Dermabrasion, which may either be wet or dry, is the use of exfoliation and infused serums for evening out skin tone, lightening skin color, and smoothening the complexion. This method is popularly used for the face, to treat acne scars and fine lines around the mouth. This mechanical peel involves cleaning, marking, and numbing the skin to prepare it for the procedure—which, bloody as it may seem, can be done once a week.
The procedure may make use of a wire brush or a diamond wheel with rough edges, called a burr or fraise, that rotates rapidly, takes off, and then levels to remove—technically, to abrade or plane—the skin’s upper layer, literally wounding you and causing your skin to bleed. That is where the catch is: as the wound heals, new skin grows and replaces the old one you want to get rid off in the first place.
A local anesthetic is applied followed by a 30-minute ice pack application treatment on the skin to firm it up. For deeper dermabrasions, or when these two are not enough, or if the entire face is to be treated the skin may be freeze-sprayed and general anesthesia be required. The process works on one small area at a time, freeze-spraying every few seconds, and gauzing up bleeding. A session takes an hour and a half, varying with condition and areas being treated, ends with the application of bleaching cream and dressing the fresh wound with ointment.
