Your skin is the largest organ in your body. It’s also the only visible organ, which is one of the reasons why scarring or imperfections can be so bothersome. If you’re struggling with acne scarring or dull skin, microneedling from RKM Aesthetics and Wellness could be the perfect skin rejuvenation treatment option for you.
What Is Microneedling?
Microneedling is a minimally invasive, non-surgical procedure approved by the FDA for cosmetic purposes. This treatment begins with a handheld tool with an array of sterilized, tiny microneedles. This tool is then gently pulled across your treatment area to create small wounds on the surface of your skin. It may seem counterintuitive, but by damaging your skin, microneedling actually helps it rejuvenate itself so that it appears brighter, tighter, and healthier overall.
What Microneedling Treats
Microneedling can treat a variety of cosmetic issues, including the following:
- Acne scarring
- Stretch marks
- Cellulite
- Fine lines and wrinkles
- Hyperpigmentation
- Uneven skin texture
- Sun damage
- Large pores
Essentially, nearly any cosmetic issue that affects the epidermis (your skin’s top layer) is treatable with microneedling.
How Microneedling Works
Microneedling is a collagen-stimulating procedure. Collagen is a protein found densely in your skin. It’s one of the main proteins your body produces, making up 30% of your total protein. Collagen plays a variety of roles in your overall health and wellness, one of the most important being wound healing. It’s also an agent for joint health and maintaining the structural integrity of your skin. One of the reasons you may have fine lines and wrinkles is that your skin’s collagen levels start to deplete significantly after age 30. Your skin becomes thinner, weaker, and less elastic when this happens. By triggering the production of new collagen, microneedling helps with skin rejuvenation by plumping up your skin and enhancing its overall tone and texture.
How Microneedling Creates Collagen
When your body identifies wounds, it creates new collagen in those areas in order to accelerate the wound healing process. Because microneedling creates micro-wounds in your skin, new collagen is produced in those areas to help with healing. This is a safe and effective way to stimulate your body’s natural collagen production cycle.
Microneedling for Acne Scar Treatment
Another benefit of collagen is that it can help promote the growth of new tissue. This growth is a key element in how microneedling is used as an acne scar treatment. Acne is an extremely common condition that almost everyone deals with at some point in their lives. For many people with moderate to severe cases, acne can result in scarring. Acne scars happen when acne bumps, lesions, and blemishes become swollen and break into the follicle walls in your skin. Sometimes, the scars are mild and fade quickly on their own. Other times, acne damages surrounding tissues, which results in even deeper scarring.
Your skin will try to fix this issue by forming new collagen, but the result is often noticeable and bumpy, not smooth and flawless. There are different types of acne scars, but the category that microneedling is most effective against is depressed acne scars.
Depressed Acne Scars
Depressed acne scarring is also known as atrophic acne scarring. This type of acne scarring develops from lost tissue. Atrophic acne has three subtypes:
- Ice pick scars: cone-shaped scars found on the cheeks
- Boxcar scars: square-shaped scars with sharp edges
- Rolling scars: long depressions found along the lower cheeks or jaw
Because microneedling can help stimulate the growth of new tissue, it is one of the top minimally invasive procedures for depressed acne scar treatment.
Microneedling for Skin Rejuvenation
A natural result of microneedling is that it rejuvenates your skin. Skin rejuvenation can have different meanings depending on the procedure and your treatment goals. When it comes to microneedling, skin rejuvenation typically refers to the ability microneedling has to even out your skin’s texture and tone. Whether you’re dealing with cellulite, the appearance of large pores, sun damage, or hyperpigmentation, new collagen production and new tissue generation from microneedling can help your skin look and feel smoother and fresher.
Microneedling Treatment Timeline
The therapeutic benefits of microneedling will not show up immediately. It takes time for your skin to rejuvenate itself and heal itself, so results will typically start to show a couple of weeks after treatment. Our patients usually note the ideal results around two months after the first treatment. Depending on the extent of your concerns and your treatment goals, you may need multiple microneedling sessions to get your desired results. Our team will advise you on a treatment schedule and guide you through the process. Microneedling doesn’t require any recovery or downtime, but there are some activities you’ll want to avoid for a week or two after your procedure. These include strenuous activity, harsh cleansers or facial products, and inflammatory agents like alcohol.
Your microneedling sessions will all be relatively quick, depending on the size of the treatment area. Typically, microneedling sessions only last around 10 to 20 minutes. We may recommend microneedling in conjunction with other cosmetic treatments to help enhance your overall results.
Schedule Your Microneedling Consultation
If microneedling has piqued your interest, consider reaching out to our medical team at RKM Aesthetics and Wellness for a consultation. During your consultation, our skin experts will evaluate your treatment goals to help you design a plan customized just for you. Since no two people are the same, no two treatment plans are either! There is hope for treating acne scarring or dull skin. Contact RKM Aesthetics and Wellness today.