We explore the pros and cons of skin needling and explain the benefits of an in-salon treatment with Lifestyle Medical’s Dr Katina Koukourou.
What is skin needling?
It’s a minimally invasive medical grade procedure that uses fine needles to puncture your skin for a wide variety of skin benefits.
What happens during the treatment?
Topical anaesthesia is applied to the skin for 20-30mins. The skin is then sterilised to prevent infection and several tiny sterile stainless steel micro needles on a disposable tip of a pen device are injected into the skin. These micro needles are injected at high speed, penetrating perpendicularly to the skin surface. Topical serums are used during the procedure, containing hyaluronic acid for hydration, peptides, growth factors and antioxidants.
Does it hurt?
At doctor supervised clinics a prescription-only topical anaesthetic cream is applied, which numbs the skin, so the procedure is very well tolerated with minimal discomfort. Use of anaesthesia in-clinic allows a deeper needle depth with minimal discomfort enabling the needles to reach the dermis. This obtains optimal, fast results. The numbing effect lasts up to two hours. The actual skin needling procedure itself takes around 30 minutes. The face appears red from one to three days following the procedure and you need to apply sunscreen afterwards and to avoid direct sun exposure for up to four days.
What are the benefits?
The overall effect of skin needling is skin rejuvenation – improving the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, pores, pigmentation and overall skin texture. It also helps to tighten the skin and can improve the appearance of scars and stretch marks.
How many treatments are needed to see results?
You can see visible results two to four weeks post treatment. Although you will see results with one treatment, best results are achieved when a series of three treatments spaced four weeks apart are performed. Maintenance treatments can be performed throughout the year.
What’s the difference between at-home micro needling and a professional treatment?
To reach the level of the dermis where collagen production is stimulated the needles need to be a certain depth in each specific area. In-clinic skin needling can safely use an increased needle depth, often of up to 2.5mm, due to the topical local anaesthetic cream applied under doctor supervision.
The fact that the needles used in-clinic are entering perpendicularly at high speed is theoretically less traumatic to the skin compared to some home roller devices, which enter the skin at an angle. Some in-clinic devices also insert product into the skin under vacuum pressure, enhancing their delivery to the dermis.
Lifestyle Medical
5/155 King William Road, Unley
08 9757 2212