Skin Damage Corrected at Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center

The sun’s UV rays cause over 90 percent of skin cancers. We all know by now that UV rays damage the skin. So let’s talk about what kind of skin damage this can cause, and how chemical peels and other treatments can help.

Radiation from the sun changes what is called “gene expression.” Gene expression is what makes a particular cell able to function. All of our cells have the complete DNA code within them, yet each cell knows its specific job. This why UV rays can cause cancer; they actually can alter the DNA of your skin cells taking the control over structure and function away from the cell. In other words, the skin cell falls down on the job, so to speak. This is how sun damage results in lines, wrinkles, discoloration, and even cancer. The most common types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma, with melanoma being the deadliest.

UV rays also cause damage to the underlying supportive tissue of the skin. On your face this is the deep dermis just above the fat layer. This is part of the reason the face begins to droop as we age. We need collagen, and in fact, many cosmetic procedures, such as Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatments, Broad Band Light, Ultherapy, and Thermage, involve increasing collagen production to add volume to the aging face. Collagen production is a process that is also dependent on gene expression. There are many physiological steps involved in the body to produce collagen, and break downs in this process, at different points, can cause various diseases. Collagen damage contributes to fine lines, and deeper wrinkles. With the above treatments, collagen damage can be corrected. By the way, there is evidence that Broad Band Light can alter gene expression in a positive manner!

Chemical peels are essentially exfoliation of the skin with chemicals. With chemical peels, damaged skin cells are removed correcting previous skin damage. There are several kinds of chemical peels we use at Little Rock Cosmetic Surgery Center including:

• Alpha Hydroxy Acid peels (lactic, glycolic, acetic, salicylic) a light peel with minimal downtime (lunch hour peels) and just a little melanin dispersion (bleaching).

• TCA Peels (Trichloroacetic acid) that do exfoliate, and have various amounts of bleaching effect depending on the strength. The stronger the peel, the better the effect.  Stronger also means a longer downtime.

The best thing you can do is take steps to avoid sun damage to begin with! Last summer the new FDA recommendations included using sunscreen labeled as broad spectrum that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. The new sunscreen label regulations went into effect last summer also. I hope you are using one of these sunscreens. Now that you are taking better care of your skin, you might consider one of these treatments to correct previous skin damage.

Dr. Branman

Call Melinda at the front desk to set up an appointment with me at 501-227-0707

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