Dr Chu about to do TCA cross

[Rupert 0]

Is Dr Chu doing TCA now? No

Is he about to? So he told me

Can I book at the moment? No. He just told me that he thinks it would help a few of my scars and that he should hopefully soon be doing it. Don’t take this as “I’ll ring up for an appointment now� He may change his mind, who knows.

Explanation. He told me that he had just been in China last week spending time with that guy from Korea who got this whole TCA thing kick started years back ( I can’t remember the name). Anyway Dr Chu is impressed and is going to start doing it as one of his procedures.

Now to many people reading this in UK they will say that they will save their money and just do-it-themselves thank you very much. As they probably know more about TCA than Dr Chu does. You are maybe right. However for those of us who are too scared to use it by ourselves I thought it would be useful to know that Dr Chu is about to start it himself.

From what I understand of TCA (which is not a lot compared to others here) you tend to need to do it many times to get improvement. This may make it totally non –viable to many to get a derm (say Dr Chu) to do it. However there would be no harm in having a few sessions with him to get the technique and then do it yourself , yes?

You see I wanted to show him that I know a small amount about TCA and told him a few tips I had heard, like the longer you leave the scabs on the better. He totally disagreed with the tips I told him. Who knows who is right and who is wrong? But if I do have TCA I know I’ll have it with him, I don’t want to botch it myself. It would be far better if I could blame him LOL.

[flygirl30 0]

WHERE IS DR CHU LOCATED?

[Rupert 0]

Hammersmith Hospital London

[oldguy 1]

You see I wanted to show him that I know a small amount about TCA and told him a few tips I had heard, like the longer you leave the scabs on the better. He totally disagreed with the tips I told him.

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[OursFan 3]

Thank you for sharing this with the board.

[marce 0]

his name is Dr Lee Jung Bok

founder of tca cross

[Rossignol 9]

Thanks for this information - I'm seeing Dr Chu in a couple of months and I would love to look into having TCA CROSS done by him. (I'm too scared to do it to myself!)

[Rupert 0]

Hi OldGuy,

I’ll tell you what I said to him but I don’t know much about TCA and the conversation really wasn’t in depth. Anyway here goes.

Tip1 I heard somewhere.

I said leaving scab on for as long as possible was best. He totally diagrees saying that with something like 100%, on many this could leave unwanted scarring especially if their application wasn’t top notch precise

Tip2

I heard somewhere that you must give a goodly amount of the stuff over the area. Apparently not. Tiny amount in some scars is better so you don’t make it actually bigger

And I also said that from what I’ve heard it can help anyone’s icepicks. Apparently skin type is a factor. Don’t reckon dark skinned people could be in much luck.

Overall I got the impression he doesn’t think it a good idea people do it to themselves. But hes a professional of course he thinks that. Once I get the knack I’m sure I’ll start doing it to myself.

[oldguy 1]

Rupert, I didn’t totally understand what he meant about “I said leaving scab on for as long as possible was best. He totally disagrees saying that with something like 100%, on many this could leave unwanted scarring especially if their application wasn’t top notch precise�

Could this have been a communication breakdown where you thought he said he disagreed but he actually meant he thought scabs are best left alone? I am perplexed by that.

Also, when you said “Don’t reckon dark skinned people could be in much luck.� Did the doc say that or do you? Either way, I want to refer people to an important study:

Focal Trichloroacetic Acid Peel Method for Benign Pigmented Lesions in Dark-Skinned Patients

Another relevant study is the TCA Cross study:

Focal Treatment of Acne Scars With Trichloroacetic Acid Chemical Reconstruction of Skin Scars Method

As you can guess by the catchy titles, it is the same authors

Man you definitely don't want to use a "goodly amount" of TCA! I dipped the very end of toothpicks into 100% TCA and it still absorbed into the surrounding skin. In addition, for a small scar like an icepick, you would only want to press the toothpick in for a second, and then get it out of there. You can see better examples than mine of this in jill004's thread.

Thanks a lot for the info.