Walnut Creek Chemical Peel doctors

Chemical peels, like TCA peels, can be helpful for treating sun damage, including actinic keratosis. It is important to see a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon or Board Certified Dermatologist to be certain the area is benign, and for routine follow-up.

Any suspicious skin lesions should be biopsied for diagnosis. If you have the area treated and it recurs, a biopsy should be reconsidered.

Chemical peels are an excellent treatment for hyperpigmentation. In fact, I prefer chemical peels over any kind of laser treatment for management of hyperpigmentation alone. This can be done using a more gradual approach, with a series of “light” chemical peels (generally, in my practice, this is a combination of glycolic acid, salicylic acid, kogic acid, Jessner’s solution, hydroquinone, and resourcinal) or a more aggressive type of peel, known as trichloroacetic acid (also popularized as a “blue” peel or known as a TCA peel). The more aggressive of these two approaches – the TCA peel – will usually require pre-treatment of the skin for 3-4 weeks prior to the procedure, for best results and to ensure that there are no negative consequences from the peel itself. Pre-treatment involves home application of topical skincare products, including topical vitamin C serum and a product containing hydroquinone and Retin A. Often these products are used again after the procedure to help maintain and prolong your results.

It depends on how long the freckles have been there. If the freckles have been there your entire life, they likely involve full thickness hyperpigmentation. However, if they are more recent, perhaps due to sun damage, the likelihood of a TCA chemical peel being successful is greater. Certainly, a blue peel or TCA chemical peel would be expected to improve, if not completely eliminate, the freckles on your legs.