3 Things You Should Know About Regenerative Medicine For Beautiful Skin

Regenerative Medicine for Anti-Aging Benefits

Many people look in the mirror and dislike what they see. They think that their skin has started to age and sag, or wish that they could get rid of those fine lines and age spots. Even acne scars from years ago might still be present. Either way, it’s common to try to find ways to improve your appearance. There are many options, but few work as well as regenerative medicine.

What Is Regenerative Medicine?

To put it simply, regenerative medicine is a type of treatment that involves using your body’s own growth factors and proteins found in your blood, in order to restore your appearance by stimulating your body’s own ability to heal. There’s more to it than just the blood, however. Your naturopathic doctor won’t just draw your blood and then immediately place it on your face. That won’t do much at all except cause a lot of inflammation (redness and pain). Instead, this treatment, called Platelet Rich Plasma Facials, or PRP Facials, involves processing your blood before injecting it into the skin. 

Regenerative medicine works by stimulating your body’s healing cascade to promote healing. When PRP is injected into the skin, the skin is damaged (by the needle) which stimulates the body’s healing system to go to that area to heal the skin. This is the same concept as when you fall and scrape your knee – your body knows to heal the damaged skin on your knee, so it makes a blood clot and then makes new skin.

The Process of Regenerative Medicine

Once your blood is drawn (and no worries, the treatment doesn’t require much of it), it is immediately placed in a centrifuge. If you’ve watched any television shows that take place in a laboratory setting, then you’ve probably seen one of these at work. The centrifuge spins, separating the components of your blood, which are platelets (the important part, since they have regenerating properties), white blood cells, and red blood cells.

In this case, the platelets in your plasma are concentrated in order to enhance their healing properties. For the record, the platelets in your blood are what cause it to clot and heal any cuts and scrapes. This is why they are an essential part of this treatment.

After the platelets have been separated out, they are used to enhance the healing process of your skin, and to stimulate the new growth of collagen (the main building block of your skin). It is only the platelet-rich and platelet-poor layer of the plasma that is injected into the skin; the red cells are discarded.

PRP Treatments And Regenerative Medicine 

PRP has restorative properties that can improve the appearance of your skin. According to experts, it can make your skin look brighter, younger and reduce fine lines. On top of this, it helps with your acne scars and even tightens your facial skin (or any skin that it is injected into). This procedure is non-surgical, but it does require needles for injection. The facial can be completed in two ways – either with manual injection (PRP Facial), or by applying the PRP topically and driving it into the skin using a micropen (Micropen with PRP).

PRP injections done manually can be done anywhere but for the face are typically concentrated around the eyes, nasolabial folds and the mouth. Injections can also be done in the neck, décolletage (chest), and hands; all for anti-aging effects. The manual injections allow the PRP solution to be placed deeper in the skin, while the micropen and PRP treatment is more superficial.

The deeper injections done manually allow us to build collagen in different areas of the face, for a subtle “filled” look. This is similar to fillers, but much more subtle.

The Micropen PRP treatment is a great option for improving skin texture and overall appearance and brightness, as you can get every inch of the skin treated!

How Long Does Skin Regeneration Take?

When receiving PRP injections or micropen with PRP treatments, you will notice some positive skin improvements right away. Typically what’s noticed by our patients is an overall skin brightness, and skin texture improvement within the first three days.

Collagen building in the body takes 21 days, so you continue to see the positive effects of your PRP treatment all month long. The effects are also cumulative, so when you notice that your fine lines are going away, you can rest assured that over time and with more treatments, your deeper lines will improve as well. 

How Often Do you Need Regenerative Medicine Treatments?

PRP facials and Micropen with PRP facial results are best when the treatments can be done in a series. We often recommend 3-6 treatments to begin with (depending on your skin goals), and then you are able to spread out your treatments for maintenance, every 6 months to 1 year.

Comparing PRP Regenerative Treatments to Fillers

If you’ve been considering fillers as a treatment for some of your fine lines and wrinkles, you may be interested in trying a PRP treatment program first. PRP treatments are a natural alternative, that are safe and less invasive.

If you currently get fillers, you are able to combine fillers with PRP treatments to receive the positive effects of both. It is best to space out your filler injection appointment with your PRP treatments by 3 weeks.

PRP treatments are a great alternative to fillers if you’d like to avoid them. Do note that if the look of fillers is what you’d like, you won’t see that dramatic change from PRP. PRP injections and micropen treatments offer great benefits, but they are more subtle than the filler injections.