Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Better than plastic surgery?

For reasons I will reveal in good time, I was attending a medical conference where a Brazilian dermatologist gave a presentation on how people could skip all the expensive plastic surgery procedures for things like stretch marks (and baldness, acne, WRINKLES!) by using this nifty little implement called a Derma roller than makes tiny little "injuries" (no blood, though) with tiny little needles that you roll on whatever part of the skin you are interested in healing and the skin produced more circulation and collagen in the process. 

This intrigued me because of some of the slides she showed and also because my father, an acupuncturist, had a little device that looked a lot like that.  I was also surprised to find, after talking to her after, that you can easily buy these devices online such as this FDA approved one here.  I have ordered one and found it a little annoyingly painful on my face, but pleasantly tingly on my stretch marks and scalp.  Too soon to see if it works BUT it's totally non invasive. 

The other advice I received from the derm is to look out for the needle size.  For the scalp you should never go longer than 1.5mm.  For sensitive skin, you will need to go shorter, for results for tough stuff like stretchmarks, you'll need to go longer, up to 3.0 mm.  Again, this is not medical advice but just  passing on some kwoledge I picked up. 

If anyone else tries this, please report back!