A Look At All the Choices

Once in a while a product hits the market that revolutionizes the industry. You now no longer have to take chances on a skin care specialist's level of skill at controlling the precise depth of penetration of the acid, chemical, abrasive, or laser. Nor do you have to opt instead for the weaker therefore less effective, though still invasive products."New You" thermo-bonding removes the corneum right down to the layers that are still hovering between life and death in one application without over-exfoliating.

Skin Resurfacing 101, A Crash Course

Inflammation is actually a protective response that serves to destroy, dilute or wall-off both the injurious agent and the injured tissue. Redness, or erythema, is due to blood vessels in the dermis dilating in response to by-products of cell damage. People don't understand the potency of many products, how any inflammatory response will involve free-radical formation, and the healing of an inflammatory process always leaves some unseen fibrous scar tissue, which could have an accumulative affect on skin texture.

The most commonly used acids are Retin-A; glycolic, lactic/alpha-hydroxy acids; salicylic (beta-hydroxy). Any formulation having an acidic pH greater than 4 is more like a moisturizer than an exfoliant and will do little to boost cell metabolism, but if the pH is below 3-4 it will burn and not be safe. The exfoliating enzymes bromelain, papain, pumpkin, placental, are also irritating while they remove only surface dead skin cells. Then there are the clay masks, the isometric masks like Nu Skin, and vinyl agents that dry into a film which you peel off, removing some surface dead skin cells in the process.

Prescription strength products and clinical strength acids/chemicals applied under surgical conditions can do more harm than good. Insurance companies limit the percentages of acids in facials they'll insure, which is a statement in itself about the wisdom of their use.

Derma-abrasion presents the same potential medical and esthetic risks as a chemical peel, except for the presence of a hazardous chemical. Both procedures are very painful, expensive, require long periods of recovery, and a difference in pigmentation may occur regardless of precautions against sun exposure.

Also, experience has shown that laser resurfacing is not the benign procedure that estheticians, patients and the media had been told. The new Erbium or "Cool Laser" is suppose to reduce the incidence of burns and scarring and the duration of redness. It is touted as non-invasive, which is misleading.

Hydroxy acids have their place in history because they created the demand for more long- term skin rejuvenation treatments instead of covering up skin faults with make-up. Although dermatologists and plastic surgeons have moved away from phenol peels and derma-abrasion in favor of correcting the skin by exfoliation, the new so called "light peels" designed to target only the corneum, like TCA (used in Obagi Blue Peel), Bio-Medic "Micropeel," Jessner Peel, microdermabrasion, vibro-dermabrasion, crystal peels, epidermabrasion, just to name a few; still require that you sign an "informed consent" to corroborate that you understand the risks associated. Also, they are still very costly while for all the money, time, and inconvenience, lack sufficient cosmetic results.