Question: I saw an interview with a doctor who said that a chemical peel can be used not only on the face but the neck and hands as well. What is different about treatment on the face as opposed to the rest of the body?
Answer: There are certainly many different types of chemical peels and many of them can be used off the face as long as they are not going into the dermal layer of the skin. If they go into the dermal layer of the skin and peel the entire epidermis off then the healing process is most likely going to take too long on areas that are not the face and ultimately these areas will end up having some scar tissue. The reason that it takes longer to heal off the face is that the pores and pilosebaceous units are further apart off the face and they are closer together on the face. Therefore during the healing process when epidermis heals from these pores they heal across and resurface the area much faster on the face than they can on the body. If it takes too long to heal scar tissue will ultimately form. However, light peels can be performed on the hands and body and improve the pigmentation, fine lines, and texture of the skin without running into the risk of scarring.
