Medical Makeovers

Chemical skin peeling may be undertaken for either medical or cosmetic reasons. In both cases it is essential to go to a medically qualified professional for treatment. Commonly used peeling agents are phenol, resorcinol, trichloracetic acid and glycolic acid.

Expertly carried out, the technique can make blemishes, fine lines and wrinkles less obvious, and lessen pit marks. It may occasionally be used to treat discoloured areas of skin and freckles.

Freezing kills the cell within the skin and there is an effective method of dealing with superficial skin lesions such as warts, senile keratosis or "age spots" which occur on the face or back of the hands.

A curette is a spoon with a sharp cutting edge that can be used to destroy or remove certain well-circumscribed and embedded skin conditions.

This technique may be used to remove or improve pitted acne scars, and to treat large flat birthmarks. It may produce good results for fine lines around the mouth. Dermabrasion requires the skill and experience of a medically qualified person who has specialised in the technique.

This form of treatment is occasionally used on small broken veins on the skin of the face and legs, but it can also treat warts that stand proud above the skin surface. It is particularly valuable in dealing with small, protuberant skin tags.

Certain skin condition can be treated only by complete surgical excision or removal of a piece of thick skin (including epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous fat). Only a dermatologist or plastic surgeon can decide when this technique is necessary.

Punch Biopsy can be used to treat stable patches of Vitiligo. The depigmented skin is removed using different punches and the normal skin is used to fill the defects.

A person who has a tattoo may later want it removed for personal or aesthetic reasons. But removal may also be medically desirable, for example, if the tattoo causes an allergic reaction or becomes the centre of a localised skin condition.

The only way to eliminate all particles of pigment entirely may be to remove the whole tattoo and cover the area with skin grafted from another part of the body. With large areas, dermabrasion or laser may succeed.

Tattooing itself is a technique that has some cosmetic application, in that it can be used to camouflage pigmented areas or birthmarks.

The methods that remove hair permanently are: Short-Wave Dia-Thermy and Electrolysis and of late the use of Laser. The first two destroy the hair root and surrounding cells so that no hair can grow at the particular spot again. Short-Wave Dia-Thermy destroys the root by means of heat. Electrolysis destroys it with a chemical reaction produced by a galvanic current. Coarser hair may need several treatments until they disappear altogether. Both these methods require extremely fine needles to be introduced into each hair follicle - a process that requires specialised training since the operator needs a highly developed sense of touch and considerable skill in order to judge the requirements of each follicle. Many people find it the best solution for facial hair.

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