“Chemical peels are a family of topically applied, acid substances that are primarily naturally derived from sugar cane, apples, or milk. These are applied to the skin in office for several reasons: if you have oily or acne-prone skin, if you have fine lines, or if you have photo damage, which would include things like brown spots or discoloration from the sun. The chemical peel is done in the office setting after a little bit of preparation and cleansing. The product is applied to your skin, it’s incubated for a varying amount of time, depending on what your practitioner thinks is the optimum, and then it’s neutralized. What can you expect afterwards? The main thing I always tell people is that it’s important to make sure you don’t go in the sun immediately after a peel because it can really promote a sunburn and promote an adverse reaction. Other than that, you might have just a little bit of fine peeling, a little bit of mild redness. But nothing that should keep you at home, nothing that should create any significant downtime. The benefit is that you’ll have a glow. You’ll have a freshness to your skin. And you’ll actually fundamentally change the under-surface of your skin by promoting new collagen deposition, by shrinking your pores, and by minimizing sebum production.”

“Should we pop our pimples? Is that safe? And are facials safe? In general, it’s better not to pop the pimple because that, most of the time, causes scarring. The best treatments are usually topical and oral medications and intervening early – so seeing a dermatologist as early as possible is the best way to approach this. Facials, in general, are safe, and they’re typically used to treat blackheads and whiteheads, not cystic acne. As long as it’s done by a professional in a reputable salon, facials are typically safe, and that is a way to treat mostly blackheads.”

Prolonged sun exposure and sunburns over long periods of time can cause skin cancer. Your genetic makeup is also a factor. In this Q&A, Tamara Lazic Strugar, MD, Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explains what steps you can take to protect yourself and your family.

Why is sunscreen so important?

Sunscreen is the thing that we can control for us and for our children. Using sunscreen, SPF 30 or above, applying it 15 to 30 minutes before sun exposure, and reapplying it every two to three hours or every time you get out of the water, is one of the things that we can do.

What should I do for my kids?

Keep in mind that childhood sunburns are the ones that usually cause skin cancers later on in life. Skin cancers typically come out 20, 30 years later after the blistering sunburns. So it’s very important to start educating children early on sun protection. SPF 30 or above, a combination of a physical and a chemical sunblock, are the way to go.

What is melanoma?

In order to prevent a deadly form of skin cancer–melanoma–it’s very important to do annual skin cancer screenings, which are recommended for everybody. Once a year, you should see your dermatologist and get all your moles, freckles and the entire skin – it’s the largest organ of our body – it needs to be checked once a year. Catching a melanoma early can be life-saving, so that’s the main purpose of these screenings.

What about other forms of skin cancer?

There’re two more types of skin cancer: basal cell and squamous cell. Those are typically not deadly but can be quite disfiguring if they’re left alone. So, make sure that you see a dermatologist once a year for your skin cancer screening.

“Blackheads, by medical terminology, are called open comedones. A comedone is the pore, the opening in your skin, that connects your sebaceous, or oil-producing gland, your hair follicle, and little tiny muscles that help your pores open and close. When that pore gets stuffed with debris, dead skin, oil pollution from the environment, that becomes a blackhead. Sometimes people confuse those with whiteheads. What are whiteheads? That’s when the blackhead gets closed. It has a cap of skin on top of it, literally making it look white rather than black. Dermatologists distinguish between open comedones, or blackheads, and closed comedones, or whiteheads. The optimum treatment for these are topical retinoids. These are by prescription. They are related to vitamin A, and these can be given to you by your dermatologist.”

“Contact dermatitis is a skin rash that’s caused by contact between a certain substance or chemical and the skin. There’re two different types of contact dermatitis: irritant and allergic. Irritant is when a chemical is simply too irritating for the skin. It could be a harsh soap. It could be simply water – washing your hands too often. That reaction usually happens pretty much within the same day or the next day between the contact with the skin and the occurrence of the rash or the symptoms. The other type is allergic contact dermatitis, which is an itchy, usually pink, flaky rash, that occurs typically at least the day or two after exposure to a certain chemical. This can be a preservative or a fragrance from a skin care product. It can be nickel or another type of metal, contact with jewelry or belt buckles. Things like plants, poison ivy is a common example of allergic contact dermatitis. There are many different things that can cause this, and there is a test that can figure out what the particular chemical is that you may be allergic to. It’s called a patch test. Typically, a dermatologist or an allergist does the test. Not every dermatologist does this, and not every allergist does it. So you need to find a dermatologist or allergist who specializes in contact dermatitis and in patch testing. An easy way to find out is to go in the American Contact Dermatitis Society website and look for dermatologists who provide this service. The test is a three-day test. We basically test for the most common chemicals – typically from skin care products, jewelry, detergents, and even clothing that can cause allergic contact dermatitis. The treatment for contact dermatitis is typically anti-inflammatory creams, like topical steroids and emollients.”

“How can I shrink my pores? I’ve been blessed with these big holes in my skin, and what can I do about it? The short answer is it’s really tough to fundamentally change the structure of your skin. The longer answer is though that there are some things that we can do to help minimize the appearance of your pores and to give you a regimen that you can do at home to promote ongoing sort of smoothing of your skin. So the first thing is it’s really important to incorporate a topical retinol or a retinoid product into your nightly regimen. Retinols are over-the-counter and retinoids are by prescription – these are all derivatives of vitamin A. The second thing is it’s really important to maintain just a good cleansing regimen. Things like glycolic acid and salicylic acid can also help by removing the debris from your pores and therefore allowing them to relax a bit. Procedure wise, there are some things in the office that can be useful: chemical peels, which we do in our practice here, typically beta hydroxy or alpha hydroxyl acid peels. There are some laser treatments that can also be helpful for shrinking your pores, and this would be something to bring up with your dermatologist. But something, for example like a fractionated laser, or an intense pulse light laser, might be helpful for minimizing the appearance of your pores. Then the last piece, which is maybe a bit of common sense. Adopting a healthy lifestyle is really important: making sure you hydrate well, making sure you get enough rest, and eat enough fruits and vegetables – those b-complex vitamins are great for promoting a glowing skin.”