Peels are one of the most popular cosmetic procedures you have to perform if your clinic is aesthetics oriented. Your patients will enjoy the procedure because it is cheap and the downtime can be adjusted to match the patient's social life. Nevertheless, you have to follow some basic but essential rules to ensure your patient's safety and avoid peeling complications such as postinflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) and hypertrophic scars.
First of all, why should one choose the peel from so many cosmetic procedures? The selection of a cosmetic procedure depends on multiple factors such as the goal of the procedure, the downtime your patient is willing to endure, the body area to be treated, the patient's skin type, the safety of the procedure, your own skill with the technique, and many other factors.
A chemical peel can be very superficial, with only a light exfoliation of the epidermis. It can also be deeper and penetrate to the mid- and deep dermis for severe acne scars or skin rejuvenation. Microdermabrasion is usually performed for epidermal damage only when dermabrasion will treat deep scars and severe signs of skin aging.
The skin improvement obtained with lasers or intense pulsed light (IPL) is often very outstanding, but it requires a very important investment for the practitioner. Moreover, technology is moving so fast that your laser or IPL unit will become obsolete before you finish paying for it, and this kind of device has no or a very poor secondhand market.