Tag Archives: Michelle Gellis

Submuscular Facial Needling for Cosmetic and Neuromuscular Concerns

So what is Submuscular needling of the face and why would we use it?

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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. I am an acupuncture educator and author, and today I would like to thank the. American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity to speak to you today about submuscular needling of the face. So I last year I published a book, hardcover book on treating the Face, and it is a comprehensive 500 page book and one of the chapters of the book.

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Is all about submuscular needling. So some of the images that, or most of the images we’ll be working with today come from my book. So go ahead and go to the first slide please. So what is Submuscular needling of the face and why would we use it? Submuscular needling. Involves taking acupuncture needles and placing them underneath, or in some instances through different muscles on the face and the head, and even around the underneath the chin area.

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In order to help the face to function better, and in some instances we can use this same technique to help with wrinkles on the face and sagging and. Essentially what we’re doing is we’re taking needles and putting them in areas that are prone to muscular disharmony and can, this can be very beneficial for things like Bell’s Palsy.

And if someone has had a stroke or forehead, wrinkles sagging under the neck. So muscles like the corrugator and the frontals can help the forehead area. The processis, also the temporalis can help with migraines. Tinnitus other neuromuscular conditions of the face, the masseter can help with things like TMJ.

The auricular muscles can help also with tinnitus and helping to lift the face, and one that’s not listed. The anterior digastric can help with sagging under the chin area. So here’s a couple of images from my book of muscles on the face. And as you can see, there are quite a few. Some of them are superficial, some of them are deep.

And these are the images of the muscles on the side of the face and head. And so first we’re gonna talk a little bit. About muscles involved in raising the eyebrows and the eyelids bringing the eyebrows together from a cosmetic standpoint, these three muscles can cause wrinkles and deep furrows between the eyebrows from a neuro and a wrinkle across the bridge of the nose.

From a neuromuscular standpoint, these. Muscles can be involved with like for example, if someone has Bell’s palsy and the upper part of their face is drooping, and what we would do is insert needles. Doesn’t really matter when you’re doing submuscular needling, which direction you go, but you would take a half inch needle and insert them.

Underneath the muscles. So this right here these muscles right here are the corrugator muscles. And this will help to, and the corrugator inserts right into the braceis here and. This helps to bring chi and blood to this area. And also if there’s any fossil adhesions, it can help to break those up.

And by doing that, it helps to nourish the muscle, to bring the muscle into better functioning. This, these can be combined with facial motor points, which is another lecture, another chapter in the book. And to help so that there’s more symmetry in the face and also less drooping and fewer wrinkles, and this is what it looks like when you would do that.

And I have a little video. I need to move this over so I can click on it.

So as you can see in the video, I took a very thin gauge. I used cen needles. They’re like half inch. I think those are 0.1 fours. And I went right underneath the corrugator muscle. And you can just use one from the top if you choose. But in that example I was using too, so the frontals is another muscle.

So there’s two heads to the frontalis, and that is another muscle that we can do submuscular needling with. So we would put several needles underneath the frontalis muscle and it would look something like this. This can help with droopy eyelids. And also with forehead wrinkles. I’m going to skip the videos.

This is just a brief summary of what Submuscular Needling is. If you want more information, you can either visit. My book, which you can get@facialacupunctureclasses.com, or you can watch one of my recorded webinars at the same website, facial acupuncture classes.com. This is the braceis muscle which you would needle from the top down if you were doing submuscular needling.

It’s like a triangle. This is the temporalis muscle and using a series of needles all around the temporalis can really help to relax this temporalis muscle, which can become very tight. And as you can see, the auricular muscles are also attached to it. And these can, you can use submuscular needling under these and the temporalis.

A lot of the facial and neck muscles are connected to it, either directly or indirectly through the occipital frontals or through the coming back here through the trapezius and. By treating this muscle you can help to affect a lot of conditions on the face, and this is what it looks like when it’s needled.

The masseter is the big strong muscle that if you clench your jaw, you can feel it. And needling underneath that can really help patients that have TMJ and it looks like this, and the auricular muscles. I use these in all of my cosmetic treatments. Needling, underneath those auricular muscles is something that can help to lift the face area.

And I have helped, I have found it has helped my patients who have ear pain and tinnitus and so that is my. Presentation about Submuscular needling. Again, it was very brief, but I wanted to give you guys an overview If you are. I’m interested in learning more. You can visit my website, facial acupuncture classes.com, and I am also available on social media at my name, Michelle Gilles, or at Facial Acupuncture.

Classes. Once again, I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity to speak to you today about Submuscular needling of the faith.

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Michelle Gellis’ Top 10 Favorite Facial Acupuncture Points

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Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an author, and today I will be doing a presentation on my top 10 favorite facial acupuncture points, some of which will surprise you, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity. So I got the idea for today’s.

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Presentation when I was doing a book signing at the Pacific Symposium two weekends ago I gave out these little cards and on one side were my top 10 favorite facial acupuncture points. And on the other side were all of my upcoming classes and. Sold a lot. Sold and signed a lot of books, and inspired me for today’s presentation.

So let’s get started.

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The first I. Acupuncture point that I use every time when I am treating one of my cosmetic acupuncture patients is large intestine four joining of the valleys, and this is a command point for the face, and it also allows the body to release any impurities that. Might exist because it is a large intestine point, so it helps to clear the face, farm acne oily skin, any kind of congestion.

And it also. Helps with all of the muscles in the face as well. Release tension and so it’s a really great point. It is one of my mandatory points when treating the face. And these are in no particular order, small intestine. Six. And that point is nourishing the old and it helps to the spirit of the point.

So I’m a classically trained Worly five element acupuncturist, so I’m always very interested in the spirit of the point. And the spirit of this point is it helps to nourish us in the face of old pain and empowers us to assimilate life’s lessons. From past traumas and on a more physical level, it helps.

If you think about where the small Intestine channel runs, it helps with sagging neck and chin area, right? ’cause the small intestine channel runs up the neck and the, through the side of the neck and then up. The side of the face, and I chose this image, so a lot of the images are from my book, but this particular image I chose because I find that a lot of people play small intestine six almost in the San Jiao channel, and I’m always reminding.

My students that small intestine six should really be right along the small intestine channel. My next favorite facial acupuncture point is gall gallbladder 18. And the way you find gallbladder 18 is you start right at the gallbladder channel and you follow it right. Straight back along the head until you come in line with due 20.

And that is where the point is. The name of the point is receiving spirit and. It is on the gall epi erotica, right on the occipital frontals, and it helps to, the nerve actually goes right along the channel. It helps to benefit the eyes, the forehead, and it has a direct action on the supraorbital nerve, and as I mentioned, the gall up erotica.

My next favorite facial acupuncture point is stomach four, receive nourishment, and this treats the mouth area so it can help with the lip lines, and it also helps to relax the DAO or the depressor anguli Aus, which could pull the corners of the mouth down. Small intestine 18, which is referred to sometimes as cheekbone, helps to treat the mouth area because the way that I needle it is I needle it straight up, as you can see in this picture, so it helps to treat the mouth area, lip lines, nasal labial, folds.

It also. Relaxes. So nasal labial folds go from the nose to the lips, so nasal labial. It relaxes the DAO also, and it helps to lift up the cheek area.

Helps to lift the eyebrows. And the way that I needle this is I go in line with the pupil. I go right underneath the eyebrow and I needle it straight up yin tongue. I I chose this picture this. Last picture. This was one of my students. This is from my book, as is the one before it. But this one I found online this morning.

I liked it because it showed not only the muscle, but so it shows the braceis muscle, which Yong is right. In the center of this ProsperUS muscle, but it also shows some of the wrinkles that people can get. That yin tongue helps to treat the bunny line that goes horizontally. And then these two lines here, which can come from frowning.

And Yong is right in the center. And the way I like to needle it is actually. Against the flow, not with the flow of energy. So I needle it up or I’ll needle it straight in if I’m using it as a motor point. And this helps to move the energy up as opposed to down. It helps to relax the mind and calm the mind and the spirit.

Leg three miles, which is stomach 36, helps to infuse the spirit of, the point is it helps to infuse the gifts of the earth within all of the meridians. It is a point on the sea of nourishment and it helps to tonify the Q and the blood of the entire body, and it fortifies the spleen, which holds everything up, and it also calms the spirit.

So if you are calm and your face is calm and relaxed, then you won’t have all of those contracted muscles in your face, which give you a lot of the expression lines and wrinkles that we get. Chen Men is another one of my mandatory points. I love this for cosmetic acupuncture. It helps to relax the face and it calms your patient.

Gallbladder 41. This image is a little blurry, but it was, an image that I thought was important because it really shows where gallbladder 41 is. A lot of people will put it on the wrong side of this, or even both of these tendons because they’ll follow the gallbladder channel. Then instead of hopping over this tendon, they stay on this side and the energy is really right up in this crevice right here.

So the name of the point is Foot Above Tears. It allows your patient to have an emotional release if they’re frustrated or angry, and it very strongly grounds your patient. So in my protocol, this. This is the first point that we put in the body. And it helps to spread stagnant liver chi in the, or chi rather in the liver, in the gallbladder channel.

So it helps again with anger and frustration and everything that’s going on below the neck is going to show up above the neck. So all that emotional stuff, frustration that we’re feeling is going to show up. Right here. So we wanna release that and it can also help to a lesser degree with some of the dark spots and other signs of liver cheese stagnation.

So those are my 10. Favorite acupuncture points on the face, and I want to again thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to present to you today. If you would like more information on my classes, you can go to facial acupuncture classes.com. And if you’re watching this on your computer, there is a QR code take you right to the website and you can also get information about my book there as well.

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Microneedling for Hair Loss

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Hi, my name’s Michelle Gellis, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you today about microneedling for hair loss. Go to the first slide.

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A little bit about me. I am an acupuncture physician. I am the author of this book called Treating the Face. It is a comprehensive guide. Wait this way and back a little bit. Okay. It is a hardcover 500 page full color book with over 350 images in it, on treating the face and. There’s an entire chapter in this book on micro needling, so you might wanna check that out.

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And I teach cosmetic and facial acupuncture classes internationally, and I am currently on faculty at Yoan University in Los Angeles, California. So what is microneedling? Microneedling creates micro channels in the skin, and these micro channels will trigger cellular repair and regeneration. It helps to stimulate collagen and elastin and growth factors in the skin, improves the blood flow to the skin, and therefore nutrient delivery.

It enhances the absorption of any topical products that are put on the skin. And. Therefore it is used for skin rejuvenation, for things like wrinkles, scars, pigmentation issues, and what we’re gonna talk about today, hair growth. This is what a micro natal pen looks like. This particular one is made by AccuLift and you can see the website on the slide there, acif skincare.com.

And these have a dial here, and this determines. How deep the little needles on this cartridge will go into the skin. And this little window here it determines the speed, how fast those needles are going in and out of the skin. And this is what the needle cartridges look like. These are the 16 pin or 16 needle cartridges that would be used for microneedling the scalp.

And I did wanna talk to you a little bit today about hair loss, different types of hair loss. There are a lot of different reasons why we lose our hair. And this quick 10 minute lecture I’m giving you today is part a much longer one hour CEU lecture that I give. Which goes into all of this in much more depth.

So this is an overview, but some of the more common types of hair loss are androgenetic. Alopecia, which is commonly referred to as male pattern or female pattern baldness or hair loss. Intelligent effluvium, which is typically from stress or illness if your hair falls out. Alopecia areata, which is an autoimmune disease, scarring up.

Alopecia, which is an irrevocable follicle loss. There are other hair shaft abnormalities. Enogen Effluvium, which is a rapid hair loss resulting from some sort of a medical treatment like radiation or chemo. Tinia capita, which is ringworm in the scalp. And hypo psychosis, which is just naturally sparse hair or reduced hair growth.

Now micro noodling is good for some of these and not for others, but I just wanted for to purposes of today. I just wanted to give you an overview on some of the different types of hair loss within the TCM framework, hair loss. Can mean reduced follicles, whereas hair thinning is the reduced shaft, the caliber of the hair shaft, and we have several patterns that we look for.

So chi and blood deficiency, damp heat, liver, kidney deficiency. These are all different patterns that can show up with hair loss, just microneedling. I’m sorry for hair loss that microneedling can be effective for. So you want to address the root with body points and then do some local scalp therapy with the microneedling.

So you do your acupuncture body points, and then you would do the microneedling locally and. Blood heat generating wind pattern might show up as itching, headache, red tongue, and the treatment. Would be to clear the heat, extinguish the wind chi and blood deficiency frequently, or post illness or postpartum.

And your patient may have fatigue, palor, weak pulse, thin hair. And the treatment would be to tonify the cheek, nourish the blood for damp heat. This is often diet related. They might have a greasy scalp, loose roots, itching, red tongue, so you wanna clear the heat, resolve the dampness. And for a liver and kidney deficiency, this can happen in middle aged individuals.

They might have dull or graying hair, so microneedling can actually help the hair to not be as gray as well. They might have sore back knees, dizziness. Red tongue thin coat. Thin rapid pulse. So you wanna nourish the liver and the kidney. And of course, within Chinese medicine, mental and emotional factors can play a role in hair loss.

So stress, grief and worry can cause hair loss. So how does microneedling support the hair growth? Microneedling, as I said, stimulates the collagen production. Also, when you create these little micro injuries, it triggers cytokine and regenerative cycling in the skin. And this can help with the hair regrowth.

It enhances blood circulation. It, as I mentioned, improves the absorption. And trans epidermal delivery, how any topicals that you would put on your scalp, whether it’s a medical topical, like something like Minoxidil or some sort of a peptide or a growth serum, it can thicken the existing hair. And enhance the overall scalp health, making a more more, better, more fertile place for the hair to grow.

And it can activate some if the person has a hair follicle, it can activate the dormant follicles promoting new growth. It also releases growth factors and in my longer lecture, I get into what all of these different growth factors are, and these can help with all of the above concerns. So within Chinese medicine, the way we think of it is microneedling promotes qi blood.

And collagen renewal and stimulating the scalp works with microcirculation for the follicle vitality.

So again, activating stem cells, enhancing the microcirculation and creating collagen production can help to thicken the hair and enhance the overall scalp health. The equipment that you need is a professional microneedling pen. Especially if you’re working in your office, you don’t want to get a commercially available pen.

You want to get a professional microneedle pen because the speed. Will be calibrated properly. The pen itself should have anti backflow technology. The needle should come in single use cartridges and then serums that are appropriate for hair growth. Things that. Contain growth factors or peptides.

Botanicals, and you will prep the scalp with witch hazel or alcohol to cleanse it. You’re going to need gloves. You’re going to section the hair. And you could put topical anesthetic on and then put on a disposable, like a shower cap for 15 minutes. You can even use blue light if you have a blue light device.

So you want, the basic treatment flow is you meet with your patient. You’re going to prescreen them for any contraindications and go through a treatment plan. Typically, you’re going to see them once every two weeks or so, and. You’re going to cleanse the skin, apply numbing cream. Then that has to come off and you would section the hair, whatever hair is there, and you’re going to apply serum.

You’re gonna set the depth on the pen, depending on where in the scalp. And other factors, it’s either gonna be 0.25 to 1.0 millimeter, and then you’ll either do a linear or a stamping motion. You could use red light afterwards to help to increase the blood flow, and then you would set up aftercare with the patient, tell them what needs to be done, and then you could see them again in two to four weeks.

Typically improvement is seen within eight to 12 weeks. And that usually looks like enhanced density and reduced shedding. And you want to make sure that. You are following clean needle techniques. You’re going to use gloves. Your hands are gonna be clean. You would have a clean field set up. You definitely want to use single use cartridges, and they’re put into the sharps afterwards and you want to record the.

Of the needle, how many passes you did, if you used an LED light, how much time and what the response was. And then of course, document with before and after photos. So here are a couple of before and after photos from patients over about 12 weeks. And as you can see the density. Was quite significant density change in this patient’s hair.

And the first one was taken. If you’re wondering why the hair color was different this was taken. In the beginning of the autumn after the summer, and then this was taken 12 weeks later and after some haircuts, all of the blonde had grown out after a few months. And this is another before and after, again, significant changes in this bald area.

So if you want to learn more on my website, facial acupuncture classes.com, you can get a copy of my ebook on microneedling. And I also offer several different classes on microneedling for anti-aging acne. Hair loss. And I also teach live hands-on classes around the country and around the world.

But the online classes do have live they have demos and they’re all approved for continuing education. So you can visit facial acupuncture classes.com. And if you wanna learn more about the products, go to Alife Skincare. Com.

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Setting Your Cosmetic Acupuncture Practice Up for Success

What are the foundations for really building success in your practice? Number one, strong diagnostic skills. Number two, really understanding your patients cosmetic goals and their therapeutic goals.

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Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to present for you today on setting your cosmetic acupuncture practice up for success. Please go to the first slide.

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So cosmetic acupuncture practice is very much a growing field in our industry, and I have been teaching cosmetic acupuncture classes for well over 20 years. I am an author and have recently. Published a 500 page hard cover, full color book on treating the face. And I am on the doctoral faculty at Yoong University in Los Angeles.

And before that I worked at the Maryland University of Integrative Health for almost 20 years. I teach facial and cosmetic acupuncture classes internationally. Here are some of the classes that I teach, and you can check them out on my website, facial acupuncture classes.com. So as you can see, all of these classes have to do with treating the face.

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And one of the things that can happen as a student, as a practitioner is you take a training and then you want to incorporate it into your practice, but you’re not quite how to handle the. Maybe the aesthetics of the practice and the marketing of this new offering that you have. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Oh here is my book and you can see all of the different chapters, and it is a comprehensive book, as I mentioned, full cover color. You can also check that out on my website as well. So when you’re thinking about so let’s say you’ve just taken a cosmetic or a neuromuscular facial acupuncture class, or maybe microneedling, red light therapy, facial cupping and gu sha.

What are the foundations for really building success in your practice? Number one, strong diagnostic skills. Number two, really understanding your patients cosmetic goals and their therapeutic goals. Because cosmetic acupuncture is not just about treating the skin. Also maintaining safety and ethics is very important, especially when you’re working with the face.

The face is very unique and in my book I have. Safety sprinkled throughout the book and ethics, and I teach individual classes on CEU classes on safety and ethics that will satisfy your requirements for your licensure. So investing in continuing education is really important. A lot of our patients are getting Botox fillers, having cosmetic surgery, lasers, and a lot of other procedures done to their face.

There is definitely a shift to more holistic beauty. People are tired of not looking like themselves, not being able to move. Their faces looking a little weird, and holistic facial care has become extremely popular. It’s all over social media. And what does holistic. Beauty mean? It means moving beyond just the aesthetics and thinking about the whole person wellness.

So when I perform cosmetic acupuncture, facial cupping, microneedling, any of these techniques, I always include a full body acupuncture treatment. This will work with the emotions which show up on our faces, which can leave wrinkles and make us look more worried, frightened, or grief stricken than we need to look.

Also sustainable. Natural looking beauty is very much in demand now by offering these services in your practice, you are gonna differentiate your practice from other practices maybe that are just treating pain or other sorts of disease. How do you get people to come to your practice? First and foremost is your online presence and your website should be a hub for information and connection.

Showing your services, your products, of course, your credentials. You can use videos and blog posts, testimonials, and in many places, not everywhere, but in many places, you can use before and after images as a way to show people the effectiveness of your treatments. And weave throughout all of the trainings that I do.

And again, throughout my book, I spend a lot of time emphasizing this because it really is very important. So what are some of these marketing essentials? You have to think about who your target audience would be that you’re marketing to. Of course. Clients. Maybe other acupuncturist and other professionals that you can partner with using your social media, your website, and blog posts or newsletters, and.

Having a consistent branding, so colors and aesthetics that will show up throughout all of the platforms that you’re advertising on. Having patient testimonials can really build trust and credibility those along with the before and after photos that are taken in the same lighting. In the same position at that really showcase how well the procedures you’re doing work can really go a long way.

And then perhaps having case studies, things that you can share with your patients, maybe in a binder in your waiting room. Or with other practitioners that maybe are just doing pain or infertility. They don’t wanna get involved in aesthetics, but they know you are the go-to person. Case studies can really help with your marketing and with your with your patients.

One of the things that I emphasize when I’m teaching is how to set realistic expectations, because you never want to over promise and learning how to look at the whole person, their lifestyle, their genetics, their health history. Falls from A TCM and a Western medicine perspective. How much sleep are they getting?

Do they smoke? What are they drinking? What are they eating? How much stress do they have? How old are they? How dark is their skin? How thin is their skin? These are all things that are going to play into what sort of results they will have Also. Educating them about timelines and realistic outcomes within a certain amount of time.

If someone comes to you and they say, I have a wedding next week and I wanna look like my photo from when I was 18 and they’re 58 years old, they have to understand that’s not going to happen. And part of this is experience, and part of this is going to be training. Documenting their goals and any progress that you’re making along the way.

Sometimes people don’t notice these things and it’s up to you to point them out. And then really, this all goes to building trust and not coming off as. Someone who’s just trying to sell them something, but really being professional, having good listening skills. When I was teaching at Maryland University of Integrative Health, I taught a full semester listening skills class as part of our traditional diagnosis class.

It was a whole section on listening skills. Really learning how to listen beyond the words. Additionally, what are the short-term results they can expect? What are the long-term results they can expect? And then looking at not just the cosmetic. Improvements, but their overall health, the way that I teach cosmetic acupuncture incorporates some auricular points.

I’ve had patients quit smoking, stop drinking sleeping better, so many other things, better digestion. Just calmer because. Of the cosmetic acupuncture that they’re coming for. So they get unexpected results and it’s important to point that out. Don’t just listen and say that’s great, but really point it out.

Pricing your services is going to be dependent on a lot of things. I see a lot of practitioners. Undervaluing their practice and you really wanna set pricing that reflects both where you are to a point. Because if you’re buying an iPhone costs the same in Idaho as a dozen New York City.

That is important, but not as important as you think your experience. Your knowledge, your training and your ability to get results is going to go very far when you’re thinking about how to set pricing for your treatments. Some states allow you to create packages and that can help to make it more cost effective for people and really don’t put yourself on the sale rack.

Communicate your pricing confidently and clearly. So there’s no, oh, I thought you said this or I thought you said that. Once your practice is started in order to grow your practice, you definitely want to develop referral networks. This can go from attending in person. Networking events, going to seminars, workshops maybe you’re going to offer a little happy hour, healthy happy hour where you do some red light therapy or having little classes where you teach your patients how to do their own cupping in gu and sell them a cupping in gu sha set.

And as I mentioned, collect those testimonials and case studies. Sending newsletters are a great way to stay connected, as I just mentioned, workshops, collaboration and storytelling. People love to hear other people’s stories. So in conclusion, the success of your cosmetic. Your neuromuscular facial acupuncture practice is going to be built on a strong foundation across audiences, people with acne, people with scars, people with aging, and all sorts of different neuromuscular disharmonies.

Affect their face, head and neck. Communication and setting realistic goals are key, and having a business strategy, not just winging it, but having a business strategy will ensure long-term growth. This is how you can find me on social media. I’m under my name on Facebook, and I also have a Facebook group.

With over 10,000 health professionals and acupuncturists full facial acupuncture on Instagram, you can find me under my name and my website is facial acupuncture classes.com. Thank you so much for tuning in and I’ll see you next time.

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Safety Considerations When Purchasing A Microneedling Device

So the first thing you want to look at when you are considering purchasing a device and you’re looking at safety features is the weight.

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Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician and an author, and I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for giving me this opportunity to speak to you about safety concerns when purchasing a microneedling device. So there are a lot of microneedling devices out. On the market now, and I’m not here to try to sell you one, but the American Acupuncture Council is an insurance agency, and so safety is very important to them, and it should be very important to us as practitioners, both the safety of our patients and Our peace of mind when we are taking on a practice, whether it’s acupuncture, needling, or in this case, if we are doing microneedling.

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So the first thing you want to look at when you are considering purchasing a device and you’re looking at safety features is the weight. Of the pen itself and the reason why this is important, if you are doing a lot of microneedling, then if your pen is too heavy, your hand will get tired, and you may not have the consistency across the face, neck, chest, hands, wherever you’re going to be microneedling that you would have with a lighter device.

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Now that said, you don’t want to buy a product that is merely made out of aluminum, which is very lightweight, but it’s not going to be durable, and then you can run it into other problems with the product. Breaking or just not lasting very long. Something that is aluminum and stainless steel will give you the durability and also the lightness that you are looking for.

The next important thing when you’re looking at safety in a device is how easy is it for it to use and to adjust? So there should be two adjustments on any microneedle pen. And the first one, which is also a safety feature, is the speed. So in this particular pen, the. Speed, which is indicated by these different numbers is easily visible.

And so you know exactly what speed the pen is operating at. What does speed mean? The speed is how quickly the needles go up and down. So if they’re going too slowly. So we refer to this as RPMs. If it’s going too slowly, it can actually tear at the skin, and so you don’t want a pen that isn’t at least 16,000 RPMs with 18,000 being the kind of gold standard for professional microneedle devices.

The next feature. Setting is, if you look at the pen here, there’s numbers on the. Pen and these numbers indicate how deep the needles will penetrate into the skin. Professional micro noodle devices typically will adjust from zero. To 2.5 millimeters and usually when you are using a microneedle pen, you’re going to start out around 0.25 and you really, when you’re working on the phase, really don’t wanna go over 1.0 millimeters.

The next important safety feature that we’re looking at. So these numbers should be easy to read even if you have a protective sleeve over the pen, and it should be easy to adjust without any confusion about. What number you’re at. Next is the actual cartridges themselves and the cartridges you purchased should be pre sterilized.

And this is usually done through a gas process and. The package itself should be sealed. It should be dated, and it should be easy to open. So heal them open and. The cartridge itself should not be a screw type, and the reason is screw type cartridges can pop off the pen. You want something that has a bayonet.

Tight, and you’ll see this is a three prong bayonet. You want a bayonet type, which when you put it into the pen, it will click on nice and tight, and you don’t have to worry about the cartridge popping off. So another. Important feature of buying a professional pen should be some sort of anti backflow technology.

So let’s break this down. What does that mean, anti backflow technology? The prongs when they go into the pen should. Fit into sorry, my camera’s reversed, so you can actually see right inside there. There are three little holes inside the pen and there are three. Places where the pen connects and then there are three hall.

Let me do it this way. Let’s see, trying to get the right light. You can see, almost see there’s three holes here on the cartridge itself. So these three prongs go into the hu inside the pen, and they fit like this, and then you push it on. And once it’s connected, it stays connected. Also, the needles should be protected with a tip so that when you open the package up, if you put the cartridge down, the needles aren’t exposed.

But don’t forget to take the tip off before you do your microneedling. Then as you adjust the pen, you can see the needles will come out over the top, just like that. You see that? So that’s adjusted. Right now I am all the way up at 2.5, but you would never, so that’s how deep those needles would be going into the skin.

Perhaps you could use that on acne scar on the back or the chest, or stretch marks on a leg, but you would never have the needles out that far for working on the face. So we’ve talked about some of the actual safety fit features of a pen. So lightweight, easy to read display, easy to read, and easily adjustable numbers, the cartridge, pre sterilized, and individual packets.

And good connection, no backflow, so that when you’re microneedling any serums that are on the face you really shouldn’t have any body fluids coming out. But any serums that are on the face do not go back into the pen itself. And lastly your device should have, should come with a couple of rechargeable batteries.

And that way if you are in the middle of microneedling and your battery dies, you have a backup. And just as an extra backup, should you have a really busy day and you. Forget to charge your batteries or you just completely use up the batteries, both of them having a cord that you can plug in. Sorry, mine is in a case.

Having a nice long cord that you can plug in. To the same sort of instead of a battery, this would be something that shows you the speed and controls the pen just like the battery does, except this plugs into the wall. Having a nice long cord so that if your treatment table is not anywhere near a, an outlet, you have plenty room to work with.

So last but not least, having good instruction manual, something that is also easy to read, very important having. Nice pretty pictures and what each one of the parts does and all the contraindications and precautions. And this will ensure that you don’t that you actually know what you’re doing or what each one of the parts or four.

So I just wanted to give you that. Quick overview on safety and kind of what to look for when you’re purchasing a microneedle device. There are a lot of knockoff products and multifunctional devices that maybe or not. Designed just to do microneedling, and I would caution you that these devices probably are not very good.

If you try to do too much in one tool, you’re not really going to be very good at any one thing. So if your pen has red light or if your pen does microcurrent. It’s not going to be as good as a dedicated red light device or a dedicated microcurrent device, or as a dedicated microneedle pen. Wanna thank you again and.

I look forward to speaking to you next time. We will be. I also will be talking a little bit about marketing and so stay tuned for that. Thank you so much.

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Treating The Face, Healing the Whole Part 2 – Michelle Gellis

So there are quite a few neuromuscular conditions that affect the face, such as Bell’s Palsy, Ramsey Hunt Syndrome, synchronic cys, stroke, TMJ, trigeminal Neuralgia,…

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Hi, my name’s Michelle Gellis. I am an acupuncture physician, and I would like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity for me to present to you today on treating the face a multidimensional approach. So today we’re going to do part two. And you can go ahead and go.

So a little bit about me. I’m currently on the doctoral faculty at Jossane University. Before that, I was a faculty member and clinic supervisor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health from 2003 until 2021. I am a published author and contributor to the Journal of Chinese Medicine and I’m a regular columnist for acupuncture today.

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And I’ve been treated teaching facial acupuncture classes internationally since 2005. My book Treating the Face was released in November of 2024. It is a 500 page 15 chapter, hard cover book, and it covers all aspects of treating the face. I’m going to talk mostly about the information that’s in chapter six, and that is neuromuscular facial conditions.

So when we think about facial acupuncture, we tend to think about cosmetic facial acupuncture. But facial acupuncture is really about a holistic approach to not just treating the face. Cosmetically, but also all different aspects of treating the face. So there are quite a few neuromuscular conditions that affect the face, such as Bell’s Palsy, Ramsey Hunt Syndrome, synchronic cys, stroke, TMJ, trigeminal Neuralgia, Ms.

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Whoops. Ms. Ptosis, HEFA spasm, myasthenia gravis, shingles, and facial ticks, just to name a few. And many of these are very unique to the face itself. And. Since I specialize in treating the face, after a few years of doing cosmetic acupuncture, I started getting people calling me, asking me if I could help them with a lot of these neuro conditions.

And through studying and doing a lot of research. I and some trial and error. I learned that the best way to really manage these conditions is through a multifaceted approach using scalp, acupuncture, submuscular needling, facial motor points, facial cupping. And so I’m gonna touch on these, the.

And so Scalp acupuncture is based on neuroanatomy. It is not based on acupuncture points. And you have to measure the scalp appropriately. And there’s a motor area and there’s a sensory area, and the bottom two fifths of each one of these lines, the sensory area is not shown on this picture. The. The bottom two fifths corresponds to the face, and so you would needle this area and stimulate it either with electro acupuncture or with manual stimulation in order to help with either motor conditions such as Bell’s palsy or with sensory conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia.

Facial motor points. This is from an old medical textbook. These are the motor points that have been discovered on the face, head and neck. And in part one of this talk I talked about using motor points for cosmetic concerns, but facial motor points are wonderful for neuromuscular concerns because what a motor point is the most electrically acceptable part.

The muscle where the motor neuron goes into the muscle, and by stimulating it, you can cause the muscle to get back into normal functioning. And the reason why this is important for the face, besides the functioning of opening the lid or closing the lid, the. Skin on the face is directly attached to the muscle.

So if someone’s face is paralyzed and is drooping in one area by getting the muscle back into normal functioning, by stimulating the motor point, the skin itself will. Snap back and be working in a more normal fashion with the muscle. So I do have examples of a couple of motor points. This was a student of mine in class and she had.

Had Bell’s Palsy many years ago and was still having trouble cursing her lips, whistling spitting like when she’d brush her teeth. And so I did the Mentalis Motorpoint and as soon as I put the needle in. Her chin started to twitch and then when I stimulated the point, it really started to jump.

And then after the treatment, she reported that she was able to make a lot of facial expressions that she hadn’t been able to make in the past.

Next example I have is a student in a class I was teaching in London and he had been in a bike accident and he had some neuropathy and a little ptosis on his left eyebrows and. I put this needle and stimulated it. So this is the motor point for the frontals. It’s gallbladder 14.

Sorry, that was so loud. But you could see the needle moving back and forth when, once it was put in the muscle, which meant it was starting to wake up. Submuscular needling is another technique that I use, which involves needling underneath and in some instances through a muscle in order to.

Blood and cheese circulation into the muscle itself. And I have a little demo here, which I.

Facial cupping and GU can also be very beneficial. For neuromuscular facial conditions, as long as your patient can tolerate it. These techniques are very gentle if done properly, and can help with blood and cheese circulation into the face. It can help with any sort of fascial adhesions. That is because over time.

If a muscle in the face isn’t used, the fascia can become stiff, and by using the cups it can help with lymphatic, the lymphatic system of the face, and it’s also very relaxing and very enjoyable for your patients. I am gonna talk really quickly about Bell’s Palsy. Bell’s Palsy is the most common cause of facial paralysis, usually temporary, and it’s caused by a disruption of the facial nerve, which causes either weakened or paralyzed facial muscles.

So here’s one patient you can see. This entire when asked to smile, they can only, she can only smile on one side of her face and the other side is completely paralyzed. This was a patient of mine. I only focused on her eyes, but I asked her to close her eyes. You can see one eye closed and the other one.

She could not close it at all. And then I did some submuscular needling and some acupuncture points and used gallbladder 14 as a motor point, did some scalp acupuncture for the face, and, after one month,

you can see she can close her eyes. Still a little difficult, but she had complete recovery.

So I do offer many different classes on. Facial and cosmetic acupuncture, you might wanna check those out. You can scan the QR code or go to my website, facial acupuncture classes.com and you can find me on social under my name, Michelle Gellis, or I have a Facebook group called Facial Acupuncture.

Very active group. Thank you so much.