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Microneedling for Acupuncturists

 

 

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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, everybody. Welcome to today’s program. Microneedling for Acupuncturists. My name is Michelle Gellis and I teach cosmetic and facial acupuncture classes internationally. The slides, please.

A little bit about me. I was on faculty for the Maryland university of integrative health from 2003 until very recently. And I travel around the world. Teaching facial and cosmetic acupuncture classes. And I’ve been doing that since around 2005. Here’s a list of some of the classes that I teach. I have a one year.

Facial acupuncture certification class. I teach facial cupping in gloss Shaw. I do a weekend certification class that I teach. I teach drama, rolling skincare, treating neuromuscular facial condition. And self care and some other classes, I don’t need to go through all of them right now, but all of my classes are available online as recorded webinars.

Some of them I do as live webinars. And then I do hands on practice sessions when I’m. I’ve been published in the journal of Chinese medicine several times. And there are links to all of my publications on my website, facial acupuncture, classes.com. So today we’re going to be talking about Micronesia. Y microneedle lane for acupuncturists.

If you’re already doing cosmetic acupuncture, ma why might you want to incorporate microneedling into your practice? What is some of the risks, the benefits, and how does. So Mike we’re noodling is an alternative for a lot of individuals to getting things such as injections for skin conditions like fine lines, acne scars, it helps with some loose skin.

It has been FDA approved. There’ve been studies done for. Acne scars. It can help with large pores. And it’s really wonderful for some of those areas that can’t be addressed or can’t be addressed easily with acupuncture. Like some of those lip lines around the eyes where you would have to use a lot of intradermal needles.

Microneedle lane is great for stretchmarks and it even helps with hair restoration. So some of the benefits to microneedling and in this previous picture, this is a microneedle pen and this is the device that is used to do microphone. There is very little downtime with micro-needling. And so when someone has a microneedling session, I know, years ago, you might’ve seen people had microneedle Lang and their faces were all bloody, but that’s, they have fans.

Through years of research that is not necessary. So the downtime is minimal. There’s very little risk and there is a natural production of collagen. So you don’t inject anything into the skin or take anything out it’s relatively safe, but you do have to get. There it, again, it’s used for stretch marks, acne scars, hair loss, and it’s also really good for neck wrinkles, which can be hard to treat with acupuncture.

And if you just put some numbing cream on the face, and in some instances, people don’t need the need. It can be very comfortable. And the results last a long. What are the two main benefits? The two main benefits are stimulating your body’s own natural production of collagen, and it also helps to increase serum absorption by up to a thousand percent.

So any products that you would use on the. Can be absorbed up to a thousand percent and it’s not just used on the face. Microneedling can be used on many different parts of the body, the chest, the neck, the hands, and you can even use it on stretch marks on the stomach, things of that nature. So how does it work?

Microneedling creates these little micro channels in the surface of this. In the upper layer of the skin. And once those micro wounds or microchannels are created, the body is stimulated to produce collagen and the more college and you have, the more youthful your skin will look, it becomes tighter, firmer, thicker, and less wrinkles.

So here’s a picture of a piece of skin and where we’re going to be working right here. So here’s the epidermis and we have the dermal layer and then the lower layers, the hypodermis and the subcutaneous. Fat, but the place where we doing microneedling is right here in the epidermis. So here is a cross section of the epidermis.

And when you’re microneedling the needles, go through the very top layer, which is a stratum corneum and down right here into this base layer. This is where the fibroblasts or. Produce. So you don’t have to even get into the dermal layer, which means you don’t have to have any bleeding. The skin should just be a little pink and these little micro wounds are created and new collagen fibers, new venous and arterial capillaries are formed and fibrosis.

Or created and create collagen. And this is what it looks like with the microneedling tool. The needles go up and down just like this. And they, for our purposes, they shouldn’t be going in much deeper than about. One millimeter into the skin. I had mentioned that the micro channels are great for absorption of skincare products, CRMs, things of that nature.

Normally, when we have product and we put it on our skin, it can’t be absorbed. But once these temporary micro channels are created the product. I can go down and do the work that they need to do can get through that outer layer of the skin. Here is a biopsy. It’s a cross section of a skin cell. And what they did was they died the collagen.

And so you can see here on the top slide, the college and with purple and then about six weeks after a microneedle in session, they did the same thing and you can see how much more collagen was in the skin.

So again, this is a microneedle pen and if you are familiar, The AccuLift company that is my company. And we’ve just come out in the past six months. We’ve just come out with the microneedle pen and the needles are here. The white cap is on the needles here, but this is the needle cartridge. And the there’s an led readout, which shows you the speed.

And then here you can adjust the. And microneedling only needs to be done once a month. And when we’re working on the face, we go typically between 0.2, five millimeters, and 1.0 millimeters. But this pen will go as deep as 2.5 millimeters, the cartridges. This is what the cartridge looks like. And. There are 16 little microneedle pins in here.

And as I mentioned, they go up and down and when you purchase a microneedle pen, the AccuLift micro pen comes with a four hour training course. Four CEOs that goes over how to use everything, how to do everything, but essentially the microneedle cartridge is used everywhere on the face. You can also use it on the neck and the chest pretty much everywhere, except you wouldn’t want to use it on the red part of your lips or inside the orbital rim and see.

The cartridge itself has three connector points. And so there’s three places where this bayonet cartridge connects inside. And this makes a good firm connection. You don’t have to worry about the cartridge popping off, and it also prevents any black back flow of fluids back into the.

Nano noodling is another type of noodling. And so we’re microneedling. You really can only do once a month. Nano noodling can be done as much as twice a week, sometimes even more. And the noodles are. Only go in about 0.1, five millimeters. So it really just the scrap stratum, corneum the very top layer of the skin, but this is great for areas where you can’t microneedle, or if you just want a little touch up, it’s a wonderful way to get through that stratum corneum so that when you’re using your products, they can get.

And this is what the nano needles look like. It does increase product absorption up to 97%. And these little nano needles are only 110 nanometers long, which is one, 100th of a millimeter. They’re very short. They’re like little cones, but. I have my microneedle pen on my, I have one that I have for my patients and I have one of my bathroom sink and I use it a couple of few times a week and it’s pretty great.

So the nice thing about microneedling is it’s a very quick procedure. So you get your patient on the table between the time they lay down. And the time they leave, if you’re just doing microneedling, you can get them in and out. And a half an hour. I put some body points in to address the underlying conditions and ground my patient.

And normally after four to six sessions, They are good to go and the results can last up to five years. So it is pretty wonderful. But what are the differences between microneedling and cosmetic acupuncture? Because for those of you who know me, I th cosmetic acupuncture and it I’m still doing cosmetic acupuncture very much, but I’m using the micro needle.

The way I do it is one of one of three ways, some people just want the microneedling and that’s fine. For a lot of my cosmetic acupuncture patients, I’ll treat them three times with cosmetic acupuncture and then I’ll do one micro-needling treatment. And for some patients, they may just have an area like their chin or around their lips, or maybe just their forehead where they really need.

My coordinator lane and I’ll do an area. Maybe they just want their hands done or their chest done. And I will charge accordingly for that. And then at the, so I can prep them for that. I can put the facial acupuncture needles everywhere else. And then I end the treatment off with the microneedle Lang and send them on their way.

So let’s look at some. The differences and similarities. So microneedling is very much a skin level issue procedure, and it’s great for fine lines. Acne scars, any depressed scars, you don’t want to use it on a Ray scar. And with the nano needling, you can go inside the orbital rim. It’s great for those lip lines, because normally when you’re doing cosmetic acupuncture, you’re working with lip lines.

You would have to put little intradermal needles in all the lip lines that can be very time consuming and microneedling. You just go right around their lip lips. And sometimes they can have very rapid results where especially with darks. The results can be quite amazing, very quick. And there is some downtime.

I tell my patients 24 hours, no going out in the sun, no exercise. And of course I go through all this and my, where our training. I’ve got a half an hour here, so I’m trying to get as much in, at lightening speed as I can, but there is some downtime. Like 24 hours, no sun, no exercise. You just want to take it easy.

And as I mentioned, the results can last up to five years with cosmetic acupuncture. We’re really getting at the root cause of some of the issues that dark circles, the sagging a lot of different things that are apparent on the face. We’re going to address with body. Cosmetic acupuncture is wonderful for sagging.

It works on the muscle layer and the fascia and the blood and the cheek. So it’s much better for certain things like sagging eyelids that you really can’t do with microneedling the microneedling sessions. I don’t have it on this diagram, but microneedling noodling sessions. You’re going to charge anywhere from.

I’ve seen places charge as little as 2 75 to $300 on up to $600 for a half an hour treatment. It just depends on what your market will bear, where you are. And with cosmetic acupuncture, the results typically take a little longer and it’s going to take a few more treatments, but there’s no downtime and it is less painful.

Both are within our scope of practice and both increase collagen and elastin. Now you do need to check. Your local acupuncture board or with your insurance company, your malpractice insurance, to see if it is within your scope, where you are practicing. There are a lot of contraindications and by all means, this is not a comprehensive course on microneedle Lang, but just.

Give you a little information about that, but patients who are on blood thinners, maybe patients who are going through chemotherapy, radiation, if they have any moderate to severe skin conditions, key lives, if they’re pregnant. So there are contra-indications to microneedling that you need to know what.

And when you’re working with your patients, you have to set up realistic expectations based on a lot of different factors, their lifestyle, their genetics, their skin type, not everyone is going to have the same results. And as I mentioned, they’re going to come in about once a month. Usually sometimes. Quickest three sessions, but usually four to six sessions.

People have a chief of the results that they want. There can be some side effects. Typically the end point is just some pinkness on the skin, but they could have a redness, like a first degree sunburn some pinpoint pleadings and itching burning sensation. So your patients need to know what the side effects might be.

As far as what to look for in a device. There are a lot of devices out there. And as I mentioned, AccuLift skincare is my company and I have been selling. We’ve been selling Dermer wallers for close to 10 years now. And so when I went out looking for a manufacturer for micro-needling devices, I had the same high standards and there are a lot of things you need to look for things like the speed of the device.

And cause you want something that’s a minimum of 14,000 RPMs. You want safety, some sort of anti backflow technology something that works. And with the battery and something that comes with multiple batteries, you want to be able to see the speed. The AccuLift micro pen has this led readout. So you know what speed you’re at?

You want something that has a warranty if there is a problem and also what kind of support are you getting with? Are you getting trained? Does the company provide a referral service once they, once you’ve paid them to train you? Are they going to refer, have a referral service where when people are looking up the device that they will refer to you, does it come with brochures?

Does it come with marketing material? This is all the stuff that’s going to set you up for success. So you’re not just buying. So this is the AccuLift micro pen and it comes with the pen itself, two batteries, a charger five microneedles, five nano needles, a big instruction, booklet cord, just in case you need it.

Because maybe you’re seeing so many patients, you can’t keep those batteries charged. And then some people would just like using a cord It comes with a really nice storage case and down here and then products for your backbar come with it. So three different CRMs for different skin types. And a before and after spray and also a patient take home kit because when your patients leave, they have to be able to take care of their own skin.

So there’s aftercare Sprite for them for that night and then CRMs and lotions for the time following. So I’ve mentioned training and it is really important that you get trained, go on YouTube. You buy a pan, you’re going on YouTube, watching videos and think, okay, I’m good. It is important that you get trained because there are S there’s so much that goes into it.

Everything from setup to safety, to the prep, how do you set the needle speeds? How do you set the needle depths? What techniques are there out there? How do you properly use the pen? Had you cleaned the pen and what do you tell your patient when they leave? You can’t just say, okay, bye. You have to be able to give them some, take home instructions and really understand.

So just the setup alone, this is from my training, but there are a lot of things besides the pen that you would need to have in your. Treatment space. So really understanding what are did you need for setup? And then there were many different techniques that you use different ways that you hold the pen, use the pen and different speeds for different skin types, different conditions, different depths for different speed, for different conditions.

All of this right here is the. Protocol that I teach. And as you can see, it’s a lot of different steps. And really what can your patient expect? I let my patients know that they, their skin is going to be red for up to 12 hours, that they shouldn’t exercise. They need to stay out of the. They shouldn’t be putting makeup on or really even sunscreen because their skin is open.

And when they leave, if they put sunscreen on whatever’s in that sunscreen is going to get absorbed. Now I’m down in Florida. So this is really important that people know, if you live someplace sunny out west, down south, or even if it’s just summer that night until the outer layer of the skin kind of heals.

They can’t be putting sunscreen on their face anyway. There’s some other things that they need to know. And I review all of these in class. I had just enough time to show you a quick little demo. So I’m going to, this is just the four minutes of. Much longer demo that I show in my class, but I wanted you guys to see this.

Whoops, I lost. Hold on one second. Sorry. I lost my thing. Yeah.

So here I am. I’m putting I’ve a makeup remover, wife and some alcohol on taking the numbing cream off and cleaning her skin. Now I’m putting some serum on it’s vitamin C hyaluronic acid and collagen, and I’m setting an appropriate speed for first. And I’m going to start up. I’m just going to start off again.

So I just go up and down. I’ll have to ride a couple passes to get a little pink and then these little dark spots. Yeah. So he was a little. It doesn’t feel great, but it helps to break off the melanin, but your eyebrows just real quick passes on the end there. When you’re working around your eyes, you might want to turn it down to a 0.25, cause this scheme is too thin.

No analyze.

And I actually had this faded up a little bit. You a little bit more,

I’m going to go back on 0.5.

Like that,

I just gone back and forth. And make sure you get,

and afterwards I have a Allo. Arnica CBD spray, which is really cooling and feels wonderful on the skin. And here you can see, so this is a before this, another patient, and since before, and she was a facial patient. I worked on her neck and chest and I put some needles in her face and then she just rested it.

So you can see the, before here’s me during, and then after, I don’t know if you’re able to see on this slide, but she’s just a little pink, which is what you want. Here are some before and after pictures on acne scars and stuff. Fine lines around the eyes. And this is me. These are my eyebrows.

Believe it or not. It’s a funny story. I had been working on my own eyebrows and normally I used to use like eyebrow pencil. I’m 60 years old. And one of the things that happens when you get older is your, you lose the tails on your eyebrows and you can see in my, before. I didn’t have much eyebrows to begin with.

And one day I went to put my eyebrow pencil on and I looked at myself and I thought maybe I had some on from the day before. And I went to wipe it off and I didn’t. And as you can say, I don’t have anything on my eyebrows. It’s it was pretty miraculous. It was shocking actually. In fact, I had to go and get my eyebrows between us cause I started getting so crazy thick.

So as I mentioned for price pricing, you can charge like 3 25 for a half an hour session. I do some packages and it’s just been a really a wonderful add on, especially during the pandemic to my practice. And you can also do, different areas and charge just for that. And when you’re looking at products, there’s a lot of things you want to certainly look for the products that I include with my microneedle pen are organic vegan.

The very easily absorbed. They helped to brighten the skin. They nourish the skin. They won’t clog the pores. They help to reduce inflammation because they have CBD in them. And then I have an aftercare spray that helps protect the skin. And you want something that has really good slip. It’s a term that we use when you’re working with a microneedle.

If you’re interested in the pen itself, you can go to AccuLift skincare.com. You do have to open a wholesale account. It’s free because I do not sell these to the public only to health professionals. And I think that’s all I have time for right now. So this is just a little bit more about the products themselves.

Again. A couple of different serums for different skin types and the aftercare spray. So if you have any questions you can reach out to me either on social media, I’m on Facebook, under my name, Michelle Gellis. I also have a Facebook group called facial acupuncture. And you can go to my website, facial acupuncture, classes.com, and you can look at my classes and there’s links to some free videos and stuff.

And I want to thank the American acupuncture council. Next week is Lorne Brown. And thanks again for your time. And I hope to see all of you again soon. Bye-bye.

Michelle Gellis