Microneedling might sound scary if you know little about it. But in the hands of an expert, microneedling is a trusted, effective treatment to rejuvenate the skin. From radiofrequency (RF) energy to platelet-rich plasma, there are many technologies we can pair with microneedling to take your results to the next level. We’re The Longevity Lab, and we perform microneedling in Denver.
Key Benefits of Microneedling
Microneedling rejuvenates the skin, increases the absorption of topical products, and requires minimal downtime. In addition to these benefits, it also:
- Improves uneven tone & texture
- Minimizes acne scars & stretch marks
- Fades hyperpigmentation
- Decreases pore size
- Boosts skin hydration
- Enhances skin elasticity
- Reduces fine lines & wrinkles
How Microneedling Works
To some, microneedling seems counterintuitive. How can damaging my skin improve it? Here’s an analogy to help you understand microneedling:
Imagine you’re playing basketball with friends, and you trip and strain your hamstring muscle. It’s a serious injury with lasting consequences. Without medical attention, your haphazard injury will never heal to be quite the same.
Next, imagine you accidentally cut your finger tip while chopping vegetables for dinner. The wound is deep and jagged; you bandage it and hope for the best. Most likely, it will form a scar that never completely fades.
Now imagine you’ve just finished a great hamstring workout with your personal trainer, complete with deadlifts, squats, and leg curls—all with perfect technique. Afterwards, you hydrate, eat protein, stretch, and sleep well. The intense exercises have left you sore, but the microtears in your muscle fibers will heal to be better than before. Before long, you’ll be back in the gym ready to go again.
Professional microneedling is a lot like that strenuous workout. It creates microwounds in your skin tissues that heal to be healthier. While both sets of scenarios deal with injury, the manner in which they happen makes all the difference. When getting microneedling in Denver, your provider should facilitate:
- Careful technique: Even spacing and a delicate touch go a long way.
- Professional input: A knowledgeable, experienced professional is key.
- Attention to healing: Your body’s natural healing response is complex, and sometimes it needs support to do the job flawlessly.
The Science of Healing
Microneedling works by harnessing your body’s natural healing response to replace blemished skin with new skin. To fully understand microneedling, you have to understand the biological science of healing.
Hemostasis Phase
When your body is injured, your blood vessels contract, and platelets accumulate at the wound to stop any bleeding. Inflammatory cells then release proteins that promote the formation of new blood vessels and the replacement of your epithelium. The epithelium is a tissue that covers all internal and external surfaces of your body.
Inflammatory Phase
The proteins from your inflammatory cells also trigger fibroblasts—crucial components of your connective tissue—to produce the molecules and proteins that give your tissues structure and support. Prominent among these is collagen, which forms most of your connective tissues, providing a scaffolding for everything else.
Proliferative Phase
When a wound is shallow, the newly formed cells can organize themselves into their optimized structure, closing the wound seamlessly. New connective tissue fills in the injury from the base, and more epithelial tissue forms over the top of the injury. In contrast, a deep wound triggers the robust and disordered formation of collagen, resulting in the development of thicker and denser tissue known as scar tissue.
Maturation & Remodeling Phase
The final stages of healing continue to take place even after the injury looks fine. Your new cells mature and remodel until they reach maximum strength. Some wounds complete this process within a week or 2, while others continue remodeling for years.
How Microneedling Harnesses Healing
The depth of an injury determines the extent of each step in the healing process, affecting the look of the wound site and the time it takes to heal. When we perform microneedling in Denver, we capitalize on this by using tiny needles to create microinjuries, triggering new cell growth while avoiding scar tissue formation.
Because of the small size and shallow depth of these injuries, the body can heal the skin quickly and thoroughly. To further enhance and expedite the procedure’s results, we like to incorporate techniques such as radiofrequency (RF) energy or exosomes.
RF Microneedling
Radiofrequency (RF) is a thermal energy most commonly used in microwaves. Just as microwaves heat food without heating the microwave itself, RF energy can induce cellular changes in aesthetic treatments without heating the skin.
Unlike traditional microneedling alone, RF energy penetrates deep into the dermis. The microinjuries from microneedling enable the RF energy to spread even more efficiently. RF energy stimulates additional collagen production, enhancing the quality and speed of healing and providing greater skin remodeling and tightening.
How does RF energy increase collagen?
Your body registers the heat from RF energy as damage, stimulating your healing response deeper within your skin. This mechanism triggers collagen synthesis and remodeling at a foundational level. By remodeling the underlying structure of your skin, you can have a more significant impact on its surface.
How does increased collagen tighten skin?
Collagen provides strength and support to your skin. Collagen levels decrease as you get older, resulting in looser skin for older individuals. This is why fine lines, wrinkles, and laxity develop as we age. Increasing collagen production reinforces your skin’s structure. The structure becomes tighter as more collagen is added, leading to the amazing tightening results achieved through RF microneedling.
Who’s a good candidate for RF microneedling?
Patients with lax skin can benefit from RF microneedling the most. If you struggle with any of the following, RF microneedling may be right for you:
- Aged skin
- Fine lines & wrinkles
- Sagging or loose skin
Exion RF Microneedling
For RF microneedling in Denver, we rely on Exion at The Longevity Lab for its unmatched effectiveness and efficiency. This multi-platform device is also more comfortable and requires less downtime than other technologies because it uses fractional RF, allowing for single-pass microneedling.
What is fractional RF?
Exion fractional RF delivers focused energy in a grid pattern using the microneedles. Fractional RF targets a specific portion of the skin, minimizing damage to surrounding areas. So while some RF microneedling devices require 2 to 3 passes, Exion only needs 1 pass, reducing discomfort, treatment duration, and downtime.
Microneedling with Exosomes
Exosomes are transportation for your body’s construction materials (e.g., proteins and nucleic acids). They travel through your bloodstream, carrying these integral elements from cells all over the body. When added to microneedling, exosomes boost your skin’s healing ability.
How do exosomes enhance healing?
To repair and regenerate damaged areas, your body requires certain materials:
- Proteins to form the structure of cells and tissues
- Amino and nucleic acids (i.e., DNA, RNA) to produce proteins
- Lipids to support cell structure and energy
- Metabolites to provide energy
Are exosomes safe?
Yes, exosomes are naturally occurring in your body. The exosomes used in microneedling at The Longevity Lab are from ethically sourced stem cells.
How are exosomes added to microneedling?
When we add exosomes to microneedling in Denver, we use a medical-grade topical solution. The punctures created by microneedling enable optimal absorption of the exosome solution into the skin, maximizing its efficacy.
What to Expect During Your Microneedling Session
If you want to try microneedling at The Longevity Lab, here’s what you can expect.
Consultation
Every treatment at The Longevity Lab begins with a consultation. Your provider will go over your medical and family history, current health, skin condition, and goals for treatment before making an official recommendation. Once you’ve determined together that microneedling is the right fit for you, we’ll get your procedure scheduled.
Procedure
- Your microneedling provider will begin by applying a numbing cream to your treatment area to mitigate any discomfort from the procedure.
- Once numb, your provider will move the microneedling device across the treatment area, treating the skin in a grid pattern—one square at a time. If you’re undergoing RF microneedling, the RF energy will be delivered at the same time as microneedling.
- After treating the entire area with traditional microneedling, your provider may add topical exosomes to your skin.
Next Steps
Depending on the severity of your skin concerns, your provider may recommend an additional microneedling session. If that is the case, we’ll schedule that appointment several weeks out to allow time for healing.
At-Home Care
We have a variety of instructions to maximize your safety, comfort, and results from microneedling:
- Before and after your microneedling session, avoid sun exposure and exfoliation.
- After your microneedling session, avoid sweating, swimming, and most skin products for 48 hours.
We’ll provide more detailed information about pre- and post-microneedling care at your consultation.
A Path to Radiant Skin
Microneedling can be a fantastic reset for damaged or blemished skin. If you’re looking to clear impurities and feel more confident in your appearance, microneedling could be right for you. Schedule a consultation at The Longevity Lab to explore how microneedling in Denver can improve your skin.
Continue reading: Emsculpt NEO & Exion: Body Contouring Perfection; Skin Rejuvenation from the Inside Out
