Medium Depth Peels

In another DermTV episode I discussed what are called superficial peels. They’re also called “lunchtime peels” because you can actually do them at lunchtime and go right back to work because there’s no downtime from them. The reason there’s no downtime is because they work microscopically by just taking off a few cells at the upper layer of the skin. That’s why you have to do a series of them every week or two weeks but in return for that, there’s no downtime and you do get a significant improvement in the texture of the skin which makes the skin brighter and more lustrous and also helps to take away some brown spots or age spots. But, because it’s so superficial, it doesn’t help with fine or medium depth lines or crater type acne scars. If you want to help those problems you need a deeper peel and deeper peels than superficial are called medium depth peels. They’re done with peeling agents or acids like tricholocedic acid between 35 and 50% that go deeper, and when these acids go deeper, they dissolve the entire epidermis and they also dissolve part of the upper layer of the dermis called the papillary dermis. When you do that depth of wounding or damage, the body then has to heal and when it heals it makes lots of collagen and when it makes lots of collagen it helps fill back in those lines, wrinkles and scars. But because the epidermis is gone, the barrier function is gone so of course you’re going to have oozing and rawness and redness. The advantages of medium depth peels is first of all, you only have to do them once and second, it improves the color and texture like superficial peels but it also makes a meaningful improvement in fine lines, medium lines and crater-form acne scars. The disadvantages of medium depth peels is first of all, during the procedure, there’s some discomfort. And because there’s destruction of the epidermis you’re going to have oozing and wounding and rawness for about a week. So, you can’t go to work and you can’t put makeup on and after that heals there’s going to be a few weeks of sun sensitivity when you’re a little bit pink. And, anytime you destroy tissue beyond the epidermis and go down into the dermis there’s always a chance of scarring. So, if you’re going to have a procedure like this done, please make sure you have it done by a qualified dermatologist who has a lot of experience doing these things. Don’t ever attempt to do something like this at home.