Tuesday 16 August 2016
Dr Cat’s Top Five Beauty Treatments for Spring Skin at The Face Place Spring is just around the corner, and summer not too far behind, hooray!
While you're all wrapped up against the cold, now is a good time to get your skin prepped and ready for spring and summer clothing. The chest and neck area gets covered up with winter clothes, making now a great time to have treatments so that this area looks its best for the summer tops and dresses that are on their way!
1. ThermiSmooth® - Facial Smoothing without Needles
ThermiSmooth® stimulates new collagen without the use of needles and is effective at reducing bags under the eyes, reducing wrinkle appearance and the overall smoothing of skin through tightening and increasing collagen production over a period of time. It uses a unique wand to deliver targeted heating to the surface of the skin. The non-invasive treatment has been described as feeling like a warm massage and is perfect for treating a number of areas including under eye bags, excess skin, heavy eyelids, fine lines and wrinkles, smokers lines, and other problem areas around the eyes and mouth.
During the treatment a small amount of gel is applied to the area to be treated, a specific target temperature is set and the wand is moved across the area in a gentle sweeping and circular pattern for about five to 15 minutes. There is no downtime after treatment and patients can return to their daily activities straight away. The number of treatments required will be determined by the individual condition of the skin. While multiple treatments may be necessary, patients can sometimes start to see some results after the first treatment with full results developing over three to six months.
ThermiSmooth® can be used to treat:
- Under eye bags
- Excess skin
- Heavy eyelids
- Fine lines and wrinkles
- Smokers lines
- The eye, mouth, cheeks and neck area
ThermiSmooth® skin smoothing from $895 per treatment (course of three to six treatments recommended depending on the individual). Course of three ThermiSmooth® treatments $2500.
2. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) - for glowing skin texture, especially the décolletage
The most exciting technology for improving skin smoothness and luminosity is one that is incredibly safe, as it’s using your own platelets. A small blood sample is taken for the treatment, the red blood cells are separated from the platelets and plasma, and only the platelets and plasma are injected back into your skin.
PRP can be used in many different areas throughout the body, and for a huge range of different medical and cosmetic concerns, as it works by signaling to your body that it needs to repair the area that the PRP is injected into. PRP has been used in sports medicine for over 15 years to help repair tendons, ligaments and sports injuries. Research in the last few years has shown its effectiveness in concerns as varied as wound healing, arthritis, sexual dysfunction, fertility, keloid scarring, hair loss, non-healing ulcers, burns, and reducing the recovery time while improving the results of many different forms of surgery.
In the skin PRP works by improving the number and effectiveness of the fibroblasts, or skin cells, which tend to get lazy as we age. By stimulating the fibroblasts to produce more collagen and HA (hyalouronic acid), PRP naturally creates thickening of the skin and an improvement in skin texture. It is one of the best treatments available for improving fine crepey skin around the eyes, in the neck and chest, and in the hands. While significant improvement can sometimes be seen with one treatment, the results are cumulative, so generally a course of treatments is recommended. Your skin improves gradually as the body continues to repair, and with traditional PRP techniques it can often take six weeks to six months to see full results.
The Face Place has several new ways of administering the PRP treatment to give faster and more effective results. The Vampire Facial Plus® combines PRP with hydrating HA, administered through the e-dermastamp® dermal needling device, to deliver the platelets to the most effective layer of the skin, the dermal-epidermal junction. Research has shown that HA provides a scaffold for the platelets, to help them function more effectively, and for longer. This combined treatment gives synergistic results that far surpass those of just PRP or dermal needling alone. Used in the chest, it can help soften and smooth skin, as well as giving a more radiant glow.
The 007 Meso-gun allows almost painless treatment, with high precision of injecting meaning that the products can go along way and treat a large area quickly and easily. The Face Place is the first clinic in New Zealand to have the gun-injector. A single vial of PRP - which previously would treat only the eye area can now be used to treat an area covering the neck, chest and hands, or the face, neck, and scalp to prevent hair loss.
3. The Vampire Breastlift®
Gently improves the CONTOUR and shape of the cleavage area. The Vampire Breastlift uses a combination of fillers and PRP to enhance the cleavage area of the breasts - that area where we noticeably lose more volume as we age, creating a 'saggy' appearance to the breast. Treating the cleavage area specifically rounds the 'upper pole' (the part of the breast visible in bras and bikinis) and can help 'lift' the breast in a 20-30 minute procedure, without any surgery. This non-surgical breast lift does not replace breast implants, and in fact is often used to soften the ripples and hollows in the cleavage area of those who have existing breast implants. Specific techniques can also be used to improve nipple sensation and in some cases will 'pop out' inverted nipples.
4. Microdermaplaning
If you've noticed that winter has brought you a more dull and lifeless looking skin, then it's worth seeing The Face Place Skin Team for an updated Skin WOF assessment - and ask if microdermaplaning is right for you! Microdermaplaning improves the skin’s appearance by removing the top layers of dead skin through a fine planing procedure. This is a safe and painless way of exfoliating the skin’s dead cells in addition to removing the fine ‘peach-fuzz’ hair we have on our faces. Microdermaplaning softens, smoothes, and improves irregularities, giving the skin a silky texture.
Why is microdermaplaning better than microdermabrasion?
Microdermabrasion has fallen out of favour in the industry due to the scratches and micro trauma it creates in the epidermis - actually harming the skin (in much the same way the 'exfoliating beads' products do). Because it uses granules or diamonds along with suction, the micro-damage is accentuated, as the skin is sucked forcefully against the granular surface.
Microdermaplaning uses a special blade, which is much more precise and creates less trauma to the epidermis of the skin, while still gently removing the dead layer of skin cells. The other major benefit of microdermaplaning is that it also removed the fine 'peach fuzz' hairs on the face, which are notoriously difficult to treat, and do not respond to IPL or laser.
5. ThermiTight® – Facial Lifting for Neck and Jowls
ThermiTight® is a non-surgical, minimally invasive skin tightening treatment that uses a tiny wand to deliver radio frequency energy just beneath the surface of the skin. ThermiTight® tightens sagging skin on the face and neck area, firming the jaw line and reducing the appearance of jowls, but it can also be used on other parts of the body such as stubborn excess skin under the arms and loose skin on the neck, knees or tummy. The ThermiTight® wand enables the practitioner to monitor the internal tissue temperature and an infrared camera monitors the skins surface ensuring a safe and precise treatment.
During the procedure numbing injections are used and most people describe feeling 'warm to hot' but the treatment itself is not painful. After the treatment you may have up to three days of downtime due to swelling. Improvements start to be noticeable after eight weeks with full results at six-12 months. The results of ThermiTight® should last two-five years as the results are permanent but you continue to age.
ThermiTight® skin tightening treatment is priced from $4500 (usually a single treatment solution)
