.What is skin medical micro-needling and how does it work?

Skin needling is also called micro-needling therapy or collagen induction therapy. It is a minimally-invasive non-surgical and non-ablative procedure for facial rejuvenation that involves the use of a micro-needling device to create controlled skin injury.

As each fine needle punctures the skin, it creates a channel or micro-wound.

The controlled injury triggers the body to fill these micro-wounds by producing new collagen and elastin in the papillary dermis. In addition, new capillaries are formed. This neovascularisation and neocollagenesis following treatment leads to reduction of scars and skin rejuvenation, i.e., improved skin texture, firmness and hydration.

 

Professional skin needling is considered to be one of the safest skin treatment procedures. Unlike chemical peels, dermabrasion and laser treatments, skin needling causes minimal damage to the skin.

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What is skin needling used for?

Skin needling is effectively used for:

• Reducing scars (including hypertrophic scars)

       caused by acne, surgery or thermal burns

• Fading stretch marks

• Reducing fine lines and deep wrinkles

• Depigmentation e.g in melasma

• Tightening sagging skin

• Helps to stop hair loss and stimulates hair regrowth 

 

 

Benefits of skin needling:

• Reduced risk of hyper-pigmentation and scarring therefore safe on ethnic or dark skin.

• Suitable for thin and sensitive skin

• The treatment can be performed in an office setting and does not need any extensive special training or expensive instruments.

• The procedure is well tolerated and well accepted by the patients,

• It is cost-effective, and can be done on areas of skin not suitable for peeling or laser resurfacing, such as near eyes.

• As opposed to ablative laser resurfacing, the epidermis remains intact and is not damaged. For this reason, the operation can be safely repeated if needed.

• Treatment does not result in a line of demarcation between treated and untreated skin, as usually occurs with other resurfacing procedures. This allows for specific areas of scarring to be treated without the need to “blend” or “feather” at the treatment edges.

• The patient can resume regular activities within a few days, depending on the depth of penetration of the needles. Treatment options like laser resurfacing or dermabrasion are often associated with considerable morbidity and downtime from daily activities of the patient in the post-treatment period.

 

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What is the skin needling procedure like?

The procedure is well tolerated. It takes a few minutes up to an hour to complete, depending on the area to be treated and the severity of the problem.

• No lotions, makeup or other topical products are applied on the treatment area on the day of the procedure.

• The medical professional then applies a numbing cream (topical) on the treatment area or injects local anaesthetic.

• The skin is punctured in a specific pattern using a skin needling device. The device is going over the skin multiple times for best results.

• Specific serums (Hyaluronic acid, Brightening concentrate or Scar repair) can be used during procedure to target a specific skin problem. In this case we are combining  Collagen Induction Therapy with Mesotherapy, which gives us better results. 

• As each fine needle punctures the skin, it creates a channel or micro-wound stimulating skin cell regeneration.

• Depending on the condition treated it may take 5-60 minutes to complete the procedure

• 2 - 6 weeks is recommended between two treatments as it takes that long for new natural collagen to form.

• Photo Dynamic Therapy can be used before micro-needling for better results. 

Post-procedure Care:

• Skin needling is well tolerated by patients but dryness, scaling, redness and swelling may be seen after treatment, lasting for several days or longer, depending on the depth of penetration of the needles.

• Sun protection for several weeks is recommended.

• In the case of acne scars, after the skin needling procedure, the face should be cleaned with a gentle cleanser before bed. The next day, the face may be cleansed and makeup, lotions and other topical products applied as usual.

• As the micro-holes close quickly, postoperative wound infection is rare.

• Photo Dynamic Therapy can be recommended to prevent or address to over inflammation. 

• Rejuvenation of skin may be seen as soon as 2 weeks and as long as 6-8 months after the medical procedure.

• Burn scars are slow to respond. It can take up to 6 months to 1 year to see the final results from a single treatment.

 

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Are there any side effects from skin needling?

Generally the treated areas recover rapidly from skin needling. However there are occasional side effects, which include:

• Oozing and swelling during the recovery phase.

• Skin infection with bacteria (rare) or herpes simplex virus (cold sores).

• Milia, which can be easily removed.

• Acne flare, which is usually mild.

 

Micro Needling How Often ?

Micro-needling produces "fractional" micro-injuries to the epidermis and dermis.  The healing, inflammation and collagenesis processes must take place for the benefits of micro-needling to become evident.  Collagenesis peaks at 14 days after treatment.  Thus, a period of 14 – 30 days should elapse before a repeated micro-needling treatment.

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Micro Needling has lots of advantages over other non invasive treatments like lasers or surgery. Micro needling gets the heart of the damage with out heat . It stimulates the skin that makes up the scar or stretch mark to behave as it was built to behave. It turns the cells into tiny machines of repair without damaging the cell further.

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The frequency of micro needling treatments vary with the intensity of the treatment.

Mild treatments may be repeated every 2 to 4 weeks.

Deep treatments for scars may be repeated every 4 to 6 weeks.

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