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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.
For today’s lecture, I am going to talk a little bit about each one of the tools, their benefits, some considerations that you might have when you’re looking into these tools, and then also safety concerns.
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, my name’s Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician, and I am going to be doing this short presentation for the American Acupuncture Council on choosing safe and effective cosmetic tools. For your treatment space and this will be part one of a two part lecture. So go to the first slide, please.
So a little bit about me I have been teaching cosmetic acupuncture for a little over 20 years. I’m on faculty. at Yosan University, and I have recently published a book which let’s see, you can, let’s see, this way you can see what the book looks like. It’s a hardcover book and it is called Treating the Face.
Oh, thank you. It is over 500 pages of color, Images and information about treating the face, 5L Lumen acupuncture, cosmetic acupuncture, neuromuscular acupuncture, facial motor points, scalp acupuncture, submuscular needling, facial cupping, facial gua sha, microneedling, red light therapy, skincare, and more.
And self care and you can get the book from my website facialacupunctureclasses. com. I know a little bit about buying tools for treating the face because when I am treating patients, I have a few different tools that I use. And I have a where I actually have designed and sell tools. But I have spent a lot of time looking into different tools and devices and their efficacy and their safety.
And in order to save all of you a lot of time, I thought I would just put together some really good information on what you should look for when you’re deciding what sort of tools to bring into your treatment space. Some of the tools that I use in my treatment space that are very popular are microneedle pens, dermarollers, hydrorollers, hydroneedles, facial cups, Facial Gua Sha tools, and red light devices.
For today’s lecture, I am going to talk a little bit about each one of the tools, their benefits, some considerations that you might have when you’re looking into these tools, and then also safety concerns. So first is microneedle pens. These are relatively new devices. They’ve Been around for 20, maybe 30 years, but essentially they are it.
They call them pens because they look like a pen, and at the tip of the pen are tiny little needles that vibrate in and out, and they puncture the skin, and they cause microtrauma to the skin, and they cause microtrauma to the skin. When this microtrauma happens, it causes the skin to remodel to produce collagen, and it can be really effective for things like fine lines and wrinkles.
And the treatments are very fast. They, it doesn’t take very long, about 20 minutes to treat the entire face. You can also use these on the neck, the chest, the back of the hands, pretty much any part of the body. But you do need to be trained in how to use them. It’s not intuitive how to do microneedling.
And, They’re really just treating skin level concerns. Another concern with these is sterilization. So when we talk about safety, we’ll talk about that. Another device is derma rollers, and derma rollers are similar to microneedle pens in the way that they work. However, these are manual. Microneedle pens either run on battery or you plug them in, or some of them are both.
And these devices, you just hold them in your hand and you roll them on the skin. And they have tiny needles which penetrate the skin, which help to stimulate collagen. And, will also help to exfoliate and increase the absorption of any products that you might put on the skin. They’re not going to be as precise as a microneedle pen and they can’t always be sanitized as well.
With the microneedle pens you throw the tips out after you use them, the tip, but with the derma roller you tend to use it over and over again, not from patient to patient, but If you’re doing these as in office treatments, you can use the same device on a treatment on a patient multiple times. A HydroRoller is very similar to a DermaRoller.
As you can see here, there are tiny little needles. on this device and this glass container at the bottom gets filled with serum and you roll it on the skin and it infuses the serum right into the skin. So the benefit is you’re really combining two treatments into one. You’re getting the stimulation of collagen and you’re getting the absorption of the product but It’s really going to be limited as far as how much serum it can hold.
A hydroneedle is very similar to a hydroroller, but this is more of a stamping device, so it has these tiny little needles with a little plunger. And you feel, you fill the reservoir with serum and then you would stamp it into the skin. So it’s very precise delivery and, but you just want to use it in specific.
areas.
Facial cups are wonderful. They’re a great add on to cosmetic acupuncture treatments. They help to stimulate blood flow and qi to the face. They’re non invasive. They don’t hurt and but you do want to Make sure you get trained in using them. You don’t want to leave any bruises or cause any injury to your patient’s face.
Facial gua sha tools are made, I like the ones that are made out of jade. Jade is very much a part of our medicine but they can be made out of various different materials and they can also be made in different shapes and The benefit to using them is they can help with lymphatic drainage and they can break up fascial adhesions and they can really sculpt the face if someone has like puffiness under their eyes.
If their jawline is sagging, you can use a gua sha tool for this. Again, you want to make certain that You are properly trained.
Red light devices are Again, something that are a little bit more modern than let’s say our acupuncture needles, and they come in different forms. Here we have one that just sits on the table, and then this one is a freestanding device, and each one has its Benefits. These tend to be the ones that just go on the table tend to be less expensive.
The freestanding ones are more flexible. You can move them anywhere around and it’s just the important things to look for. We’ll talk about in a little bit, but they are pain free, they’re non invasive, and they can heal with a lot of skin level issues. And some of them even have settings for pain.
Safety first. Most importantly, when you’re looking at devices, you really want to take into account, are these devices safe as well as effective, because there are a lot of devices for sale in many places, online, on TV, at your local store. cosmetics shop or uh, wherever you shop, it seems that they have all different types of devices.
So you really want to make certain that what you’re getting is safe. So first I want to talk about microneedle pens and the things that are important. With a microneedle pen are the needles themselves, because those are the real powerhouse of the device. So the microneedle pen needle cartridge, which is disposable, The needle should be made out of stainless steel or titanium, and then so the stainless steel keeps them stainless steel keeps them strong, and the titanium keeps them strong, and very few people are allergic to it.
Check. to titanium. So it’s good if the needles are made out of that. And also the motor of the pen itself, you want to make certain those needles are going up and down at least 16, 000, preferably 18, 000 RPM, because you don’t want The device to be dragging on the skin. You want to make sure that these cartridges get firmly attached into the pen.
And also make certain your pen is CE certified for safety and reliability. And you can even check with the American Acupuncture Council. The American Acupuncture Council has approved the AcuLift Micro Needle Pen for use in the treatment room. Also, anti backflow technology means that not only do you have three connectors on the tip, But also on the inside of the pen, there’s three places where it connects and that the cartridge itself clicks on and stays in very tightly.
For Dermarollers, again, titanium, stainless steel, very important for durability and safety. And you want to make sure these needles are lined up. and that there are enough needles on the roller so that your patient doesn’t have a lot of pain. If there’s too few needles on the roller head, then they can have pain when they’re being The handle should be well constructed, should fit well, feel well in your hand, and you want to make sure that it rolls smoothly.
It shouldn’t be dragging on the skin. With the hydro rollers, there’s a lot of concerns as well, especially since you’re using these devices over and over again. So you want to make sure once you put the serum in, that it This reservoir is sealed well. Again, needles that are either stainless or titanium.
And with the HydroRollers, having them gold plated can add an additional layer of it being hypoallergenic, microbial, added durability wonderful for conducting serums and Making sure that your device has well made needles for precision and for comfort. And gold can help with the healing response. So these are all things to look for.
And then when you’re buying one of these devices, you want to make sure that it’s packaged properly, that it’s sealed and that it’s sterilized. Many of the same concerns that we have with hydro rollers, we’re going to have with hydro needles. So the material and that the. Top screws on tightly, sterile packaging, easy to clean so the top should be able to come off, you can throw it in with some sanitizing tablets, and again, the gold over titanium needles.
For facial cups, The cups that I like are the glass cups. You don’t want them to be plastic or silicone. They can drag on the face. You want to make certain that everything that’s involved here is non toxic. And cupping sets that have at least two different sized cups, because these are small smaller cups.
They’re only just for comparison, the larger cup, the opening is about the size of a dime, so they’re pretty small. With the Gua Sha tools I already mentioned, I love Jade. If you’re using Gua Sha tools that look like this, make sure they’re actually made out of jade and not green glass. They should have a smooth finish.
They should feel cool in your hand, be chip resistant. And if you can find out where they’re sourced, ethical sourcing is also a nice bonus. For the red light devices, when you’re looking at quality and safety, you want to make sure that they have a minimum of 630 nanometers. 850 is where you’re going to be getting into those pain settings consistent power.
And it should have some sort of heat management. If the device itself does get warm, which it shouldn’t, you should still be safe to touch it. And look for something that’s durable, that’s sturdy, that’s not a flimsy device. Okay, so we’ve talked a little bit about the different devices and safety.
And next time we are going to talk about some more practical considerations. ease of use, matching the tools to different skin types and different treatments, and also integrating different technologies. How do you integrate all of these different devices? So thank you so much, and I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity.
Again, my book is available right now only through my website in the US. If somehow you’re catching this in another country, check with your local booksellers online. We have some distribution going on internationally. Thank you so much.
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.
So I’m going to do a little demo today of how I do nanoneedling on myself. But first, a little bit about me.
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, my name’s Michelle Gellis, and today I am going to do a demonstration of nanoneedling with a microneedle pen, so you can go ahead and go to the first slide.
I teach facial acupuncture classes, and part of that is Micro needling and nano needling and one of the questions I get asked a lot is do I do these things on myself? And the answer is yes, I do. So I’m going to do a little demo today of how I do nanoneedling on myself. But first, a little bit about me.
I, as I mentioned, teach facial and cosmetic neuromuscular acupuncture classes internationally, and I have for about 20 years now. I’m currently on the doctoral faculty at Yosan University, and prior to that, I was on faculty at the Maryland University of Integrative Health, and I also worked as a clinical supervisor there.
And I’ve just completed my very first book. It is a 500 page hardcover book on treating the face, and the reviews have been great. I’m I’ve opened it up for pre sale and you can get more information about the book at facialacupunctureclasses. com and then the products that I am going to be demonstrating today can be, you can learn more about those at aculiftskincare.com
Okay, I am done with the slides. So let me move these slides out of the way. Okay, so the pen I am using today is made by, everything’s backwards the pen I’m using today is made by AccuLift and it comes in a metal case. And the pen itself when it arrives, everything is wrapped up like this. I’m not going to be using this pen.
This is a brand new pen. But it comes with two batteries, and the If you want to plug it in, it comes with a charging cord and also a plug in adapter, which is on the pen right now. And the pen also comes with a really nice set of very large instructions for those old people like me who have trouble reading instructions from time to time.
These are just instructions on the pen itself. If You want to know how to do microneedling on a patient. The purchase of a pen comes with a four hour continuing education webinar that is included. So let’s just hop into it. So before I record before this webinar, I did microneedling on one side of my face.
So if you see my face is a little red, that’s why. But I am going to be doing nanoneedling on this side of my face, and the difference between microneedling and nanoneedling is a microneedle cartridge has These on this particular one, there’s 16 needles, and what happens is when you do microneedling, the needles go like this, and they make little, teeny, tiny, microscopic puncture wounds into your face, and as you can see, I’ve already done it to my face, and it’s, it shouldn’t cause anything too traumatic but So it builds collagen.
Nano needling, on the other hand, uses these nano needle cartridges, and they look different. They’re more like, if you can see this, they are more like a, almost like sandpaper. It’s a really great way to exfoliate, like the dead skin. And it’s something you can do a couple of times a week, whereas microneedling you can only do once a month, nanoneedling you can do a couple of times a week, and you can also do nanoneedling inside the orbital rim and on your lips.
What you need to do, and you don’t need any numbing cream for nano needling. What you need to do is make sure your hands and your face are clean. I like to do a little pre exfoliation before I start. And then just to make sure my face is extra clean, I take a makeup remover wipe and I spray it with rubbing alcohol and I rub I’ll go ahead and even though I just did it, I’ll do it again.
But I spray it with rubbing alcohol and then just make sure if there’s any makeup or anything on your face that. If you don’t have any issues with that, yeah, I’m gonna, everything done.
Once you’ve done that if you don’t like the alcohol, you can also use witch hazel, which is good for cleansing the skin as well. And then with nano needling, I like to grab one of my serums. I brought a couple with me. I have a superb serum, which is Vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, and collagen. I also have my peptide serum and you can use one or the other or you can mix them together.
And since my hands are clean, I’m just going to put a little of the nourish right in the palm of my hand and I’m just going to work on half of my face. So I’m going to work on this half since I micro needled the other half. We’re ready. Put a little serum on. The nanoneedle cartridges come in a sealed pouch like this and then you just tear it open.
You put the nanoneedle right on the pen, this particular pen, and there are a lot of great pens out there. And this one’s made by AccuLift and it has a triple locking mechanism. You take the, Little cap off. Don’t forget to do that. And then the way you determine the proper length for the nanoneedles on this pen is you turn it on and then you are going to dial it up just until you can just see the top of those nanoneedles coming out.
And once you can see them coming out, then you can do your nano needling, and you don’t have to press very hard, the nano needles will do all the work. And this is just a really great way to give your skin a nice refresh when I’m working around my eye area. I actually use my eye cream. Because you’re not needling anything into your skin, you’re just working on the stratum corneum layer.
You can put your eye cream on and just work right inside the orbital rim. Just make sure you’re pointing the pen towards the orbital rim and you’re gentle. You’re not pointing towards your eyeball. And it looks just like this, just like that. And then right inside, just like that. Gentle. And this is great for Those little lines we get under our eyes from smiling and it’s a great way to just stimulate blood flow and real nice healthy qi in that area.
Moving along to the cheeks,
you can do your nose, your cheeks, you just want to go right in there, left to right,
all the way down
and then you’re going to go up and down.
And right around your lips. Again, I’m only doing half of my face. And make sure you do along the jawline. Get your chin.
Oh, and I forgot to say this in my other video, but make sure you pull your hair back. That’s why my hair is back. You don’t want to get your hair tangled up in your device. So a headband or a ponytail, whatever you need. If you have hair that hangs in your face. Now I’m going to do my neck. and my chest area.
And even though I’ve done microneedling across my neck and down my chest, it’s okay to do the microneedling, the nanoneedling. I was pretty gentle when I did the microneedling. You can see I’m just a little red in this area, so I’m good for the So you’re going to go underneath your chin.
And up and down on the neck. Actually feels really nice. It’s not painful at all. And then you’re going to go down on your chest
and back and forth.
So I’m not recommending that you do nano needling over the microneedling. I’m just saying if you did for some reason it cause any harm. It might be a little painful for you. You or your patient, but for the purpose of this demo, that’s what I did. If you want, if you would like, when you’re all done doing your nano needling, you can you can go ahead and put on whatever creams or lotions you would be using.
I happen to have some of my calm aftercare, and I’m just going to use that. And I realize I forgot to do my lips, so I’m going to go back and do that. So for my lips, I usually use some serum, and if you have any kind of serum for nano needling is fine.
And you can just nano needle the whole red part of your lip. It really helps to exfoliate them and plump them up. You don’t want to nano needle, you don’t want to micro needle the red part of your lips, but you can nano needle them
and you can see, makes them look really nice afterwards. Helps to bring that blood flow out and helps with the pleating, lip pleating. That is an entire nanoneedling session for half of my face. And you can see it’s quick and it’s easy. And if you are interested in learning more, you can go to my website, aculipskincare.
com. You don’t have to buy a pen. You can just There’s plenty of demos on there, and the four hour CEU training is on there as well. And my 20 I’m not supposed to say dates anyway. My teaching schedule is on the website as well. And you can also find me on social under my name or facialacupunctureclasses.com. And that’s it. Thank you for joining me.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
I’m going to do a presentation, which is part two on the importance of clearing blocks before treating the face.
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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, my name is Michelle Gellis, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to talk to you today. I’m going to do a presentation, which is part two on the importance of clearing blocks before treating the face. You can go to the first slide.
So last time I did a presentation on the importance of clearing blocks before treating the face, part one. And you can find that at the AAC website. And it is also available on my website, Facial Acupuncture Classes.
So a little bit about me quickly before I get started. I am currently on the doctoral faculty at Yosan University in Los Angeles, and I’m a former faculty member and clinic supervisor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. I was there from 2003 until 2021 and I teach facial and cosmetic acupuncture classes internationally.
So last time I talked about what an energetic block is, and I would just like to do a review of that quickly. So an energetic block essentially is a break in or an impediment to the smooth flow of chi. and blocks can prevent treatments from being effective or can prevent treatments from holding. And in the Lingxu we are taught that only when stagnation is cleared away, the channels can be vented and yin and yang can be harmonized.
So When you’re performing acupuncture, whether you’re doing facial acupuncture for cosmetic or neuromuscular conditions, there is a lot of chi and blood brought up to the face. To help with the circulation of the face. And if that chi cannot flow smoothly through the meridians, through the channels, to the points, then your treatment will not be as effective.
So last time the blocks that I talked about were a possession and aggressive energy. This time, I am going to talk about husband wife imbalances, or an HW, and also entry exit blocks.
A husband wife imbalance is probably of all the blocks that I covered today. Last time, or of all the blocks that can exist that we treat, an HW is probably the most serious of the blocks and If someone has an HW, it is a sign that their health is declining, their natural healing resources have been depleted, and Yin and Yang.
are losing their their functions, their functional contact. So left untreated over time, the person’s health will deteriorate to the point of them being beyond health.
Due to the severity and the nature of this type of block, the and the number of needles usually used during facial acupuncture treatment, it’s imperative to clear this block, if it is present, before doing any sort of cosmetic treatment on your patient. Otherwise, you could further deplete your patient, leaving them weak.
and at risk of serious physical or emotional deterioration. So how do we determine if someone has a husband white imbalance or an HW? So what you will notice is, so normally the left hand pulses, the pulses on the left side, are stronger than the pulses on the right. But if someone has a husband wife imbalance, then the right side pulses are going to be stronger in quantity, so they’re going to be bigger, stronger pulses, and they will have a different quality, sharp fighting quality to them.
So the right side pulses will be stronger than the left side. So the right side pulses are considered to be the wife’s side pulses and the left are considered to be the So you’re, you have this imbalance where the, Wife pulses are bigger.
So what it looks like is this. Normally these pulses here are your wife pulses. These are the husband pulses. So these are the pulses that are on your right side. So we’re going to have the right side of fire. So we’ll have
your fire, and we’re going to have your earth pulses and your metal pulses. So this energy goes like this. The part of fire on the right side says Sanjiao. And So your Sanjiao pulses and your pericardium pulses will be bigger than the left side of fire, which is heart and small intestine.
So your right side pulses are all going to be larger. And so you’ve got all this process. But there’s a block right here. And the energy is not making it over to the water and the wood, which is all about growth and expansion. So we’ve got all this process, but there’s no growth. So how do you treat it?
You are going to go, first thing you do is you’re going to start down here and you’re going to tonify the metal points. in water. So you’re going to go to bladder 67 and kidney 7. So you’re pulling, you’re trying to break this block here by pulling the both sides of the yin and yang of water. So bladder 67 and kidney seven, you’re pulling that energy over and you’re going to tonify.
And then you are going to pull the energy from earth down to water. So kidney three, Then you are going to bring the metal to wood, and that point is liver four, and again these are all tonification. And then you are going to tonify the source points of small intestine and heart to bring the energy to heart four.
and small intestine with heart being last. So between each set of points you’re going to check pulses to see where the where the block existed.
Sorry. Okay.
The next block that I’m going to talk about is an entry exit block. And the reason why these are really important when you’re working on the face is because there is either an entry or exit point for each one of the zong on the face. So here we have the exit for small intestine, the entry for bladder, we have the exit for Sanjiao, the entry of gallbladder.
the exit for large intestine and the entry for stomach. So if this is the Chinese clock and energy moves around from one, from liver to lungs, the large intestine to stomach right around the Chinese clock, if there is a block while the energy is moving around through the meridian system, through the Chinese clock, then there is a place where the chi is not getting through.
I’m a J. R. Worsley trained five element acupuncturist, and one of the things that J. R. did was he set up the meridian system. So for each meridian, he gave it a Roman numeral, and part of the reason why he did that was it makes it easier to talk about To while your patient’s in the room. Let’s say you’re supervising in clinic and you have a student and you wanna talk about the patient, but you don’t wanna alarm them, you could say, do you feel this quality on one?
So they are numbered according to the flow of energy through the body, according to the Chinese clock. And we always start. with heart as one, and so heart is Roman numeral one, small intestine is two, bladder is three, kidney is four, pericardium is five, sangio is six, gallbladder is seven, liver is eight, lung is nine, large intestine is ten, stomach is eleven, and spleen is twelve.
And do note that the entry exit points are not always the first and last point on the meridian I have marked out. You can see here, for example, Large Intestine 4 is the entry point on Large Intestine. And Gallbladder 41 is the exit point on Gallbladder. Lung 7 is the exit point on Lung. So it’s not always the last point on the meridian.
So if you don’t remember where the exit, what the exit and entry points are. You can refer to this chart. So again, the energy goes from heart to small intestine, to bladder, to kidney, to pericardium, et cetera, et cetera. And then once it gets to spleen, once it gets to 12, it goes back to one again, right around the clock.
So I used a highlighter to show the different pairs. So if this is a pericardium, pulse chart. When you’re feeling the pulses, what you’re looking for are going to be breaks between, so you’d be looking for a break between the paired meridians, so small intestine, to bladder, right? So this would be a 2 3 block.
So if these pulses are larger than these pulses, then you have a block. So small intestine to bladder, Would be a 2, 2, 3 block. Then you go again in order, you go from kidney to pericardium. Then we go from sanja to gallbladder, from liver to lung, from large intestine to stomach and from spleen to heart. So you can see.
the way the the blocks could occur. The ones we’re most concerned about are going to be the ones on the face. So between small intestine and bladder, between large intestine and stomach, and between sand jaw and gallbladder. Those are the ones that have either an entry or an exit point. on the fifth.
So again, we identify them on the pulse, and if the pulse of the lower numbered meridian is stronger than the pulse on the higher numbered meridian, according to the Chinese clock on that chart I showed you, then we have what we call an entry exit block. Some people call them exit entry blocks, but it’s just semantics.
In my book, I changed the, this is from one of my PowerPoint presentations, but in my book, I I changed it to exit. entry block because it’s an exit entry block, which you’ll see in the next slide. So the treatment is you’re going to tonify the exit point of the lower numbered meridian, which is the stronger pulse.
Then you’re going to tonify the entry point of the next meridian. And by tonify, the way that we do it is you’re going to insert the needle, And in the flow of energy, in the direction of the flow of the energy, and you’re going to turn it 180 degrees clockwise, and then take it out.
There are entry exit blocks that exist. on the chest, and these would be between spleen and heart, kidney and pericardium, and large intestine and stomach. And these have to do more with the heart and the lung functions. Here we have, again, the entry exit blocks on the face, and these are going to be closer to our senses.
So I already went through all of this. So this is what I was trying to explain. If this it’s like a kink in a garden hose. If the energy of the smaller numbered meridian, let’s say small intestine, bigger then the energy on the next numbered meridian, so bladder, then we have an exit entry block.
And so when I feel pulses, I put my hands on both wrists and I go around and I feel two to three, And then I go 4, to 5, to 6, to 7, to 8, to 9, to 10, to 11, to 12. And then back around again.
And I already said this. The last block is a CBGB block. And that is a less common block. It is between Ren and Do. And REN and DEW are like the seas that feed the rivers. So the rivers and are the meridians, but the repository for all of our all of our energy is through REN and DEW and REN and DEW.
If there is a block between rent and due, then that energy is not going to be able to get out to the meridians. And what you will feel on the pulses is all of the pulses will be very low. And this can happen due to sexual abuse, trauma, or if a husband wife imbalance goes too long without being treated.
The treatment is you’re going to tonify CV1. And you’ll tonify, so you there’s special draping that you’ll have to do, and you’ll have to have gloves, and you talk to the patient ahead of time about what it is you’re going to do, but you are going to tonify CB1, you take the needle out, change your gloves, our new gloves, you’re going to tonify CB24, then you would tonify CB1.
Take off your gloves, put on new gloves, and then you would tonify GV28 and you check the pulses again.
My book is hopefully going to be out the first week in September or thereabouts, maybe the second week in September. And it will be called Treating the Face. It’s a comprehensive manual for acupuncturists and allied health professionals, and it’s going to cover everything from cosmetic and neuromuscular facial acupuncture, cupping, gua sha, Red Light Therapy, Microneedling, The Anatomy of Expression, Self Care, Skin Care, Nutrition.
Everything involved with treating from the clavicle. And if you are interested in getting on the waitlist to pre order, you can go to my website, facialacupunctureclasses. com, and there is a place where you can pre order. Sign up to be in my waiting list. So thank you again to the AAC for this opportunity, and I look forward to seeing you next time.