Everything you need to know about skin needling

Skin needling is used for treating skin conditions like acne scarring, wrinkles, pigmentation, uneven tones and hypopigmentation. It is also popularly known as Collagen Induction Therapy and consists of a special regenerating treatment which penetrates into skin layers to help with the repair and rejuvenation of troubled skin.

It’s been in use for many years for treating many skin conditions including smoothening of wrinkles and lines and improving skin texture, stretch marks and scarring. While the face is the most common area for skin needling, other parts like back, neck, chest and hands can also be successfully treated.

While other skin rejuvenating techniques may end up removing the healthy top skin layer, skin needling induces dermal stimulation without any changes to the outer layer. This thus maximizes the outward appearance of the area and speeds up the healing process.

The process

Skin needling is most commonly used to treat skin concerns like scarring, uneven skin tone, pigmentation, acne scarring and hypopigmentation or vitiligo. It also provides an excellent treatment for loss of skin elasticity and stretch marks.

A specialized roller or stamp mechanism helps create rejuvenating microscopic skin punctures. Various different sized needles act together in the troubled area to encourage the production of new collagen to progressively fill in the scar, stretch mark or wrinkle which is treated. It thus turns out less noticeable and in some cases, is totally removed too. Like any other procedure, different patients give different results.

Your clinician or registered nurse will apply some anesthetic cream on the area to be treated about half an hour to an hour before the procedure to minimize skin sensitivity so that you only feel some light pressure during the procedure.

Potential side effects

Not only does skin needling offer many benefits it also avoids usual skin care related worries like increased sun sensitivity, changes in skin color, hyper pigmentation and the risk of any permanent structural damage to the skin.

The only side affects you may experience is some mild to moderate redness, sensitivity and swelling which remains for 12 to 48 hours. In some cases, there may be some light bruising for 2-3 days, which is normal considering the increased pressure applied. You may feel the skin getting dry and tight after a few days. It’s normal as your skin starts healing and producing new collagen.

You however need to undergo multiple sessions to see any skin needling results. While there will be an improvement in skin texture and tone within 6 to 8 weeks’ time, there will be continued improvement in the following months. While average skin conditions require 3 to 8 sessions for treatment, deeper skin conditions may require additional session.