Pittwater Life August 2018 Issue

Health & Wellbeing
Health & Wellbeing
Skin needling treatments
offer rejuvenation benefit
Using small needles to
penetrate the skin is now
well established as a technique
to minimise pore size, tighten
skin, rejuvenate skin texture or
surface, minimise wrinkles, reduce
scars and improve stretch
marks.
The theory is that controlled
needles penetrate the dermis
or strength layer of the skin.
Collagen in this layer is induced
or stimulated to heal. With healing,
more collagen is deposited,
which thickens the skin. All
scars contract, so this contraction
tightens the skin. Thicker
skin appears more youthful.
Another big advantage is the
skin needling allows penetration
of therapeutic products.
Skin is a very effective barrier.
Every day our skin protects
against desiccation, bacteria,
chemicals, toxins and solutions.
Such an effective barrier
makes penetration of skin care
products difficult. We all know
vitamins A, B and C are beneficial
to skin care. However,
getting them into the skin
has been a major limitation in
therapeutic effectiveness. Many
skin care solutions list these
products but the concentration
or form may not allow penetration.
Having thousands of tiny
holes markedly increases this
penetration.
There are two main systems
of commonly used skin
needling – rollers and vertical
needling.
Rollers contain fixed needles,
which as the roller is rolled over
the skin, penetrate the dermis.
Different rollers have different
needle lengths. Generally the
longer needles are used by skin
therapists, with the shorter needles
being used at home. A few
factors limit their use. Smaller,
contoured areas of the face –
such as near the nose, lips or
eyes – may be difficult to reach.
Needle length is not changeable;
the whole roller needs
to be changed. The action of
the roller over the skin may
cause small cuts or flicks as the
needles emerge from the skin,
resulting in linear cuts rather
than needle-shaped punctures.
Vertical needling has sterile,
disposable, spring-loaded
needles attached to a vibrating
wand or stem. By vibrating in
a vertical direction, the needle
tracks are controlled, predictable
and vertical. It is considered
less painful and with faster
healing and repair. Needle
lengths can be altered during
a treatment and vibration
speeds can also be changed.
This allows different areas with
different skin thickness or characteristics
to be treated. Having
a smaller surface area, they
are useful on the nose, near
the eyes and lips. There are 11
needles and the length can be
varied from 0.25 – 2.5mm.
All treatments should be
preceded by a time of optimising
skin health. For rejuvenation,
generally 4-6 treatments
four weeks apart are advised.
For acne scars, 6 treatments
six weeks apart and for stretch
marks up to 10 treatments 4-6
weeks apart. Results are seen
from about four weeks and
improvement continues for 6-12
months. A good post-treatment
with Dr John Kippen
regime is suggested, and
intermittent retreatments are
advised.
Downtime and recovery are
proportional to needle depth
and treatment type. This can
vary from mild redness that
may last a few hours, to quite
marked redness lasting 12-24
hours for more intense treatments.
Small amounts of bleeding
may occur near. (Deeper
treatments are often combined
with topical numbing creams.)
In general, skin needling is
a very popular treatment with
very good results. Pore size can
be reduced, skin rejuvenated,
wrinkles reduced, texture improved
and skin tightened. The
vertical needling gives greater
accuracy over a wider variety of
skin types and allows eyelids,
lips and noses to be treated.
Our columnist Dr John
Kippen is a qualified, fully
certified consultant specialist
in Cosmetic, Plastic and
Reconstructive surgery.
Australian trained, he also
has additional Australian and
International Fellowships.
Dr Kippen works from custom-built
premises in Mona
Vale. He welcomes enquiries
and questions. Please
contact him via johnkippen.
com.au or by email: doctor@
johnkippen.com.au
46 AUGUST 2018
The Local Voice Since 1991