The first question that I get asked about cosmetic acupuncture. And this is a big one…
Click here to download the transcript.
Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.
Hi, this is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician, and today I am going to speak to you about the top 10 reasons. This is part one of the top. 10 questions that I get asked both from practitioners and patients about cosmetic acupuncture. A lot of the information that I’m going to speak about today can be found in my my book.
Click here for the best Acupuncture Malpractice Insurance
It’s called Treating the Face, and it is a comprehensive guide for acupuncturists and health professionals. It’s all about treating the face. It’s a 500 page hard cover, full color book. So you might wanna check that out. It’s available@facialacupunctureclasses.com. Okay. Before I get started, I wanna thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today.
Get a Quick Quote and See What You Can Save
The first question that I get asked about cosmetic acupuncture. And this is a big one because I get this asked almost all the time, is does it work? And the answer to that is Unequivocably. Yes. And there have been numerous studies research studies that have been done, and a lot of them are cited in my book or journal articles that, you can research both on my website or online, and what they have found is cosmetic acupuncture helps to improve the. Thickness of the skin, the depth of wrinkles on the skin, the color of the skin, and the overall vibrance of the skin, both on the face, the neck, the chest, around the eye area. So it absolutely does.
Work. The next question that I get asked very frequently is, how many treatments will it take in order for these treatments to work? How many times will I need to come in? And that is actually a really big question because the answer is, it depends. The way I like to think about cosmetic acupuncture is it’s like going to the gym.
So if someone were to come to you, if 10 people were to come to you and say. How many times will I need to go to the gym before my muscles look like they look when I was in my twenties or before I am fit or before I lose X amount of pounds? The answer would of course be, it depends because it’s going to be dependent on.
With your skin, it’s going to depend on several factors, so it will depend on your age. And the reason for this is as we get older, it takes longer for our bodies to produce collagen. So that’s one important factor. Another important factor is your lifestyle. So that takes into. Account a lot of things.
How much sleep do you get? How much water do you drink? How much alcohol do you consume? Do you smoke? Exercise is a big factor because the skin needs oxygen in order to look good. And so smoking plays into that as well because smoking takes oxygen. Out of your bloodstream. Exercise also increases the blood flow of the skin.
And having a healthy blood supply is very important to vibrant looking skin. Also sleep. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your skin is not going to be going through that. Turnover and repair process. Sun damage is a big factor, so if you have a lot of sun damage, it’s going to take longer for you to see results and you might need more treatments, more in depth.
Treatments, longer treatments than someone who has no sun damage on their skin. Genetics play a big part in determining. How you will age. So both the shape of your face and just your, the thickness of your skin. Is your skin lighter or darker? All of these different genetic factors will play into how many treatments you need.
People with darker skin don’t. Show signs of aging as far as sagging and fine lines and wrinkles as people with lighter skin and people with thinner skin. And our skin tends to thin as we age, but some people just have thinner skin. People with thinner skin are going to show more signs of aging than people with thicker skin.
So that will also play into it. The foods we eat will also determine how we age. People who are eating nutrient core diet are going to look older than people that are eating a nutrient rich diet. It takes vitamin C and protein in order to build collagen. And collagen is the building blocks of our skin.
It determines the thickness of our skin and the how our skin is held up is through the collagen and the elastin. And also another thing going back to age hyaluronic acid, as we get. Older, we have less hyaluronic acid in our skin, and that is what makes the skin kind of plump. So you want to make sure you’re drinking lots of water, eating healthy fats.
Especially the omegas, the Omega threes really play into. The cell functioning and the cell turnover rate. Another thing that determines how many treatments you’re going to need is what sort of products are you using on your skin if you are not. Using quality products that have peptides and vitamins and different minerals.
Things like copper, zinc vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C in some cases, things like hyaluronic acid, serums, retinol, serums. There are. Lots of different ingredients that can go into serums and also day and night creams that you might put on your skin. These will affect how your skin ages and how many treatments you’ll need.
So really to summarize, if you look at the starting point. And how much sun damage, how the person is taking care of their skin, whether or not they’re exercising, sleeping, what they’re eating. Stress. I left stress out. Stress can certainly affect the skin. The facial expressions that we make can get etched on our face.
And in my book I have a whole chapter called the Anatomy of Expression. So people who are very stressed can get those kind of lines between their eyebrows. People who are depressed can show certain signs of aging. So these are all very important factors. All of that said a general rule of thumb for cosmetic acupuncture is once a week for about three months, so about 12 treatments once a week.
And most people, depending on where we’re starting, most people will at least begin to see. The effects of cosmetic acupuncture, and for most people, a good percentage of the people after that time, they can begin going to get treatments less often. Another question is, how much does it cost? And this is another, it depends question.
Depending on what you are including in your treatments. Whenever I do a cosmetic acupuncture treatment, I do acupuncture and I also do cupping. And while SHA and for most of my. Time treating patients. The bulk of my practice was in Maryland. I was in a very rural area, but I was charging anywhere between 150 and $200 US for a treatment.
And again, if you are in a major city like New York. Or Los Angeles, you might be charging a little more. I strongly recommend that you base the cost of the treatment on what it would normally be for you to treat a patient, and then half of that, so one and a half times the cost of a treatment because your patient will be in your treatment space for about an hour.
To end 15 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how quickly you work. On top of that, some people add in derma rolling, they add in red light therapy. So these things might be charged as an add-on to a standard cosmetic acupuncture treatment.
The next question that I get frequently is how long do the treatments take? And this kind of piggybacks on the last question, which is how much does it cost? And so you’re going to be. I tie the cost into how long the treatment is actually going to take, and usually once you’ve been in practice for a while, you can get your patient in and out of the treatment room in about an hour and 15 minutes.
Sometimes an hour and 30 minutes. It depends on whether or not you’re just treating the face, whether or not you’re going to be working on their neck how how many wrinkles they have, how much signs of aging are there, because you might wanna add in more needles and spend a little more time. But the good news is once the needles are in, they can rest on the table and you can go and treat another.
Patient. And another question I get a lot is how long do the treatments last? How long do they last? And this is also a, it depends question. So I’m gonna go back to what I was speaking about earlier, and that is normally people will come in once a week for several weeks, let’s say 12 weeks.
And then after that they don’t just stop going again. Think about the going to the gym analogy. So if you were going to the gym, you wouldn’t just. Stop going, but if you did stop going there would be a certain amount of time where you would still be noticing the effects until eventually they were off.
So for cosmetic acupuncture, I tell people once you’ve achieved the desired effects, at that point you can start coming less often. Every other week or once a month, once most of my patients have dis have achieved the desired effect. They start spreading their treatments out. They come once a month, just like if they were getting their nails done or getting their hair colored or getting a facial.
So that kind of answers the. How long do the treatments last? For some people treatments can last a very long time. I know. When I. Stop seeing patients during the pandemic. A lot of people were buying facial cupping and guha kits from me. They were doing a little self-care at home in addition to using their serums and their lotions.
Some of them were derma rolling at home. So these types of things can help to augment the treatments for at-home care. So this concludes part one of the top 10 questions that I get asked about facial acupuncture. I’d like to again, thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity and we will see you next time for part two.