What are skin regeneration treatments?
Skin regeneration treatments are treatments that trigger the skin to repair and restore itself, giving a more youthful look and feel naturally.
These treatments differ from procedures that may artificially plump or improve skin appearance as they are actually ‘provoking’ the structure of the skin to change. Collagen levels increase, elasticity is improved and the skin matrix is effectively restored to how it was at a younger age.
A few years ago this would have been impossible, but advances in cosmetic pharmaceuticals, facial injectables and other non-surgical skin rejuvenation techniques have changed the way we can treat ageing skin.
Here are a few of the most popular and effective skin rejuvenation treatments available at dermatologist and medical aesthetics clinics.
Prescription-grade topical treatments
High-street face creams generally do not reverse the signs of ageing, at best only offering a temporary plumping effect.
This is because few components in skin creams are small enough to penetrate the skin’s surface so they cannot make changes at the cellular level. There is one exciting exception, however – retinol. Scientists, doctors and dermatologists agree retinol really can reduce, and even reverse the signs of ageing.
To work effectively retinol needs to be in concentrations not available in over-the-counter cream. Effective medical retinol treatments come in the form of peels and face creams.
Microneedling
Microneedling works on the principle that damaged skin repairs itself. Micro needles create tiny punctures in the skin, activating fibroblast cells, which stimulates collagen production.
Collagen is the main structural component of the skin, and it is the loss of collagen as we age that causes lines, wrinkles and sagging of the skin. Stimulating collagen by activating the skin’s repair process therefore rejuvenates skin, leaving it plumper, fresher and ‘younger’. Read more
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy (PRP)
PRP, or Dracula Therapy, is an anti-ageing skin rejuvenation treatment that uses the healing properties of platelet growth factors in the patient’s own blood.
The patient’s platelets are injected into the face, neck and décolletage where they rebuild and repair damaged and aged skin cells and stimulate collagen. Read more
Sculptra
Sculptra is a facial injectable treatment, much like dermal fillers. But whereas fillers artificially plump the skin to ‘fill’ lines and wrinkles, Sculptra’s active ingredient triggers fibroblast cells to secrete collagen production, which naturally plumps the face, minimises lines and wrinkles and leaves patients with collagen levels of a much younger person. Read more