Here's How Lasers Can Improve Your Complexion
What bothers you about your skin? Is it scars from past bouts with acne? Advancing wrinkles? Age spots? Lasers can clear up those complaints and more — here’s how.
Microneedling with PRP: A Winning Combination for Your Skin
Social media influencers bombard your feed with promises of miracle creams and ointments, but they don’t know what we know.
Rick J. Smith, MD, one of the most experienced and sought-after plastic surgeons in East Lansing, Michigan, has skillfully performed cosmetic procedures for years, such as facelifts and brow lifts. He understands your anatomy and the biological factors that create your most frustrating skin problems.
You can trust his expert advice when it comes to addressing the wrinkles, scars, and sun damage you’ve developed over the years. The answer doesn’t come in a jar — it comes from within.
Here, Dr. Smith and our master esthetician, Kathy Kuehne, LE, explain what happens to your skin as it ages and how microneedling with PRP can transform it.
What sun and time do to your skin
To understand how microneedling with PRP can improve your skin, it helps to understand how your skin got damaged in the first place. Here are three common culprits.
Loss of collagen
Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body, and it’s an essential component of your skin. Together with another protein, elastin, it gives your skin structure, strength, resilience, and elasticity.
Unfortunately, your body slows its production of these proteins in your mid-20s and continues to wane by 1% every year. You may not notice at first, but when you lose enough collagen, you lose volume under the surface. Your skin appears thinner, duller, and older. The contours of your face change, and wrinkles set in.
Sun exposure
Sunlight in moderation is critical for vitamin D production and for the joy of feeling the sun’s warmth after a long and cold winter in Michigan. But too much sun damages your skin. The ultraviolet rays penetrate your skin and target the cells deep within. Your body tries to protect itself by sending a flood of pigmented melanin cells — tanned skin is actually your skin trying to fend off sun damage.
Over time, your skin appears rough, flaky, and spotted as the melanin cells clump together and form dark patches. In some cases, the damaged cells become cancerous.
Scar tissue
It’s possible to get through life without any marks on your face, but if you’re like most, you have at least a couple of small reminders of a shaving nick, a cat scratch, or a bout with acne. Scars are actually clumps of collagen that tried to repair the wound. Some scars are raised, some are depressed, and some have a shiny appearance or a rough texture.
How microneedling addresses skin problems
We offer microneedling as part of our comprehensive lineup of skin care services. Using the most advanced technology, we create countless tiny perforations in your skin. The device is FDA-approved, sterile, safe, and painless.
Your body responds to the punctures as it would any wound — sending a flood of collagen to repair the damage. This process occurs in four stages over the next few days and weeks after your treatment.
1. Hemostasis
During the first healing phase, your blood vessels constrict to stop blood flow. Then, platelets in your blood stick together to form clots. Hemostasis happens immediately, within a few seconds of the microneedling puncture.
2. Inflammation
You may think of inflammation as a negative, but it has a valuable purpose in healing. It’s part of your body’s immune response, and it rushes to the scene to flush away foreign particles and debris and improve blood flow.
3. Proliferation
Next, your body generates a new supply of collagen to repair and rebuild the damaged skin. In addition to new tissue, new blood vessels form to supply the area with fresh oxygen.
4. Maturation
Maturation marks the completion of the healing process when your skin looks smooth and renewed. Microneedling triggers this four-phase process in a controlled approach.
What is PRP, and how does it boost microneedling effects?
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy is one of the emerging treatments in the field of regenerative medicine. It provides a way to tap into your body’s natural healing powers and amplify them, making it an excellent complement to microneedling.
To create PRP, we draw a small amount of blood from your arm and process it in a centrifuge to isolate the platelets from the other components. When we apply this concentrated serum to your skin, the microneedles carry it into your skin as it creates tiny puncture wounds. The PRP fills the channels and enters the deeper layers of your skin.
Once inside, your platelets release growth factors that accelerate the healing process. They reduce inflammation quickly, ushering you out of the inflammation stage and into the proliferation stage. That means you’ll see the results — fresher, younger-looking skin — sooner.
To learn more, request an appointment online or contact Rick J. Smith, MD, at 517-225-2051.
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