Chemical peels are useful for both women and men and there are chemicals to suit all types of skin.
As there are several strengths of chemical peels, the type that your doctor uses is going to depend on how bad your scarring is. Compositions of chemical peels can be changed by your doctor in order to treat the particular needs you have, and to achieve the desired treatment results. All types of peels can treat the face, and most of the available peels can also treat areas on the neck and also on the hands.
Three main types of chemical solutions are used for chemical peel treatments: AHA (alphahydroxy acid) or glycolic acid peels, TCA (trichloroacetic acid) peels and, lastly, phenol peels. AHA types of peels are the most gentle and lightest, TCA types of peel have a little higher strength, and phenol peels are the highest strength. For light peels, you will probably have very little discomfort if any. AHA peels usually take around fifteen minutes for a treatment and you may need weekly treatment over a set period of time. TCA (trichloroacetic acid) is normally used for peels of medium-depth. Although TCA isn’t as high-strength a chemical peel as phenol, the TCA type of peels can result in unwanted changes to skin colour. Medium-depth peels won’t affect the pigmentation of your skin permanently, however some colour change might initially occur. For medium-depth to deep peels, you will probably have to get somebody to drive you home. Following a phenol acne scar chemical peel, the patient’s face may be badly-swollen. In the worst cases the eyes may even be temporarily shut due to the swelling. Because of this, up to two weeks of recovery at home are normally needed following a phenol peel. A phenol peel is normally the highest-strength type of peel offered.
The biggest downside of phenol treatment is permanent skin paleness. Because of this, a deep peel should be avoided for darker skinned people such as Asians or Black people. The high-strength types of chemical peels remove a larger number of skin layers than the gentler types of peels. Using tretinoin before undergoing these types of treatment and other types of facial treatments has been clinically proven to give better results and reduce the healing time.