If, like many Californians, you spend a good deal of time outside enjoying our abundant sunshine, your skin can look a little worse for wear. From sun spots to fine lines and wrinkles, would it surprise you to learn that sun exposure is responsible for 90% of the visible changes in your skin?
Also called photoaging, this exposure can prematurely age your skin, but the good news is that we have effective ways to fight back.
In this blog post, we look at a tried-and-true skin resurfacing treatment that can really hit the reset button on sun-damaged skin — a chemical peel. The team of skin health specialists at Orange Coast Dermatology routinely uses chemical peels to help our clients glow again after a long summer in the sun.
Exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays can affect your skin in obvious and not-so-obvious ways. First, the sun can mobilize melanin in your skin and, over time, cause it to clump, creating areas of hyperpigmentation called sun spots (or age spots).
Exposure to the sun can also lead to other surface concerns, such as facial veins and a generally uneven tone.
The effects of sun exposure don’t stop at the surface, either. When the UV rays penetrate your skin, they can damage existing collagen fibers, causing your skin to lose elasticity and tone. As a result, your skin can wrinkle and sag.
So, given these side effects of sun exposure, it’s little wonder that photoaging is the biggest driver of aging skin (well, outside of actual aging!).
Skin resurfacing treatments like chemical peels are incredibly effective, which explains why there were more than 3.7 million skin resurfacing treatments in the United States in 2024 alone.
As the name suggests, we apply a chemical to the outer layers of your skin to clear away damaged cells and tissues to pave the way for newer, healthier skin to emerge.
The chemicals we use depends up on your chemical peel as we offer different strengths, including:
If you want to address surface concerns, such as age spots, dull skin, and large pores, a 30% salicylic peel is perfect.
With this chemical peel, we use trichloroacetic acid (TCA) to dissolve the outermost layer of your skin. Once the sun-damaged layer of skin flakes and peels away, a new, unblemished epidermis layer emerges.
With the TCA peel, we can determine the strength based on your skin goals.
We perform your chemical peel here at our practice and you shouldn’t have any major downtime afterward, unless we’re performing a deep peel.
With light peels, there’s no downtime and you can leave with brighter skin that glows. With medium peels, there may be some social downtime as your skin peels away, but it shouldn't last more than a few days to a week.
With a deep peel, the downtime is more significant — a month or more, during which time your skin can be red and swollen.
No matter the peel, your patience is rewarded with fresh skin that glows with youthful vitality. And moving forward, we urge you to make sure you protect your great results from the same sun exposure that prompted the treatment in the first place.
If you have more questions about chemical peels or you’d like to schedule one, please contact one of our offices in Rancho Santa Margarita, Orange, or Mission Viejo, California.
