Hello, I’m Mahsa Karavan, I’m a board-certified dermatologist working at U.S. Dermatology Partners in Plano. Today, I’ll be talking to you about microneedling, especially microneedling with platelet-rich plasma to reduce the signs of aging. As we age, our body, unfortunately, degrades and dissolves our collagen, our elastic tissue in our skin, as well as many factors that contribute to our aging such as the sun, our lifestyle, alcohol, and many factors such as toxins in our environment, they all contribute to the loss of volume, loss of the fatty layer in our skin and collagen and elastin leading to lax skin, wrinkles and pigmentation.
In cosmetic dermatology, we have different ways to improve signs of aging. We can replace the volume, however, we would want to also address the loss of collagen and elastin tissue and microneedling is a wonderful classic way to create tiny small injuries under the top layer of the skin to bring in growth factors, the very concentrated growth factors if you add the platelet-rich plasma component in order to build the collagen and thickness back to the skin. Platelet-rich plasma has multiple times the concentration of platelets that are in our blood and platelets have over 30 growth factors on their own that can help us increase collagen production. The micro-injuries created by the small needles of microneedling and with the use of the platelet-rich plasma growth factors stimulate those cells in our dermis which is the second layer of our skin to create new collagen lay down this mesh network of elastin tissue and new blood vessels and new collagen which plums up wrinkles and thickens the skin and improves the elasticity.
When it comes to microneedling, you could repeat it as many times as you wish. The results are permanent, the collagen that you built, the thickness of the skin that is improved with this procedure is yours to keep, however, keep in mind that typically three to five sessions are recommended for you to see improvement in your wrinkles and tightening of the skin. After that, you could do maintenance sessions. Some patients do every quarter, every six months or every year. They do a session to constantly stimulate collagen because we degrade our own collagen as well as the collagen we build with procedures at about a rate of over one percent per year. Therefore, you do want to maintain your results by constantly stimulating collagen production. If you're interested in improving and reducing the signs of aging, please visit us at usdermatologypartners.com to schedule an appointment for a consultation.