Microneedling with and without prp
Microneedling therapy is becoming more and more popular for its use to treat a number of different skin conditions. This treatment is also known as percutaneous collagen induction or collagen induction therapy. At Cold Spring Plastic Surgery, this treatment can be performed with or without PRP, which stands for platelet-rich plasma.
Both of these options can provide many positive benefits for a number of conditions, including wrinkles, acne scarring, stretch marks, hair growth, and more. Our practice now offers this therapy with the only FDA cleared microneedling device, SkinPen, to ensure you receive the very best results.
Microneedling is a great treatment option available to help address a number of skin conditions, and it is much less invasive when compared to other skin treatments, such as surgery, laser treatment, chemical peels, and others. The Huntington, NY, team at Cold Spring Plastic Surgery can help you find the microneedling therapy option that best fits your needs and can answer any questions and concerns you may have.
How Does Microneedling Therapy Work?
This treatment uses tiny needles that can be adjusted to the correct size and depth depending on the specific patient. The needles used are generally thinner than a human hair. A pen-like device contains a large number of these needles and allows for increased control and efficiency for the plastic surgeons during the treatment sessions.
This is a minimally-invasive treatment and works by causing thousands of tiny punctures in the affected area on the skin with the needle tips. The needles are set to a specific depth that will puncture through the top layer of skin, called the epidermis, and just barely into the next layer, called the dermis. The needles are so small that the puncture wounds are not visible to the naked eye.
When the dermis layer is punctured, it releases a number of biomolecules into the surrounding skin. These molecules work to heal all of the microscopic wounds, and they do so by stimulating the production of collagen, elastic fibers, and new blood vessels.
All of these tissues help to heal the new wounds and any existing ones as well. The elastic fibers can help your skin to become smoother, softer, more toned, and firmer to help get rid of wrinkling. Collagen also deposits itself in a lattice pattern, which is unlike its appearance in scarring. Collagen forms parallel bundles in scars, and these bundles are able to be broken up, allowing new collagen to arrange itself correctly. This process can also help to thicken the skin, allowing for a healthier, more youthful, and fuller look.
How is Microneedling with PRP Different?
Microneedling therapy with PRP is a very similar procedure that still uses many microscopic needles to create thousands of tiny puncture wounds in the skin. However, this procedure utilizes platelet-rich plasma to help speed up the healing process and increase the effectiveness of results.
Platelet-rich plasma makes up a portion of the blood in your body. To develop it, some of your blood is drawn, and it is placed in a machine to divide the red blood cells, platelet-rich plasma, and platelet-poor plasma from one another. All of the platelet-rich plasma from the blood is removed from the vial to be used during treatment.
PRP contains high levels of a number of growth factors that can help to increase the production of blood vessels, skin cells, and overall cell growth.
All of these growth factors help to regenerate and rejuvenate skin and improve the wound-healing process. PRP is also used in a number of other treatments as well because of its healing properties.
When PRP is used, the microneedling procedure is performed in the same manner to create all of the microscopic punctures. However, after the needling, a serum is applied to the skin. The serum is composed of the plasma that was already separated from your blood.
Your platelet-rich plasma is then injected into all of the tiny pores that have just been formed. PRP is used over the entire affected area, but it is often more focused in the areas that need more attention. As the skin begins to heal itself, the platelet-rich plasma is able to dramatically increase the healing process, providing better results in a more time-efficient manner when compared to the regular microneedling therapy.
How Long Does Microneedling Take to Work?
The number of treatments and the time it takes for the skin to heal and improve varies depending on the specific issue being addressed and the individual. Generally, visible improvements can begin to be seen between two and four weeks after a therapy session. Sessions can be performed each month, and after a series of treatments, optimal results can be seen after a few months.
However, other conditions, such as deep scarring or wrinkles, may take a longer amount of time and more treatment sessions to obtain the desired results. Timeliness of results can also depend on whether or not you are using PRP injections during microneedling therapy.
Conclusion
Microneedling therapy is continuously developing and evolving, and it has proved itself to be an effective treatment for many skin conditions such as aging and scars. This treatment has become much more popular in recent years, and different options have emerged, including the use of serums composed of platelet-rich plasma or that are high in vitamin C.
Therapy both with and without PRP has proven to be effective at reducing a number of conditions, including scarring, wrinkling, stretch marks, saggy skin, and others. However, microneedling therapy combined with PRP injections has been shown to provide slightly better results than without the injections. The increase in growth factors and the extra production of collagen and elastin can have many benefits for the skin and the healing process, especially when targeting acne scarring.