Desquamation
Dry skin has a scaly surface and is rough to touch. The degree of dryness of the skin is directly related to the amount and size of the superficial scales.To determine the dryness of the skin, the D-Squame foil disk is used: The transparent, self-adhesive and flexible disc is pressed onto the skin and then repeeled to include the loose scales of the upper skin layer. This procedure can be done several times on the same area.
Every tape strip is placed on the storage card and is subsequently photographed and analysed by a standardized procedure. This includes densitometric and light reflectance analysis of the adherent scales
A specialized software calculates the desquamation index which is directly linked to the level of skin dryness.
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Normal skin will produce a few small clumps of cells or a fine even single layer of cells (desquamation index 0 - 40). |
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Dry skin will produce a considerable amount of scaling (desquamation index 25 - 75). |
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Very dry skin will produce a heavy amount of scaling (desquamation index 60 - 100). |