And today we will be talking about cosmetic facial acupuncture theory and the treatment for enhancing dermal collagen.
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Hi everyone. Thank you for joining us today and thank you to the American Acupuncture Council for producing and hosting this presentation. My name is Dr. Shellie Goldstein. And today we will be talking about cosmetic facial acupuncture theory and the treatment for enhancing dermal collagen. So let’s go to the slide.
Great. Okay. When we talk about enhancing collagen, and then we talk about cosmetic facial acupuncture, if this is really not a new topic, it’s based on the principles of my run, my. Rung needs beautiful appearance. And it is a holistic regime that was practiced throughout Asia for centuries. It was designed to promote systemic health and wellbeing delay, the visible signs of aging.
And it was a combination of acupuncture and herbs that were either topically applied or ingested. And that as the story goes, it was designed for emperors to keep their concubines looking beautiful and health. And for emphasis to maintain their youthful and raving appearance. But honestly, I believe that there were variations of this service of my wrong regimes utilized in most households throughout Eastern.
The today’s modern application of ancient. My rung is similar and slightly different. We generally use it today as an alternative or an adjunct to patient neurotoxins, volumizer, or other enhancing appearance enhancing services that are mostly familiar in our Western culture. I call what we do. Modern application, a tight, healthier, tighter, brighter, natural look, and feel.
And that is truly what it is when we, as a cosmetic facial acupuncturist, that one of the advantages of specializing in any type of profession is that our patients come in with a certain subset of complaints. They’re fairly common and throughout there’s, there are certainly some changes, but for the most part, Our patients come in and they talk about wrinkles increasing across their forehead, around their eyes.
They talk about eyelid ptosis, which is that drooping of the upper lid onto the eye itself, swelling or darkness under the eyes, possibly wrinkling or creasing between the brows and around the. And then in the cheek area, they talk about wrinkling in the cheek area, skin laxity, which is a loose pitted appearance, a nasal labial fold.
That’s the fold between the corner of the nose and the corner of the mouth. And then around the mouth and along the jaw. And they complain or talk about wrinkling or creasing around the mouth. Particularly the smokers creases above the lips and creasing horizontal creasing below the lips, marionette lines. Marionette lines are the lines that form between the corner of the mouth and the edge of the jaw area.
It’s a perpendicular line. And then the horizontal line is called the mental crease and it’s right underneath the lower lip. And then loss of definition along the jaw area. And then in the net, patients will talk about their skin being lax or platysma abandoned collectivism, abandoning, or these little bands that you see running in a vertical fashion along the neck area.
And then from a dermatology perspective, acne, rosacea, hyper dyschromia, which we often hear of is sunspots. When we treat with facial acupuncture, cosmetic facial acupuncture, there are both visible changes that we see and then internal changes so visibly. And this is our topic for today is toning skin laxity.
And we’ll talk about these more throughout the year, but today we’re going to focus on skin laxity. Other changes that you can see with cosmetic facial acupuncture treatment are saw. Softening of deeper wrinkles, eliminating of fine wines improvement in muscle tone, correcting and healing skin problems that we discussed, even in skin, texture, color, and luster and enhancing the overall appearance and vitality of the.
And then internally, because we are working from the inside out as facial acupuncturist will see an improvement in muscle integrity, a thickening of finning, a trophic tissue, which will ties in today’s presentation and improvement and the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of the individual themselves.
As we are adjusting channels, organs and other systemic impacts. When we talk about facial aging in our Western culture, we are often times used to immediate gratification. So when we are talking with our patients and working with our patients, we need to be really honest about what it is that we can actually do.
And I speak to my patients like this. I say, although the. Aging as part of the aging process, you’re not going to stop aging. It’s normal. It’s part of the intrinsic and extrinsic mosaic of aging itself. But what we can do is we can delay those signs of aging. And when we treat you with one treatment, we can see short term benefits lasting maybe three to seven days, and then generally.
When we perform this in a series of treatments, averaging 10 to 12 times per once a week, we can see longer benefits lasting between four and 16 weeks. And then we’re going to maintain the results or the benefits of your treatment with monthly maintenance treatments. And that’s approximately one time a month.
Now they may be a little bit confused as to why they’re not getting longer treatments or longer. Longer effects from our treatments because we are used to immediate gratification with longer term, say three months to six months with neurotoxins and maybe even longer with volumizes or filler. So I explain it to them as what we’re doing is we’re taking your face to the gym.
And we talk about going to the gym and the benefits of going to the gym as a cumulative effect. So you can’t go to the gym. And pump up and then expect to see large muscles, right? What you get is tired and a little bit sore. You’re not going to get tired or sore from facial acupuncture, but the concept is we are treating a giving a series of treatment to make an internal change that will last throughout time.
And ultimately you feel healthy and you feel better as well. In 1996, the first landmark study for facial acupuncture, measuring the efficacy. Yeah. Was in the international journal of clinical acupuncture. They took 300 cases. This wasn’t treated in China, that it gave them patient will acupuncture 10 treatments, one time a week.
And the patients noted a 90% market effect in terms of their subjective experience of the treatments. The benefits it’s said was there was an improvement in skin texture, stint, color, skin elasticity. Wrinkle reduction and overall rejuvenation. And also they noted that these results were not just confined to the face, but also included work from the practitioner’s point of view to address the entire body, the organ system, as well as the face.
So ultimately what we’re doing is Chinese medicine. We’re treating the body to sustain the changes on the face for appearance. And the reason why we are working in that vein is because we are traditional Chinese, Eastern medicine practitioners. And it’s because we still are applying the concepts of channel theory.
We are looking at cosmetic facial acupuncture as a whole systems approach towards diminishing the signs and symptoms of. This means that we, when we are support, when we are treating with facial acupuncture, we are treating and supporting the entire patient. That’s foundational because even though the wrinkles and the other facial concerns are the chief complaints, we are looking at it from a holistic perspective, and we know that the conditions on one’s face, the conditions that they’re talking about.
Skin laxity muscle tone. And that type of thing is really directly related to their internal health and overall well. When we treat with facial acupuncture, we’re not just working with the face as practitioners of Chinese medicine. We know that we need to consider and address all of them, energetic Meridian pathways and all of their corresponding organ systems.
And we treat them in the same way that we’re treating other conditions with acupuncture. We address those imbalances in those internal systems, digestive, circulatory, reproductive, neuromuscular, whatever it is and in doing so we are from the inside helping to diminish those visible signs of things. When we talk about these concerns, skin, laxity, wrinkles, muscle Capone, skin, dyschromia, et cetera.
We call those the symptoms. Those are just the symptoms of that underlying pattern is disharmony. And when we treat, we’re going to treat the root cause first with body points, and then we’re going to treat the symptoms. So we. Points on the extremities. And then, and along the torso, first, we do our diagnostics.
We treat the patient for their underlying condition. We apply acupuncture points on the legs, the arms torso, and then we address the symptoms or the facial concerns with points on the face. And then we take them out those needles out in the opposite direction. And that point selection on. Body is specifically related to the underlying pattern disharmony and the points selection on the face can be either on the Meridian, off the Meridian or around the associated channels.
And this is what we’re going to address today. When we think about acupuncture points, we know that acupuncture points are located in areas with higher concentration of superficial nerves. We know that there are a higher concentration of blood vessels around those points. And we know that there are neuromuscular attachments where those vessels and nerves penetrate the deep of the muscle fascia.
What we also know about points, acupuncture points in the body is that when we stimulate the acupuncture points, that sensation is transmit mid. From the peripheral nervous system to the central nervous system by the dorsal root ganglion. We also know that due to Nur, or when we look at neuro imaging, we know that there are acupoint stimulation is activity in the brain areas that is associated with that local area that we actually put the needle in.
But it also transmits into more distal areas, not on the knee, the point of needle insertion. This is important because when recently we’ve discovered that we have interstition when we first were looking at bodies and we would dissect cadavers and we would open them up and we would pull out this sheet of sticky film.
Substance and we would throw it away. Guess what we’ve been throwing away has recently been discovered as a very important structure in our body. It’s called interstitium and it is a fluid filled cavity that contains connective tissue, fascia, and fluid. And you can see this in the demonstration.
This is an, a. This top area is a microscopic expansion of what’s underneath and you can actually see that there, this whole area is the interstitium. So it’s made up of fluid fill barriers, and then it’s made up of these little structures that are more split support structures called connective tissue and fat.
Guess what? Within that fascia, we have college and college in is the primary fascial component of that connective tissue or on the face. We’re going to call it fascia. And that college in actually has an electric. Signaling component to it. It’s called college and Paz electricity, collagen fibers have this mechanical or electric property.
And it’s actually the basis for communication from the insertion of the needle throughout the fascia and into the, not just the local areas, but more general areas as well. And when we alter that college in, when something happens like aging and that college and those college and fibers get altered, it’s going to change the physiological response as that stimulation moves out into other areas of the face.
And in fact, what we’ve been looking at recently is that therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture, why acupuncture works may be linked to this, maybe linked to the ability of needle insertion in an acupuncture point to radiate outside of that local area and flow through the interstitial tissue, into other areas or other neighboring structures of the face or in the two.
Here’s what fascia looks like. You can look at the bottom, it looks like sticky film or some type of saran wrap that actually does two purposes. Either wraps around substances to protect them or connects them such as on the face from say the muscles to the upper layers of the skin and under repeated or intense stress that fascial tissue changes.
And it becomes disorganized and it decreases in flexibility and it loses its ability to signal. And if you look at this image right here, this is what college in stress looks like. This is how it changes from a more. Area, if you think of your face and you think of this area of the face and a younger person, it’s much more plump, but this is what that disorganization of college in fibers decrease in flexibility, decrease in an electric signaling and ultimately tissue breakdown.
So we’re going to look at how to change that. Here’s what it looks like in an image. And here is the superficial area or this top of the skin. On the top of our face. And as we age, it moves from the bottom, which is nice, organized, thick banding of co of college and tissue to disorganize broken down college and fibers that then create a pitting area in the surface of this.
When you think about a mattress, you think about a brand new mattress. It’s nice and full it’s, nice and plump. And as we sleep in that mattress in the same position over and over years and years later, it starts to form a little pit. That’s the same thing as the pitting effect that happens in our skin, that little dumpling or the little.
Drop in the mattress is what we see on the skin. And we start, we call that college in breakdown. And when that happens, skin has no place to go. So for the purpose of this today’s lecture, the loss of college and underneath the surfaces of skin causes that pinning and causes that skin to dry.
Now with an acupuncture needle, we can actually make a change. So when you know that acupuncture needle and creates a natural wound healing cascade to release growth factors to stimulate the production in deposition of college men in the dermal layer skin, what is that? When you look at the skin, there are the very top layer is called the epidermis and the very, very top layer.
What you look at when you look in the mirror or you look at somebody else’s called the stratum corneum and then underneath the epidermis is the dermis. And the dermis is actually the integrity or the health of that, of our skin tissue, a healthy cell. Start at the bottom of the dermis and make their way up to the top and float up to the top.
As the cells float through this tissue, the integrity or the volume of this dermal layer is supported by colleagues. And collagen and another T is elastin, but we’re not going to talk about that right now. So you can see this thick area in the top corner. There is our college and fibers and the very, very thin ones are called elastin.
And the little dots that you see are called fiberblast fiber blast. Are actually what needs to be stimulated in order to make collagen in the skin tissue and there’s research, particularly by a man named does Fernandez who has done a lot of work with Derma rolling or skin piercing with acupuncture needles.
And what he’s found is that when you place a needle into the skin you create a microtrauma in the tissue and that might . In this cascade of information to fibroblasts, I’d say, make college and into the fibroblasts, just make as much healthy colleges as they can possibly make. So it changes it from being that on uniform clumped appearance of college and underneath the tissue to lay a Ficker, as you can see a thicker line.
Of college and in the upper dermal layer and throughout the dermal layer as well, to support the upper layer of the epidermis. And we do this with needles. We do this with short needles because let me go back remembering the different layers of tissue and layers of tissue in the body. This layer, this dermis epidermis dermal layer is really the very, very surface.
Of the skin of the face. Because if you think about the pace and you just take your finger and touch your face well, before you know it your own, do you feel that before it, between the skin, the upper layer of skin and bone, you have muscles, you have connective tissue, you have nerves, you have. Your circulatory system, you have fat, there are so many layers that are between the surface of the skin and the bone.
So when we are treating this dermal layer, we actually have to have very shallow insertion. And we do that challenge insertion with small short needle. My favorite. And and also the favorite of many of the other practitioners that treat with facial acupuncture for appearance enhancement are serum.
Serums are always great needles. They, and what I like about them is the safety quality about them. Their medical grade stainless steel used around the needle shaft. They’re triple polished and clean cleansed with ultrasound and. Alkaline acid or water to remove foreign substances, and then they sterilize them.
And then the honing of them they’re specifically rounded to reduce damage in the skin tissue, because remember we’re working on paced people’s faces. There are a lot of nerve endings. There are a lot of capillaries and vessels. And so we want to use the best calling the needles that we can possibly use in order to get maximum results.
And Siron also has a line called J 15 that are specifically designed for cosmetic patient acupuncture. And on the other side I tend to use the 40 twos and 40 fours. Although some people use forties, this in this area, the one set up about, I liked. Another great line is called dong Bancorp.
Their DVCS are made specifically for low loss of LMS. This is another option. They are also well-made and compliance with the world health, our organization in the U S and then FDA approved and throughout Europe in England. Because they are the largest manufacturer of acupuncture needles in the world.
They’re much more economically priced. They’re basically a fifth of the cost of this here and needles. Many practitioners will use these needles on the body and then they’ll use the on. There’s another company that I really like in use in that called Acue fast. And what I like about them is they’re environmentally friendly.
Their packaging is biodegradable and the plastic material is recyclable. Again, they are Korean made spring handled with surgical stainless steel, their machine sharpen. There’s another, they’re just another great needle. In order to eliminate some AQI trash, they come 10 needles in a package and a bliss and a vacuum seal pouch, and they sell the tube separately.
So in some of these treatments with that, I’m going to show you or the system, you may not need a tube. And so that book, optional tubes are different. And then the other types of needles that we use to penetrate the very surface of the skin, it is the intradermal needles, either the straight intradermal needles that run in a horizontal position for insertion and a horizontal manner.
These were invented in Japan and then the press needles, go in vertically. Those were come from. There are many types of intradermals. This is a really good line. It’s called thrive. Great needle. Hard to get because they come from England. They’re triple Pall, double polished, and there’s three.
Different sizes, the gold, the copper, and the silver again, just another example of a really good line. So those in you who are from the UK are watching from another country. This, you can see I’ve put on. Bottom the links in order to purchase them, or cammo here in the U S CRN has another, the spine next intradermal needles, I think is acupuncture.
We’ve used these most of the time. And again there, what’s interesting about them is that heat sealed blister pack. And then the little ring holder, you definitely need to use tweezers with them and they make them in certain different sizes with the. PO box of a hundred needles. DBC has started to make another intradermal needle.
That’s interesting as well. Again, five needles in a foam pack, and there’s a new one coming out. This is not on the market yet, but it seemed to be there in their first line of production this year. Ella piss. I liked them a lot. But they come in there again, the high, same quality at that as serum upholds their integrity of their production, of their needles.
They come in five needles in a blister pack. What I like about them is that they’re short. But they also have handles so that you don’t need to use tweezers. For those of you like me who are somewhat uneasy, need a tweezer compromised. And then there’s always the pie. Next introduce dermal is a single press tax press tax are great.
Not all states will let you leave a needle in there, patient. So you need to make sure to contact her, find out what your regulations are. Within your state to see if you can actually leave these in your patient when they’re not in the office. And again, they come in different diameters as well. So let’s get to the treatment.
When we are treating our patients, this is what we’re looking at here. You can see in the, before, this is the image that we were looking at before you take any of those needles that you want to use, and you can treat them either on the acupuncture point S either The point rate lateral to the corner of the mouth stomach for depending upon how you can see the skin pitting, you may want to go a little bit higher, but just remember that in order to get the beneficial effects, you don’t need to be on the point.
Exactly. So what I might suggest is say, needling stomach for me again. You’re going to do your normal intakes and discover your patterns of disharmony. So if you look at this, you’ll find most people who have this pitting that have some type of a spleen deficiency. Either. We explained us digestive disorder or something like that, because if you’re looking at the stomach Meridian, it runs right through this area.
And how many people as we’re aging, don’t have some type of digestive. Disorder. So remember your spleen, remember your stomach, treat the underlying pattern of disharmony and then come back and we’re going to go back and treat this spleen area. So say stomach for, and then take your smaller needles and you can slide the.
At a 10 to 15 degree angle. Now that’s very superficial. That’s almost like Japanese acupuncture where you’re actually angling them almost parallel to the surface of the skin. So you can take those needles either the intradermals or the the half inch, and just slide them into the area of deepest pitting.
You can also write in here in the integral. And the nasal labial fold, just slide them right in there. And then that’s and then this is what I did. And then after treatment 10 treatments, you can actually see. A much bigger difference. If you have other questions about those, you can certainly let me know.
I know these are are these recordings are available and you can always contact me just to let you know that I have partnered with the Pacific college of health sciences. We offer a program called facial applications for cosmetic, and he has met, which is a much more in-depth program that you can access in the way to.
Contact us is this phone number and email below, and it’s not, we’ll be learning my techniques. We’ll be learning other techniques with other leaders in the field, such as Matt Callison, Mary Elizabeth, Wakefield, Michelle Gellis Deandra Courtney, Carrie Hart. A lot more. This program allows financial aid will be as available classes begin January of 2023.
And then again, if you have other questions, you can follow me on Instagram. Or Ann or contact me@infoathamptonsacupuncture.com. So thank you again. Thank you for the American Acupuncture Council for allowing me to present today and also please join in next Wednesday too. With Chen Yen. She’ll be presenting at the American Acupuncture Council and hope to see you again.
Thank you. Goodbye.
I do have a question. Is it there is one question, Elizabeth, thank you. The, yes the course that is being offered as a hybrid program. So the didactic component of it is online. And then there five days of hands-on clinical learning offered once or twice a year.
Do I recommend patients take college and it really depends upon the college in remembering that college in is a large protein. And it may, or if you are explained to you deficient with terrible gut problems, you may or may not be able to absorb it. That’s the clinical and the written information or that, or the more.
Therapeutic information. However, that being said, I take collagen in every day. I use a company called Vital Proteins and honestly, I see a difference in my skin. Yes and no, I hope that answers your question.