I was recently reading the story of a woman using TCA to treat her acne scars. She said that after numerous repeated treatments, her scars looked great as they had almost totally filled in.
She went on to say that around a year or so later, her scars all sunk back down again to where they were before. She said she was planning to treating them every year to keep them plumped up since the effect was temporary.
I was under the impression that the results that people get from repeated TCA sessions are permanent but I guess I was wrong, unless she was somehow the exception to the rule.
Has anyone else found their positive results to be temporary from TCA cross?
According to this study, TCA CROSS benefits did reverse for a few patients.
http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC2956965/
Conclusion:
The CROSS technique with 100% TCA is a safe, efficacious, cost-effective and minimally invasive technique for the management of ice pick acne scars that are otherwise generally difficult to treat. In few patients the improvement may not be sustained, probably due to inadequate or delayed collagenisation.
In another study (I can't find the link), I believe it reversed after 6 months for one of about a dozen patients.
I found the other article. It is actually for the same study that I previously linked above. Here's the full article for free:
/> http://www.jcasonline.com/article.asp?issn=0974-2077;year=2010;volume=3;issue=2;spage=93;epage=96;aulast=Bhardwaj
Three months after the last treatment, one patient noted a decrease in improvement with no further improvement even at the six-month follow-up period.
Decrease in efficacy at three and six months of follow up may be due to delayed collagenisation that may not be optimal at six months. Further studies in a larger number of patients, preferably with quantitative and qualitative histopathological analysis is indicated, to evaluate and validate the long-term results of this technique.
From this, I guess you can conclude that positive results do reverse for some patients, but further study is needed to determine whether there is truly a long-term benefit for most TCA CROSS patients.
Personally, I had a bad response to Cross and wish it would reverse... 
Hope this helps in some way.
No peel is permanent. Not unless you use so high a concentration that it damages the dermis and creates burn scars. If someone has any research stating otherwise, please post. :]
Dermabrasion is the only 'safe' lasting solution, along with subcision.
I agree with Zante...you'll need to continue getting peels every 6 months or so to maintain the results...I've heard many times about it...so it doesn't sound permanent...=(
No peel is permanent. Not unless you use so high a concentration that it damages the dermis and creates burn scars. If someone has any research stating otherwise, please post. :]
Dermabrasion is the only 'safe' lasting solution, along with subcision.
TCA Cross is not a peel. We are talking about focal point application of high concentration (90-100%) Trichloric Acid inside of a scar, using a toothpick for application. It does cause a burn. The whole point is to cause the scar tissue to rise from the inside of the scar towards the surface of your skin, so basically creating another layer of scar tissue. In my case, I crusted for about 3 days and then had scabs for over 2 weeks. My derm used 90% TCA. Unfortunately, I had a horrible response. Some of my smaller icepicks joined together to form boxcar scars and deep indented lines. I would give anything to have that reverse. There is no comparison CROSS (Chemical Reconstruction of Skin Scars) to a peel.
NO method of treatment is 'safe' and guaranteed to produce lasting or positive results for every individual. There are always risks. I've read plenty of horror stories about dermabrasion and subcision, as well.
Just bumping this to say that I think this happened to me. I didn't get much improvement from the TCA cross treatments I had for my icepicks and boxcars (3 treatments altogether), but it did plump up a couple of my scars noticeably (around 30-50% improvement). Now it's been a year and a half since my last treatment, and those scars have sunk back in during the last 6-12 months. I can't assess the improvement or lack thereof very objectively since I don't remember how my scars looked before, but based on my experience, TCA cross only had a temporary effect (6-12 months), probably due to microswelling. Because the improvement I got wasn't much, the fact that it didn't last hasn't really upset me. My scars do look softer than before though, which may be just because they're older or because TCA cross made the edges softer (which is a big improvement in my book). A couple of my scars widened slightly because of Cross and one became a bit deeper as the scab fell off prematurely, but most scars didn't have negative effects. All my treatments were done by an experienced doctor.
Also, I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the skin around some of the treated scars is slightly higher and lighter than normal skin. I can't be sure if I truly have hypopigmentation, because the difference is so subtle and not really cosmetically significant, but I thought it might be worth mentioning. I think Cross treatments are fairly risky and unpredictable and I would rather recommend other treatments.
