It sounds almost too good to be true -- a way to peel away they years to a more youthful complexion.

With spas doing a brisk business selling special treatments and expensive over-the counter skin-care products flying off store shelves, acids have become the must-have weapon in the battle against aging.

And according to the Island's only dermatologist, Dr. Alex Romeo, word of mouth has helped to make the latest weapon in the quest for the fountain of youth, chemicals peels, the hottest thing in skin care.

"When an individual has a peel, the effect is immediate and your friends and family notice it,'' he explained. "They'll come up to you and ask you `what did you do to your face', you look brighter and have a radiance about you'.

They give you immediate feedback.

"This has exploded because individuals see the results on someone else and then they say, `hey, I want that'.'' "We did a hairdresser the other day and when she went back to work, and the next day I got calls from everyone there saying they want one,'' added register nurse and certified skin care specialist Willi Lawrence.

"If people did not see any results, it would not be popular,'' noted Dr.

Romeo. "There is visual evidence that it works and that's the biggest seller.'' Chemical peels use acids to help even out skin discolouration, soften fine lines and acne scars and eradicate pre-cancerous skin lesions.

The procedure can be performed every two to four weeks depending on the skin type and can be performed on most body parts like the chest, arms or backs.

From a young age, most people are taught that burns are a bad thing. But contrary to that popularly held belief some `burns' are beneficial to the skin.

"Basically it is a controlled burn,'' Dr. Romeo explained. "You are burning your skin and you are controlling it. You control the depth of the burn, the duration and the percentage of the substance you put on your skin.

"If you want a mild one, you put on one that has a lesser percentage of the burn medication. Acids can range from mild to the very severe like hydrochloric acid.'' Dr. Romeo said that using acids as a skin care product was not a new phenomenon but in fact has been used for years -- the ancient Romans use to take milk baths to soften their skin.

"There are some beneficial effects, one is that the skin turns over,'' he explained. "What the peels does is take off a few layers of dead cells via an unnatural process. In doing so, we get to cells that are more immature and the more immature the cells are, the plumper they are and therefore the overall appearance of the face is more youthful.

"It also tightens -- it gives a sense of tightening the face,'' he added.

"It tends to pull, and when you pull, things tend to tighten up. The mass effect it leaves is that the skin tends to look tighter and looks more youthful.'' But despite the results, Dr. Romeo said that claims that chemical peels were an alternative to plastic surgery or a `fountain of youth' were a bit over the top.

"I think that's exaggerating. I think that at some particular point, the science behind these peels is such that perhaps in the near future we will be able to say here are some other alternatives to surgical facelifts. I think we are getting to that point, but we are not yet at that point.'' And Dr. Romeo urged people not to have unrealistic expectations that a bottle of lotion or a treatment will produce magical effects.

"For instance look at aloe. There's an assumption that just about everything with aloe, which has some good properties, is great. But not everything with it has those properties. Some of them do not contain enough aloe to do anything for you.

"I think there's an unreal expectation,'' he added. "So any treatment that we will give is always proceeded by some discussion that hopefully puts it all into some prospective.

"What you really want to look like may not be realistic to what the medicine is capable of doing.'' And he said that the public needs to keep this advice in mind even when purchasing over-the-counter skin-care products.

"Some of them are regulated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) which state that the maximum amount of a substance that can be used in a product and generally that is so little that it will not be able to give a good effect.

"What we do is take that same medication and multiple it in terms of its strength to be able to get a more desirable effect. What you get over the counter is designed so that people who may try to abuse it could not do so.'' Helping people look younger by peeling away the years "There are things that you can get over the shelf that do work but generally they are not strong enough to get the kind of effect that the average person is looking for.'' Dr. Romeo also urged anyone who is thinking about getting a chemical treatment abroad to be sure that they are getting the procedure performed by a professional.

"It has to be someone who knows what they are doing, has done it before and knows the potential side effects are of the medicine.

"There are individuals who will try to take advantage of others and sell them all kinds of products and sometimes the before and after pictures are not realistic.

"You really want to investigate it and a lot of the times anyone who has only basic training can do certain treatments to the face, so you have to talk to the individuals and get some basic sense of whether they know what they are doing.

"Some discussion prior to any placing of the hands on the face is important.'' "I'll do an interview and a skin evaluation before the procedure,'' explained Nurse Lawrence. "Baring any problems and if the peel is what the patient wants then we can go ahead and do it in the same visit.'' If the consultation and peel is done in one visit the whole procedure should take around an hour.

Following the procedure patients should be gentle with their face, avoiding any wax treatments and the sun.

"This is where the sunscreen becomes important because you want to protect any improvements you have received,'' noted Dr. Romeo.

Nurse Lawrence added: "No one will leave the office without wearing some sunscreen, even if it is cloudy out.'' And the pair said there was no recuperation time following the procedure which they said appealed to people from all walks of life.

"It's across the board,'' said Dr. Romeo. "Although, we do see more women because they are more in tune with their skin, but men in the last ten years are spending much more time on things like this.

"It is not unusually to have a significant number of men come in and ask for a peel.'' Men thinking of getting a peel done should shave their face the night before having a peel done.

Anyone interested in getting a peel done, should remember that your insurance will not cover the cost of the procedure which can cost around $175-$200.

"They consider it to be cosmetic,'' explained Dr. Romeo. "But there are some cases where the insurance companies will pay, but they are probably ones that are somehow related to a disease or some type of accident and it is beyond the control of the patient.'' For those who cannot afford peels and special treatments, Dr. Romeo had some words of advice.

"Most people do more to themselves then for themselves,'' he said. "Just practice basic skin care, you don't have to get sophisticated.

"People tend to think of their face as their showpiece, so they want the very best for their face. They feel that, for the most part, the expensive thing is the only thing that will work and actually you can get things out of your grocery store that will work just as well as some of these expensive things.

"You really just need something simple, a simple cleanser for the face,'' he added. "Some of the glycolic acids that are sold over the counter (even at eight percent), the retinoids or a prescription will have some beneficial effects, although they won't be as accelerated as the peels, but over the long-term they will do something.'' Bermudian born Dr. Romeo became the Island's only dermatologist after an friendship with a college classmate and a few elective classes sparked his interest in the field.

"My intent at that time was to become an internist,'' he recalled Berkeley and Howard University graduate. "So for four years I studies and practised that.

"By chance a classmate of mine wanted to become a dermatologist and I did some electives in dermatology and I liked it,'' he said. "I also checked with the Bermuda Medical Society to see if there were any Bermudians studying to become dermatologists.

"They didn't have anyone on their roster studying to become one so I went back to school and did another residency in dermatology.'' Over the years Dr. Romeo has treated numerous locals suffering from sun damage -- a hazard that comes with living on a sub-tropical Island.

"Old Bermudians use to think that the sun was healthy and therefore spending time in the sun was the thing to do. Now they are paying the price for that experience.'' Dr. Romeo said that it was vital that children be taught that sunscreens are important.

"If they grow up in an environment were they are taught the importance of sun screen, they will be better off than their parents in terms of the condition of their skin when they get in their 50's and 60's,'' he explained. "You want to wear a sunscreen with a minimum of 15 -- it will block out about 95 percent of the ultra violet light B. "But I normally recommend 30, because if you put it on incorrectly, you still end up putting on the recommended amount -- you won't do any worse than 15. And the 30 tends to give you the full spectrum.'' And he reminded locals that it was never too late to begin taking care of your skin -- it is better late than never.

"It's never too late to start looking after your skin,'' he added, but he said there was little point starting a skin-care regiment with children until they hit puberty.

"Normally we will start taking them at puberty,'' he said. "Prior to that, due to the immaturity of the glands, the average kid does not need treatments.

That skin is the skin that adults want to get -- that's what they mean by the youthful look.''