And today, I am going to talk about something else that I teach, which is microneedling. So you can go to the first slide. So the microneedling topic that I am going to cover today is microneedling self care.
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Hi, my name’s Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician. And I teach cosmetic and facial acupuncture classes. And today, I am going to talk about something else that I teach, which is microneedling. So you can go to the first slide. So the microneedling topic that I am going to cover today is microneedling self care.
Many of you have purchased a microneedling pen, either from AccuLift or from another company, and you’re using the microneedle pen on your patients, but I’ve gotten many questions about how do you microneedle? yourself. How do I microneedle myself? So today I am going to do a live demo of microneedling.
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A little bit about me. As I mentioned, I teach cosmetic and facial acupuncture classes internationally and have been doing that for about 20 years now. Before that, I was on faculty at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. I’m currently on the doctoral faculty at Yosan University. And recently, my book, Treating the Face, which is a comprehensive manual for acupuncturists and allied health professionals, is available for pre sale.
It is a 500 page hardcover book, so you might want to check that out. Information on my classes can be found at FacialAcupunctureClasses. com and information on products in my book can be found at AculiveSkincare. com. dot com. So that is my last slide and I’m just going to jump right into this demo. So most microneedle, let’s say this way, most microneedle pens come in a case and you open the case up and hopefully whatever microneedle pen you purchase comes with instructions.
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I’ll open this in a second. And then inside of the case are batteries and a cord, the pen itself, and then the charger. So I have a pen that, this is a brand new one, I have the pen that I’m gonna use, and the AccuLive pen comes with a really nice set of instructions. And these are just pen usage instructions.
These are not. Microneedling directions. The microneedling directions come in the form of a CEU, a four hour CEU. So you can check all that out. So the first thing you have to do before you microneedle yourself you have the choice. If you would like, you can put numbing cream on, but when I do microneedling on myself, I don’t use numbing cream, but I do make certain that my face is clean.
I use a scrub on my face to make sure it’s nice and clean. And I make sure my hands are nice and clean. Again, it’s optional if you want to use gloves. And then the Microneedle cartridge should, your microneedle cartridges should come in a sealed pouch and then you just peel the pouch open and you are going to take the cartridge and put it into the pen and these particular cartridges have a triple locking mechanism so they lock on nice and tight and don’t forget to take the cap off.
So I’m going to put this down for a second because just to make certain that my face is extra clean, I take a makeup remover wipe and I spray it with some rubbing alcohol. You can use witch hazel if you like. And I’m just going to work on one side of my face so that we can get through this.
rather quickly. And let’s see, I think I’m just going to work on this side of my face. So I’m going to make sure everything’s extra clean. I’m going to do my neck, a little bit of my chest, forehead, and make sure there’s no makeup or anything going on the areas that I am going to microneedle. So I’m going to let that dry.
Use a little alcohol on my hands, get them extra clean. The next thing that What I do is I’m going to look at the pen and I, when I work on myself, I tend to work most of my face at 5. You can see there’s numbers on the pen that go from zero all the way up to 2. 5. For the purposes of this demonstration, I’m going to have it on 0.
5 the whole time. You can dial it down a little bit on more sensitive areas or dial it up if you need to on, like your chin, your cheeks, areas that are a little bit thicker. The other thing is, The speed of the pen, when you purchase a microneedle pen, I do recommend you purchase a professional device, not an inexpensive device that you might get on, in a store or at Amazon.
These pens should be professional, which means they go up to 18, 000 RPMs and everything is the cartridges are sterile and proper training is included. So I’m going to set this. You can set it at different speeds and this right now is at five. It can go up to six. But, I’m going to just start around 5 is a good speed.
And,
there we go. Just start. This particular pen has memory, so if it’s on 5 when I turn it off, when I turn it back on, it’s still on 5, so I’m turning it off, putting it down, and I am going to get some serum. I have hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, and collagen serum, and I’m gonna put a little of that, and I’m also gonna mix in another peptide serum.
Let’s see, peptide serum that I have. Everything is reversed in this video. Peptide serum that I have that I really like for my aging skin. And I am just going to put a little bit on my forehead. I’m going to take my glasses off so hopefully I’ll be able to see what I’m doing. And I’m going to go ahead, and what I do is I just start off going left to just like this.
And then I’m going to go up and down, and I’m not pressing very hard at all. I’m letting the needles do all the work. And then if you have any wrinkles, like I have a wrinkle here. I’m just going to work back and forth. If you have a wrinkle here, you can work back and forth there. And the clinical endpoint is some pink.
You want to have some pink. But what I tell my students is you don’t wait until the skin is pink. You don’t keep Needling until the skin is pink. What you do is you do an area and then you move on to the next area. And if this area has not pinked up you can go back to it. But so i’m going to move on.
It’s a little pink here, but i’m just going to move on and if it hasn’t pinked up a little more I can always go back to it. Next area that i’m going to do Is on the outside of my orbital rim and I hit up my eyebrow too, but the outside of my orbital rim and my cheek. So I turn the pen on again and I’m gonna go right around making sure to get my crow’s feet.
And you want to make sure to build up the perimeter of your face. Same thing, back and forth, just like this. Aerating your lawn, up and down. Make sure you get along the perimeter. Just like this, and then any areas where you might have some wrinkles, you just work back and forth just like that.
If there were any dark spots, you just, or if there’s any scars, acne scars, any type of dark spots, Atrophic score, not a hypertrophic score. You can just dot at it, and I’m going to do my forehead a little bit more, because it’s not really getting that pink. So just get in there, and while I’m at it, I’m gonna do my nose.
It’s great for large pores. So I’m gonna do my forehead one more time, just getting in there back and forth, up and down. If you’re worried about missing areas, you can do little circles as well. It’s all good. I’m getting some nice pink there, so I’m going to move on to my nose. I’m going to go like this, and up and down, just like that.
And the next area I’m going to do is around my lips. So I’m just using one or two little squirts of serum in my hand, mixing it up. And the other thing you can use, I just don’t have one with me, is one of those fan brushes. They’re wonderful. And so now I’m going to be working around my mouth and along my jawline.
I’m really going to get those lip wrinkles. And I’m going to work around my entire mouth because I have not microneedled myself in a while. I want to make sure I get those lip wrinkles. So back and forth, up and down, getting in that Cupid’s bow. And if you have really deep lip wrinkles, make sure you spread them.
Otherwise, just back and forth, get underneath your chin, really build up that collagen in there. Up and down, just like that. Work all along your jawline, just like that.
And the next area I’m going to do is, I’m going to work on my neck.
Now the neck tends to be very sensitive, The skin is very thin, so I am going to dial it down just a little, but of course I can’t see. So I’m putting my trusty glasses on. So I’m going from 5 to 25 and now that I’m not working on my face, I can use my glasses. So I’m going up and down. I’m going to go left to right.
Really get underneath the neck
and anywhere where I have those neckless lines, I’m really getting in there, just
like that, getting up in that jawline.
And then, the next area is going to be I’m going to get on my chest. I have a lot of sun damage which is really noticeable on the computer. Hopefully it doesn’t look that bad in real life. But do my chest area.
I’m just going to do my whole chest area.
I’m going to dial it up a little more. I’m going to go so there’s a little marker here that you can see that shows you where you are. So I’m going to Right up to about 0. 5, and I’m just going to work back, forward, all the way down, my chest, all the way down, and then all the areas where I have sun damage.
And I’m going to go up and down. I already went left to so really getting my entire chest area
and then anywhere where I might have like a dark spot, like right here, I’m just going to stab at it. I’m going to dab this a little bit. And sometimes you might have some pinpoint bleeding. But just make sure, you leave it and then you can always clean it with soap and water or alcohol, but it’s nothing to be concerned about.
And then the last thing I like to do is, I do this with my patients and I do this with myself. When I’m all done,
I give it one final pass. unless I’m very red, which looks like I’m just a little pink. So I’m going to give it one final pass and I’m going to make sure that it’s on 0. 5 again.
Make sure to get any spots that I might have missed
all along. Definitely getting those nasolabial folds around the mouth and I need a little more serum. Sometimes. I’ll take the serum, and I will mix it into a little dish, and I will add a little water to it because the hyaluronic acid will attract water, and it prevents it from evaporating so quickly on your face.
Get my eyebrow, get those eyebrows growing, and that’s it. It’s very quick and simple, so you can either start at the top and work down or you could do one side of your face and then the other. When you’re done, take the cartridge and you put this in the sharps container. The very last thing I do is I have some aftercare spray, and this has aloe, arnica, CBD, and a lot of other.
Wonderful ingredients. It’s very cooling because your skin when you’re done is going to feel like you have a little sunburn and it can really cool the skin. I use it on my face, my neck, all over my chest, and this stuff is great to have around. You ever get a little sunburn, anything like that you can just use it.
So that’s it. Again, if you want more information on the class, you can go to facialacupunctureclasses. com and I hope this was useful for you. You can follow me on social. My name’s Michelle Gellis and I have a lot of useful demos on my website as well. Thank you.