Smile Bright: Transforming Downturned Mouth Corners

In this engaging episode of “Anti-Aging Insights,” Dr. Teri Fisher delves into the transformative world of chemical peels, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of this popular non-surgical treatment. Hosted from his clinic in Kitsilano, Vancouver, Dr. Fisher’s approachable style makes it easy for anyone considering a chemical peel to understand its benefits and processes.

Chemical peels act as a “reset” for your skin, utilizing controlled applications of various acids to peel away the outer layers, revealing smoother, fresher skin beneath. Dr. Fisher explains that this treatment can effectively address a range of skin concerns such as uneven texture, acne scars, pigmentation inconsistencies, fine lines, and wrinkles. The procedure works by applying different strengths of acids like glycolic, lactic, and salicylic acids, catering to both milder needs and deeper, more pronounced treatments.

Dr. Fisher emphasizes the importance of performing chemical peels under professional supervision, as the strength and type of peel must be expertly chosen based on individual skin assessments. Within the clinic, trained technicians evaluate the most suitable peel for each patient, ensuring safe and effective outcomes. They guide patients through the experience, from initial application to the post-treatment care, including the critical use of sunscreen to protect the new, sensitive skin.

Listeners interested in rejuvenating their skin can gain a clear understanding of what to expect during a chemical peel session, which typically lasts about half an hour. Depending on the peel’s strength, treatments may be spaced out from a couple of months to a year. Dr. Fisher’s clinic prides itself on tailoring treatments to a variety of skin types and needs.

Tune in to learn more about achieving radiant skin with chemical peels, and feel free to reach out to the Anti-Aging Medical and Laser clinic for personalized advice and evaluations. Visit DrTeriFisher.com or Dr. Fisher’s Instagram for additional information and insights.

Key Insights

• Chemical peels function as a “reset” for the skin by applying an acid to promote shedding of the outer skin layer, resulting in new, smoother skin.
• Main reasons for using chemical peels include evening out skin texture and tone, reducing scarring from acne, and addressing fine lines and wrinkles.
• Different strengths of chemical peels exist, ranging from mild, using acids like glycolic and salicylic, to medium and deep peels for more significant effects.
• The procedure involves applying the chemical peel in a controlled environment, and it’s crucial to use sunscreen afterwards to protect the sensitive, new skin.
• Treatment duration is approximately 30 minutes and frequency depends on peel strength, with professional evaluation of skin needed to choose the optimal peel type.

Episode Transcript

Hey there, welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. This week we’re talking about chemical peels. This is a topic that we have not yet spoken about on the podcast, and I just recently had the opportunity to do an Instagram Live at our clinic about this very topic, and I thought why not share that Instagram Live information with all of you on this podcast. So if you are wondering what a chemical peel is, if you are thinking about getting one, or you just want to learn a little bit more about them, then this episode is for you. So without any further ado, let’s get right into it, and this is the recent Instagram Live, all about chemical peels.

Dr. Teri Fisher: Hey there. Dr. Fisher here at Anti-Aging Medical and Laser in Kitsilano in Vancouver. Happy November! This is our first Instagram Live for November and today we have a great topic. We are talking about chemical peels and I’ve got some of the products that we use here. So, in these few brief moments, I’d like to talk to you a little about what is a chemical peel, what’s it good for, why you would use it, and I can explain a little bit about the actual treatment itself, so you have a better idea of what this whole chemical peel thing is and what you can expect if you come in and you get one.

So, first of all, what is a chemical peel? You can think of it almost like a reset for your skin. Essentially, it is an application of some type of acid that is put on the face, and then this allows the skin to then peel. When you think of this, if you take it to the extreme and you think of what happens when you get a sunburn and the skin turns very red and then it starts to peel, what we’re doing with a chemical peel is we’re doing that in a controlled way.

Why would you do that? Well, it’s because once we start to peel off that excess skin or the skin that we want to refresh, you do get new baby skin and new growth of skin underneath, which typically has a very nice texture, which leads me to the main reasons why people would choose to get a chemical peel.

There are a number of reasons, but essentially the main reasons for the chemical peel are to even out the texture of the skin. So if you have some rough skin, if you have skin that maybe has some scarring from some acne, for example. It also helps to even out tone of the skin. So if you’ve got uneven colouring of the skin and you want to improve that, you can use it for that as well. It’ll be great for fine lines and wrinkles as well. Because what happens is again, is you apply this chemical on the skin and that layer of skin, whether it’s wrinkled, whether it’s got a scar, whether it’s got some pigment that you don’t want to have there, that starts to shed after a little while.

Now some products can be done at home. The ones that we use here are medical grade. They’re obviously done under the supervision by our technicians, and they are evaluating everybody for what would be the best type of chemical peel. There are different strengths of chemical peels as well. So on the mild end, we use different types of acids like glycolic acid, lactic acid, as well as salicylic acid and these are actually just a couple of the different brands that we have here, a Vivier one, a SkinCeuticals one, a ZO brand, and these are part of what we can use.

There are also medium strength peels, which by the nature of their name, they’re a little bit stronger. They have a little bit more of an effect, if you will. And those are often done with some increased strength glycolic acids, sometimes some TCA is another type of acid that we use.

And then you can actually get into the really deep chemical peels, which are a little bit more unusual. But these use other chemicals that can cause quite significant change in the skin.

How do we do it? Well, typically you come in, you’re in a nice treatment room like this, and you work with the technician. The technician would clean the skin, and then they essentially use just a little brush like this, and they paint this chemical on the skin. When you have this treatment done, it’s not unusual to feel a little bit of tingling in the skin, depending on which product is used, and depending on how strong the product is. And then once that has been applied, then after a certain amount of time, the chemical is removed or it’s neutralized with another chemical because remember I said it was an acid. So you can add a different type of chemical to neutralize that. Once that is done, it’s very important that you use sunscreen because the new skin coming underneath is sensitive. It’s like brand new skin. It is brand new skin. And so you want to make sure that you’re using sunscreen so that you are not exposing that new, more sensitive skin at that point to the harmful radiation.

A treatment typically takes about half an hour or so. And depending on the strength, again, of the chemical that we use, this could be done every couple months, every six months, even every year, depending, again, on the strength of the chemical peel.

So, again, in a nutshell, you can think of it as a way to refresh that surface of the skin. You use some type of acid, again, varying strengths, you put it on the skin, and it’s going to help to correct, to get rid of uneven texture, fine lines, wrinkles, uneven pigment, scars, and those sorts of things that you might want to try to get rid of through a chemical peel. Very, very effective, and it’s a very, very popular treatment here.

Our technicians are all very skilled in this. And of course, one of the things that we pride ourselves on is that whenever you come in for treatment, we evaluate your skin. And of course, we would help you to decide which of these products is the best product?

As I mentioned, we have mild strength, we have medium strength, and we have deep strength. Definitely when you get to the deeper chemical peels, it can be quite an aggressive treatment. And again, we want to do that evaluation. But if you go to the mild side of things, there’s lots of variables, lots of ways that we can control the type of response you have to that chemical peel. But there’s lots of different strengths and we can accommodate different skin types as well.

So that’s a little bit about chemical peels. You’re more than welcome to come on in, reach out to us here at Anti-Aging in Kitsilano.

So this is Dr. Fisher here, Anti-Aging Medical and Laser here in Vancouver, signing off and we hope to see you here really soon.

There you go. Everything you wanted to know about chemical peels. I hope you enjoyed that. I hope you learned a ton. And as always, like I said, feel free to reach out. There is lots of information on my Instagram profile at DrTeriFisher or on my website at DrTeriFisher. com, D R T E R I F I S H E R. As always, it’s a pleasure to chat with you today, and I look forward to chatting with you again next week.

Until then, be well.