What is microneedling?
Microneedling is a popular esthetic treatment with minimal downtime. It can be beneficial for many skin concerns including collagen boosting, skin rejuvenation, acne scars, fine lines and even hair growth. If you’ve been searching for a minimally invasive treatment that uses your skins own natural healing abilities, microneedling might be the perfect treatment for you.
So what exactly is microneedling? Microneedling uses a device with a cartridge containing a number of tiny needles all grouped together. Think like a bed of nails but teeny tiny. This cartridge goes on a a pen like device that allows your practitioner (a licensed professional) to control the depth and sometimes speed of the vibration of the pen. These needles create thousands of tiny micro wounds to the surface of the skin. Your skin then realizes it’s wounded and that triggers your body’s healing response. That healing response is to create elevated levels of collagen, elastin, and lots of anti aging skin boosters for several months after the treatment. The best part of collagen boosting treatments like these is that your skin gets this youthful turbo boost for on average 3 months after the treatment so your results just keep building.
But why do we care so much about increasing your skins collagen production? Collagen is a protein of the supportive tissue of the skin, which assists with skin tightness and suppleness. Collagen is the body’s most abundant protein and building block, accounting for 1/3 of our body’s protein. It is a vital component of many functions of the body. When we loose collagen we loose elasticity. Unfortunately, we start to loose collagen pretty early in life, starting in early adulthood. When it starts, collagen production starts decreasing by 1% a year. This decrease can be exacerbated by many things including sun exposure, smoking/vaping, lack of sleep, lack of exercise, environmental factors such as pollution, nutritional deficiencies, and menopause.
Low collagen is a major contributor to ageing skin. Collagen makes up 70%-80% of skin tissue and provides skins structural integrity. As we loose collagen that structure weakens, becoming wrinkled and lax. But don’t panic and run out to buy the nearest bone broth! Collagen boosting treatments like microneedling are an easy and natural way to boost that collagen production without the carcass soup. After a treatment your skin initiates neovascularization (the natural formation of new blood vessels) and neocollagenesis (The process of generating new collagen) and a fibronectin matrix forms (Fibronectin plays a major role in cell adhesion, growth, migration, and differentiation, and it is important for processes such as wound healing and embryonic development) and deposits the collagen in a way that results in skin tightening that last 5-7 years on avg. Skin treated with 4 microneedling sessions 1 month apart showed up to 400% increase in collagen and elastin at 6 months post treatment.
But if science backed amazing anti-ageing benefits don’t impress you much, prepare yourself for all the other amazing things microneedling can do! Microneedling can reduce hyperpigmentation! By promoting collagen production and skin cell turnover, microneedling helps to break down excess melanin and facilitate its dispersion, resulting in a more even skin tone. This works on different kinds of hyperpigmentation as well, melasma, sun damage, and post inflammatory hyperpigmentation can all be improved with microneedling.
Microneedling is safe for all skin types and skin tones. Unlike many treatments, microneedling can be safely performed on all Fitzpatrick types. Even people with sensitive skin can get microneedling done successfully and safely.
However, microneedling is best left in the hands of licensed professionals with FDA approved equipment. Although the temptation to save a few bucks and attempt a D.I.Y situation is understandable, please consider that all the YouTube tutorials in the world do not give you the medical and technical knowledge that licensed professionals have, the pens and rollers you can find on amazon are not the same as professional FDA approved devices and last but absolutely not least, hygiene! You can not properly clean and sterilize a roller you use at home. No dipping it in alcohol will not kill the bacteria and you are setting yourself up for some serious scarring and infection. A hospital visit is more expensive than getting a professional treatment done at a reputable establishment.
If you’re in the market for a minimal downtime treatment that improves the appearance of many skin concerns for reasonable prices, look no further than microneedling.
Sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4976400/
https://microneedlingbeforeafter.com/does-microneedling-help-with-hyperpigmentation/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neovascularization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibronectin
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/should-you-take-collagen-supplements
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-a-does-collagen-really-help-fight-wrinkles-and-aging/
