Phenol Peel: Stories

I am 4 weeks post peel. It was paintful for the first 11 days but with the pain medication (I took Percoset)and numbing meds (Lidocaine)I was ok. Slept pretty much the first 4-5 days. It is imperitive that you have someone with you (preferably a nurse) to administer your medications and apply the treatments.

The first 2 days you treat the face every 2 hours with sterile water and a bit of vinegar so remove the slothing skin. Then you apply a mixture of bacitracin and Lidocaine that is whipped up and kept in the fridge. This is applied like you would ice a cake with a tongue depressor. After the 2nd or 3rd day the facial washes are not so frequent but several times a day. Not only is this beneficial to healing and preventing scaring but it also feels really good. After about 10 or so days most of the "crap" has come off and you have red very tight skin. For me it has been hard to open my mouth real wide.

I will say this, I am 65 and had pretty deep wrinkles around my mouth and also deep lines between my eyebrows.........ALL GONE. It is amazing and I am willing to wait as long it takes to completely heal. I used a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon and my procedure was done in a hospital setting anthesia was administered by an Anethesiologist. I had to have a cardiac clearance prior to my procedure because of my age.

There is a lot of preparation for this peel including 6 weeks of hydryoquinone and retin A. There are certain vitamins you will stop a couple of weeks before and different healing vitamins you will start a couple of weeks before. You really need to be dedicated to this and plan on waiting at least 3 weeks to go out. I am still really red and probably will be for up to 6 months. I wear a heavy duty sunscreen but make-up seems to make me look pretty normal now to go out in public. My face is flawless. I would do it again although this will last me the rest of my life if I take care of my face.