What is Microneedling?
Microneedling is a minimally invasive skincare treatment that uses tiny, sterile needles to create micro-injuries on the skin's surface. These tiny punctures help stimulate the body’s natural healing process, encouraging the production of collagen and elastin—two key proteins that help keep your skin firm, smooth, and youthful.
Collagen and elastin are the essential protein fibers in the skin that give it support and elasticity. As we age, these fibers break down and can cause wrinkles.
Regenerating the collagen and elastin in the skin can help to give you a more youthful appearance overall.
Collagen also plays a key role in scarring, such as those resulting from acne. Skin remodeling can have an important role in the improved appearance of this condition.
Benefits
- Improved Skin Texture: Helps smooth out rough or uneven skin texture.
- Reduces Fine Lines & Wrinkles: Stimulates collagen production, reducing the appearance of aging signs.
- Scar Treatment: Great for reducing the appearance of acne scars and other types of scars.
- Minimizes Pores: Helps to make large pores look smaller.
- Even Skin Tone: Can help with pigmentation issues, like sunspots or melasma.
Pre-Treatment Instructions
- Having a Chemical Peel or Microdermabrasion two weeks prior to your SkinPen Microneedling treatment will help to soften and exfoliate the epidermis to help your body produce natural collagen reproduction, which will make your treatments more effective. This is not required but recommended.
- If you are planning to receive Botox/Dysport/Xeomin, make sure that you give yourself at least two weeks post injections before receiving a Microneedling procedure. If you choose to do injections post SkinPen Microneedling treatment we prefer for you to wait until skin is healed.
- If you are taking a blood thinner, fish oil, aspirin or any other medication and you have the tendency to bleed easily while on, please tell your technician. If you are under a physician’s care and need to discontinue you're medication for a few days, always ask your physician prior to each SkinPen Microneedling treatment.
- If you bruise easily, you may consider taking Arnica Montana pre and post procedure to alleviate bruising and swelling (this may be purchased at health food stores, follow manufacturers directions). Take Arnica 24 hours before your treatment and continue for 3 days after the treatment.
- Prior to the SkinPen Microneedling treatment a topical numbing agent is applied to the treatment area (unless you are allergic to any ingredients) however some discomfort may still be expected. Inform your technician if you are allergic to Lidocaine.
- Inform technician of any allergies or if you have a history of cold sores. An antiviral may be given prior to treatment.
Questions Answered
The benefits of SkinPen Microneedling are vast. Best of all, it can be used on both the face and body to treat:
- Mild-to-moderate acne scarring
- Fine lines and wrinkles
- Skin tone and texture
- Pore size
- Hyperpigmentation
- Stretch marks
- Traumatic Scars
- Lax skin
Results may appear after about 7 days after your treatment, but will continue to improve 3-6 months following your last treatment. Your provider may recommend a series of procedures based on your individual goals. Maintenance of your procedure may require multiple treatments.
Microneedling can treat all areas of the body (face, neck, chest, arms, legs, abdomen) including hard reaching areas like around the eyes and nose. It is gentle enough that it can be used for all skin types and tones and is less invasive than lasers.
Although a single treatment of Microneedling shows results, a series of treatments is typically recommended.
How many treatments depend on the individual and the severity of the condition being treated. We recommend 5-8 treatments for people with deep wrinkles, advanced photoaging, stretch marks or deep acne scars.
Deep acne scarring will likely require more treatments, but will be evaluated after a series has been completed. Microneedling can be done as often as on a monthly basis, as little as one time per year, or even once in a lifetime. It all depends on desired results and the skin condition being treated.
Following your treatment your skin may appear slightly pink to red, similar to a mild sunburn. This sunburn feeling typically lasts 24-48 hours depending on the person. We will give you every thing you need for your immediate post care and recommend products to use for best results in the long run.
Microneedling creates stronger healthier skin because it releases cytokines and growth factors promoting angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) stimulating the creation of new cellular and extracellular materials – collagen/elastin. It also helps retain and balance moisture levels that decline with age.
Microneedling can help reduce the appearance of all types of scarring. Even though we avoid keloid or raised scars, most of the current body of evidence is demonstrating that it can actually help reduce these types of raised scars.
Downtime and pain is subjective, but it is considered to be less painful and produce less downtime – if any at all when compared to traditional skin needling. There is no need for the use of prescription pain medication, as numbing cream is applied 45 minutes to one hour prior to your treatment for your comfort.
Medical microneedling allows a trained practitioner the ability to control the depth and the gauge of the needles during a single treatment making it customizable to any skin type, skin condition and severity of condition to be treated. With medical microneedling, the clinical goal is to cause bleeding and petechia (small red or purple spots), which is the clinical endpoint, producing new collagen/elastin. This usually requires longer needle depths to create.
In-home microneedling devices do not have long enough needles to produce these results; however, they can aide in the penetration of facial and body products enhancing their effectiveness.
- Active acne, rosacea, psoriasis, or eczema
- Herpes infection
- Sunburns
- Recent surgeries to areas to be treated
- Recent facial fillers or neurotoxins like Botox or Dysport (two weeks before or after)
- HIV/AIDS, Diabetes, Scleroderma, blood clotting problems
- Keloid or raised scars, warts or moles in a treatment area
- Avoid aspirin, ibuprofen and blood thinners to avoid excessive bleeding / bruising
- Avoid use of Retin-A products the evening prior to treatment