Archive for the ‘Chemical Peels’ Category

« Older Entries

Can chemical peels lead to cold sores?

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

A chemical peel (Dr Young of Bellevue Washington) can cause a reactivation of the herpes virus that leads to cold sores.  Some 90% of people are infected or have been infected by the Herpes Virus simplex 1 that cause oral herpes.  Chemical peels, resurfacing, dermabrasion all stimulate the skin that can reactivate the virus that usually resides in the sensory nerves (dorsal ganglion).  These peels or procedures stimulate the nerves, decrease barriers and active the virus to come down the nerves to the cause the cold sores.  They don’t actually lead to a new infection, they just reactivate the virus that has been there since childhood.  Usually if the peel is more than superficial, I will prescribe acyclovir, or vacyclovir as prophylaxis. I don’t always do that for superficial peels like glycolic, low strenght tricholoracetic acid, or jessner peels, etc.  Laser resurfacing, dermabrasion, and medium to deep depth chemical peels usually require prophylaxis.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels, Laser Resurfacing | No Comments »

Is a facelift the best option for acne scarring? What other options do I have?

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Facelift is not the first option but I have noticed improvement in Acne Scarring (Philip Young MD, Seattle / Bellevue Washington) from this procedure.  I personally have many patients that have noticed a significant improvement on their acne scarring  from a facelift procedure.  Is the facelift a procedure that is usually recommended to a person to improve their acne scars? The answer is “no”.  But I usually present all options to the patient.  Among these options include laser resurfacing, chemical peels, dermabrasion, dermasanding, fillers, fat injections, and excisional techniques.  It depends on how your scars look like.  If you have alot of deep ice pick scars you may need some excisions to completely remove them.  Of course if they are everywhere you might have to pick and choose which ones to excise or cut out.  This excisional approach is usually followed by some resurfacing.  I usually prefer to excise and then resurface the areas at the earliest 6-8 weeks.  One important point to remember is that the goal is improvement.  Your skin is probably not going to ever look like your skin when you were a baby of course. But we can make it better!  Fat injections and fillers can be used to break up the scarring that sometimes holding the skin down to the deeper layers.  This often causes the scars to be held down.  Fat injections is the best way to soften up the adhesions of scarring to allow the skin to come away from the deeper scarring. Here is a live demonstration of fat injections being done in the face (Dr Young is a fat injections specialist from Seattle, Washington). Fillers can also do this, but less well.  Here is a live demonstration video of an Acne Treatment Procedure.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for reading,

Dr Young

Dr Youngspecializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Acne Treatment, Chemical Peels, Dermatology, Facelift / Face Lift / S lift / Mini Lift / Weekend Face Lift / Quick Lift / Image Lift, Fat Transfer / Fat Injections, Fillers / Facial Fillers, Laser Resurfacing, YoungVolumizer | No Comments »

Chemical peels can be uncomfortable but depends on the depth of peels.

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Chemical peel (Dr Young’s Chemical Peels) can be uncomfortable but depends on the depth of peels.  Superficial peels can even be uncomfortable and many times I will use a hand held fan in my practice.  The other doctors mention that chemical peels don’t really hurt.  I would tend to disagree based on my experience.  Jessner’s peels are superficial but they are uncomfortable but tolerable.  Anything using tca 20% or more will cause discomfort that will need oral sedation or iv sedation in my opinion for my patients comfort along with topical anesthesia.  Glycolic peels are more superficial than Jessner’s peels but they are still uncomfortable in my experience. I’ve done these myself on myself.  So make sure to ask your doctor what they do to make you feel more comfortable.  There are things that can be done!

I hope that helps.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels | No Comments »

Blisters and peeling after a Jessner’s peel. Is this normal?

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Blisters are unusual after jessner’s and Strong itching could be indication of infection. Jessners (Seattle) is a superficial peel and should really have just redness after the peel and peeling of skin 3-5  days later. The blistering that you see could be crusting and you may need to clean more aggressively at least every 2-3 hours and sometimes every hour to decrease the crusting by moisturizing it and allowing the crusting to naturally fall off with the rinsing.  I would definitely have the physician see you and make sure that you are taking care of the peel after the procedure.  Jessner’s peels are difficult to take deeper beyond the floor of the skin (or basement membrane).  Even 5 coats may not take the peel deeper than the basement membrane which leads to a superficial to medium depth peel.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels | No Comments »

What is a glycolic peel best for treating?

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Glycolic acid peels are superficial but can be important for regular skin care. They are superficial peels and the aggressiveness of the peel is dependent on the percentage of the glycolic acid in the preparation.  They are fairly safe and it is very difficult to make them deep and thus complications are much lower as compared to other peels.  One thing to remember is that sometimes the more aggressive you are the more results you will get for the most part.  Glycolic acid peels that are from 0-30% can be done at home with some guidance.  Anything stronger would be wise to be carry out with the guidance of a physician.  At home glycolic peels are a great way to keep up your skin from a maintanence stand point.  I usually start patients on a skin care program with retinols, hydroxy acids, buffing cleansers, gentle cleansers and see how they do and tolerate it.  Once this basic regimen is tolerated for a couple of weeks then I start them on the at home glycolic peels and guide them through this.  With this regimen, you can get your skin to turnover much quicker (from 28 days to 10-14 days or less).  This will help with unwanted pigmentation, decrease the size of pores, improve texture, and decrease fine wrinkles.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels, Dermatology, Skin Care | No Comments »

How often should you do chemical peels to maintain the results.

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

How often you do peels can be subjective and dependent on how you feel your skin is doing and for what condition you are treating.  Chemical peels can be varied in terms of how deep you want the peel and how deep the issues you are trying to treat. Superficial wrinkles and pigmentation issues can be improved by superficial peels.  Deeper wrinkles and pigmentation can be improved by more aggressive and deeper peels.  Deeper peels should not be repeated for several months and even up to a year.  Your physician can monitor how you are healing and determine this.  Superficial peels allow a faster recovery and thus you can do these much more frequently.  Glycolic peels can be done 2-3 times per week depending on how a person is tolerating the treatments.  Your doctor can help you determine this.  To maintain the results you need to determine with your doctor how your results are coming along.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels, Dermatology, Skin Care | No Comments »

Can chemical peels and photofacials be done every 2 weeks alternating?

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Yes you can do this but you need to be careful and not be too aggressive. Chemical peels that are combined with photofacials need to be light and superficial. It all depends on what condition you are trying to treat. If it is melasma, being to aggressive can sometimes aggravate the condition. This same principle also applies to hyperpigmentation. It also depends on your skin type too. If you have darker skin, being more cautious is important. chemical peels that are done every month should be more superficial. Deeper chemical peels require a longer interval otherwise scarring could occur.  The benefit of doing chemical peels and photofacials together is that chemical peels work on more superficial elements of the skin while the photofacials can concentrate on deeper structures.  The combination of the two however is rather in its infancy stage and there are not a lot of solid scientific evidence regarding using them. The research however will continue to find new ways to benefit our patients.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels, Intense Pulse Light | No Comments »

Difference between co2 laser resurfacing with Lumenis and their active fx / deep fx / total fx / max fx technical advances explained

Monday, December 7th, 2009

active_deep_totalfx

skin anatomy

skin anatomy

A knowledge of skin anatomy can help with understanding resurfacing (laser peel, laser skin rejuvenation) of all types including laser, chemical, dermabrasion.  Taking a look at the cross sectional area of the skin, you can see that the skin is broken up into basically two areas, the epidermis and dermis. All resurfacing progressively take away layers of skin and by doing so remove skin lesions, unwanted pigmentation, wrinkles etc.  What happens is that the deeper skin cells located in the depth of the hair follicle eventually resurface and repopulate the skin.  during this process a layer of scar tissue and collagen is formed under the new basement membrane.  This new layer of collagen is thought to be responsible for some of the benefits of resurfacing including tightening of the skin and maintaining the decrease state of wrinkles.  The basement membrane is the connective tissue floor that the stem cells rest on where they reside and repopulate the more superficial layer of skin cells.  Active Fx essentially takes away more superficial layers confined to just above or just below the basement membrane depending on how many passes are done, what power and what density is chosen.  The basic principle of active fx is the use of a fraction of the spot size.  When you look at the picture above you can see that active fx has some wide dots, wider that the deep fx.  But the key are the areas in between the dots that represent untreated skin.  This untreated skin allows a faster recovery and less down time.  The goal is to get some of the effects of resurfacing without the downtime.  To help with the results of active fx, deep fx was added to create more tissue tightening to a deeper level.  Notice in the picture that with deep fx the dots are thinner.  Deep fx is thinner but it reaches to a deeper level heating up deeper layers and leading to more tissue tightening to a thicker amount of skin.  When deep fx is combined with active fx you can get better results than when each are used alone and this is done with less downtime than traditional resurfacing.  Total fx is when active fx is combined with deep fx.  Traditional resurfacing can be explained by active fx and that approach.  The difference is that the dots are much closer together and depending on whether you increase the density of the dots the dots may overlap to a varying degree.  When the dots start to overlap at a density of 4-5 you start to get into more traditional type of resurfacing where all parts of the skin are taken away or ablated per spot.  This approach does not leave healthy skin in between the treated dots, so the downtime is like older approaches. This use of active fx with dots touching or overlapping is more appropriately called max fx, or traditional co2 resurfacing. One thing to remember is that the more aggressive you are the more results but also the more risks are involved.  Total fx tries to get more results than you would normally get with a certain amount of risk. Here is a live demonstration of my use of a co2 laser and laser resurfacing.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Acne Treatment, Chemical Peels, Dermatology, Laser Resurfacing, Microdermabrasion, Scar Removal / scar reduction / scar revision / scar treatment, Wrinkle Treatment | No Comments »

Should I do a chemical peel under the eyes or a filler first.

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Aging is in a large part due to a volume loss within the face.  As we age we lose fat within our face, our bones get smaller and our skin thickness goes down too. A simple way to look at it is that we change slowly from a grape to a raisin.  Resurfacing in my opinion should always be done after you volumize or reshape a certain area.  This is more applicable to more permanent or semi permanent filling and reshaping procedures such as face lifting and fat grafting to the face.  But I generally follow that same principle even with fillers.   Many times you will find that you will need to do less resurfacing after these more permanent procedures and semi permanent procedures. Also after these reshaping procedures, the wrinkles are less prominent and also respond better to resurfacing procedures like chemical peels and laser resurfacing because more of the surface becomes exposed.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Blepharoplasty / Eyelift / Eye Lift / Dark Circles / Eye Bags, Chemical Peels, Fillers / Facial Fillers, Laser Resurfacing | No Comments »

What are the bumps that can form after you have a laser resurfacing procedure?

Friday, October 16th, 2009

This is a question I answered for a patient who had laser resurfacing (laser peels / laser skin resurfacing / active fx / deep fx / total fx / max fx / ultrapulse / co2 laser resurfacing) and bumps a couple of months after the procedure:

They could be milia (clogged pores / acne / plugged ducts / facial bumps / plugged hair follicles). Which are small plugged cysts within a hair follicle. These can be extracted individually. There are also other options including using retin A, topical antibiotics can help and prevent more from forming.  Also microdermabrasion and superficial chemical peels can be done as soon as your skin is healed. At this point for you, being 2 months out you can do microdermabrasion, chemical peels, and before this I would have you start on a cleaning regime exfoliation and retin A. The Retin A will stabilize the skin cells and prevent the pores from cloggin up. From there, the microdermabrasion and the chemical peels (chemical resurfacing / chemical facials / skin resurfacing) will open up the pores and milia and clear the skin.

Here is a live demonstration of my use of a co2 laser and laser resurfacing.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Chemical Peels, Dermatology, Laser Resurfacing, Microdermabrasion | No Comments »

« Older Entries