Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery Blog- Seattle/Bellevue facelift/rhinoplasty surgeon- Dr. Philip Young » Chemical Peels

Acne Scar Treatment Healing Diary Released by Dr. Young Seattle

dryoung — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:01:38 +0000

So we are excited to release our new photo diary on the healing process and recovery after subcision and deep chemical peeling for Acne Scar Treatment (Here is a link to see this Acne Subcision Chemical Peel Healing Diary). Many of our clients wonder what the healing process is like. We wanted to show the healing process through photos and what to look for in terms of healing and how to clean etc. Deep chemical peeling is much like the process of laser resurfacing and the recovery and cleaning / healing process. So we invite you to also visit our laser resurfacing page to find out other tips to get the best healing from chemical peeling and laser resurfacing.

Subcision is the process of elevating the tissue under the skin and scarred areas, to allow the depressed scars to elevate to the more normal unscarred skin. This is the first step in making the scars look better. The depression in acne scars can cast a shadow in this area, the darkness clues people on the status that the particular area is not like the rest (ie it looks like a scar). After the scar is more elevated then you can proceed to polish the skin level to get it to look more like normal skin. The polishing step is when we decide to do laser resurfacing and dermasanding. Dermasanding is the process of dermabrasion with medical grade sterilized sandpaper. This is a more accurate way of doing dermabrasion in Dr. Young’s opinion. It also avoids spreading infection to the people around.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

How do I get rid of back hyperpigmentation?

dryoung — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:09:42 +0000

This a question that I answered for a patient who had fraxel resurfacing for acne on his back and subsequently had significant hyperpigmentation on his back. He wanted to figure out how to get rid of it. This is how I answered his question, in short:

Intense Pulse Light, Medium depth chemical peels, fractional co2 resurfacing, skin care can improve back pigmentation. With Fraxel resurfacing the pigmentation could be at many different levels. More superficially, I would consider more aggressive skin care light lightening products (retinol, hydroquinone, hydrocortizone), 15% alpha and beta hydroxy lotion, at home glycolic peels. Also for superficial pigmentation, lighter chemical peels 10-25% TCA (Tricholoroacetic Acid) peels, and active / deep fx could help. For dermal pigmentation, active and deep fx could improve the pigmentation intense pulse light with varying filters could improve this, as well as different longer length lasers from 585-1064. Dermal depths are deeper and not accessible to most superficial treatments.

Hope this was interesting

If you ever want some questions answered you can always email me here.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

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

Fillers 2 days after Jessner’s Peel. Is this okay. Is it better to do fillers or peels first?

dryoung — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:26:29 +0000

This is a question that I answered for a patient that was being cared for by another surgeon:

It should be okay but to be safe I would wait at least 1-2 weeks to do fillers after Jessner peel. I think it takes about 4-7 days for a Jessner’s to fully heal. Most of the time it takes only a couple of days. So generally, I like to wait for the healing to take affect before I do fillers. I usually like to do fillers before peels. The reason is that with fillers the wrinkles becomes better effaced and this can allow the peel to get into the crevices of the wrinkle better and have a better result.

Cheers!, Dr Young

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

Can chemical peels lead to cold sores?

dryoung — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:28:32 +0000

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

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

dryoung — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:34:00 +0000

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

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

dryoung — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:30:13 +0000

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

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

dryoung — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:02:24 +0000

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

What is a glycolic peel best for treating?

dryoung — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:22:03 +0000

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

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

dryoung — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:12:24 +0000

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

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

dryoung — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:36:04 +0000

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