While you may associate wrinkles and brown spots with aging skin, that’s not the whole story. The years may deplete your skin of essentials like collagen, elastin, hyaluronic acid, and fat. However, that process is hastened — and exacerbated — by how much sun exposure you’ve gotten as you’ve made your yearly journeys around said sun.
The sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays do no favors to your skin over time. In fact, UVA and UVB not only burn and tan your skin, they change its DNA, increasing your risk for skin cancer.
However, all those trips around the sun have also increased your wisdom. You know, now, that tanning and burning are the biggest contributors to sun-damaged skin and increased skin-cancer risk, so you slather on a high SPF, broad-spectrum sunscreen before you let the sun’s rays hit you.
But you can do more than prevent sun damage. You can reverse some of the damage by initiating a healing cycle in your skin with a simple treatment called microneedling. Microneedling is a fast, safe, and relatively inexpensive way to stimulate your skin’s healing processes and give your complexion a fresh start.
In addition to medical services, Kelly Burrows, APRN FNP-C, and Lee Ann Garza, FNP, as well as our aesthetic team, happily offer enhancements that improve the health of your skin and boost your confidence. At Enrich Family Practice, we’ve chosen the SkinPen® microneedling device to refresh your complexion in the comfort and safety of our office in Odessa, Texas.
How will SkinPen microneedling refresh your complexion? Read on to learn more about this unique beauty treatment.
The SkinPen is the first microneedling device to receive clearance by the FDA. Its results and benefits have been tested and proven through over 90 validation studies. Unlike some other skin-renewal systems, SkinPen doesn’t use heat or radiofrequency energy. Its effectiveness rests on a simple, mechanical process.
The SkinPen was designed and engineered in North America and is manufactured here as well. With just three 30-minute sessions separated by about a month, the SkinPen prompts a wound-healing process in your skin that stimulates it to rebuild itself.
Each pass of the dozens of sterile, super-thin, single-use needles over your skin creates uniform, vertical wound channels. The microchannels created by the SkinPen unleash a complex cascade that involves numerous cell types, cytokines, mediators, and the tiny capillaries that make up your skin’s vascular system.
The first step is to constrict the blood vessels and rush platelets to the microchannels to stop any bleeding. Next, we suffuse your skin with inflammatory cells, including neutrophils. Increased blood flow combined with the influx of inflammatory cells releases mediators and cytokines that help to:
The inflammatory stage only lasts a few days. Then your skin produces granulation tissue, which helps to heal the wound and build a new matrix of collagen and elastin — the proteins that make your skin strong, thick, and tight.
We often boost microneedling sessions with serums that aid in the healing process. Since the microneedling process opens up channels, these nutrient-rich serums can seep into the lower levels of your skin, rather than remaining on the surface.
During your consultation, we also discuss the types of daily skincare that can make the most of your microneedling session. As always, we emphasize sun avoidance and the use of medical-grade sunscreens to protect your skin, particularly in the healing phase after microneedling.
If the idea of plunging dozens of needles into your tender face makes you cringe, don’t worry. We first apply a numbing cream to your face. Once it takes effect, you may feel slight pressure when we pass the SkinPen over your skin, but you shouldn’t feel pain.
Each session only takes about half an hour. Since the SkinPen works with your natural healing processes, you won’t see immediate results (if you want those, talk to us about dermal fillers).
As your skin starts to break down old collagen and build up newer, stronger strands, you see the difference in your skin within a few weeks. Surface irregularities, such as sun spots and fine lines, begin to fade as the old skin’s debris is whisked away and your skin undergoes the remodeling process.
Are you ready to undo the summer sun’s damage so you have a brighter complexion this fall? Phone us at 432-200-9052 or use our online appointment form to book your SkinPen microneedling session today.
