Scope check
Who may lawfully perform this, in this state?
Checked against the rule the state actually wrote down — quoted, cited, and linked at source. This compares a procedure against a published limit; it is not a judgement about what a treatment does to skin, and it is not legal advice.
Our scope corpus holds rules read at source for 51 states across 9 service categories. Coverage is uneven and we show you which you are in on every answer. Where we have not read a rule we say so — we never treat our silence as the state's permission.
Maryland · Chemical peel · Rule on record
We have read and cited this state's own rule for chemical peel. The verdict below rests on that text, linked at source so you can verify it.
MD gates on peel depth, which was not supplied.
⛔ CORRECTED. This state was first encoded from a mirror as a categorical ban on all peels. The official COMAR says something materially different — peels are prohibited only where they penetrate BEYOND THE EPIDERMIS — so peels within the epidermis are permitted. A separate amendment proposing a numeric test (>20% at pH ≤3.0, or unbuffered) is pending and NOT in force.
- MD permits up to "Superficial" for Esthetician. Supply the product's own depth designation — we will not infer depth from a percentage.
- Chemical peels that penetrate the skin beyond the epidermis are prohibited, as is any product or method causing tissue destruction or penetrating the blood fluid barrier.
The rule this rests on
The following are prohibited in any full service or limited practice salon or in regard to any salon-sponsored services: the use of any product or method that causes tissue destruction or penetrates the blood fluid barrier; and chemical peels that penetrate the skin beyond the epidermis.
Md. Code Regs. 09.22.02.03 · verified 2026-08-29 · read at source
PENDING, NOT IN FORCE: a proposed amendment would prohibit instead "chemical peels by the use of acids comprised of greater than 20% concentration with a pH value of less than or equal to 3.0, or unbuffered", alongside prohibitions on mechanical tissue alteration, cryotherapy/radiofrequency contouring, ablation of the dermis or hypodermis, and skin injections.
Maryland Board of Cosmetologists, proposed amendments to COMAR 09.22.01 / 09.22.02 (status: proposed, not in force) · verified 2026-08-29 · read at source
MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director.
Where the corpus is deep, and where it isn’t
Read this before you rely on a quiet answer. A category with few states behind it is a category where we will more often tell you we don’t know — which is the correct answer, and not the same as a green light.
| Procedure | States with a rule on record |
|---|---|
| Injectable (neuromodulator, dermal filler) | 46 |
| Energy device (laser, IPL, RF, plasma, ultrasound) | 39 |
| Microneedling / collagen induction | 38 |
| Hair removal (laser / IPL) | 35 |
| Chemical peel | 34 |
| Micropigmentation / permanent makeup | 34 |
| Mechanical exfoliation (dermaplaning, microdermabrasion) | 33 |
| Sclerotherapy | 29 |
| Body contouring (cryolipolysis, RF, ultrasound) | 17 |
Every rule behind these answers is read at an official source and cited. The wider cited corpus — supervision, good-faith exams, ownership and CPOM, advertising — lives on the state pages, and how we decide what to publish is written down in the methodology.
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