Many physi­cians and aes­theti­cians have been us­ing a va­ri­ety of fa­cial resur­fac­ing tech­niques to im­prove the ap­pear­ance of the skin. Many women are reach­ing out with con­cerns of their skin qual­i­ty, age spots, fine lines, and scar­ring which in fact, can be ad­dressed by resur­fac­ing the skin at var­i­ous depths and pro­mot­ing skin heal­ing. Mi­cro­der­mabra­sion is one of those treat­ments that is now be­ing com­mon­ly sought af­ter.

It is a non-in­va­sive treat­ment that us­es crys­tals or an abra­sive in­stru­ment to gen­tly sand the skin, re­mov­ing the thick­er, un­even out­er lay­er. Think of it al­most like a treat for your skin to help ob­tain a fresh, young-look­ing glow as this treat­ment nat­u­ral­ly speeds up skin’s cy­cle.

Most women, when they hear the term “mi­cro­der­mabra­sion” for the first time, au­to­mat­i­cal­ly think “der­mabra­sion” and as­sume this is a harsh, painful pro­ce­dure that prob­a­bly in­volves the scrap­ing of the skin. Right? Ac­tu­al­ly, as painful as it may sound, it is quite the op­po­site and has the abil­i­ty to give your skin a more youth­ful ap­pear­ance. This ef­fec­tive treat­ment of­fers both short and long-term re­sults for which many yearn. There’s a lot that can be said on the mi­cro­der­mabra­sion pro­ce­dure and to help us un­der­stand as much as we can, we con­nect­ed with board-cer­ti­fied der­ma­tol­o­gist Dr Nao­mi Dol­ly of Re­touched by ND, a Der­ma­tol­ogy clin­ic.

NATALIE MILES

Here are some im­por­tant facts, ac­cord­ing to Dr Dol­ly, on mi­cro­der­mabra­sion that you should con­sid­er be­fore book­ing a ses­sion to get the pro­ce­dure done.

What are the ben­e­fits of mi­cro­der­mabra­sion?

Mi­cro­der­mabra­sion has var­i­ous ben­e­fits for the skin. It can im­prove age spots, black­heads and hy­per­pig­men­ta­tion. It is known for its abil­i­ty to ex­fo­li­ate the skin that re­sults in a re­freshed ap­pear­ance. It is al­so per­fect if you want to lessen the ap­pear­ance of stretch marks, re­duce fine lines and wrin­kles or elim­i­nate en­larged pores.

How does the treat­ment work?

The treat­ment first starts with the cleans­ing of the face, so that it is free of all su­per­fi­cial oils and de­bris. Eye shields and head­bands are then placed on­to the pa­tient to pro­tect them from any loose crys­tals. The tip is then cho­sen for the pa­tient, where it may be free flow­ing crys­tals or a di­a­mond tip. The first op­tion works in two parts where high­ly pres­sur­ized crys­tals are fired against skin to ex­fo­li­ate it while a vac­u­um sucks away the dead skin cells, im­pu­ri­ties and de­bris. The sec­ond op­tion is a di­a­mond tip that is sim­ply drawn across the skin to ex­fo­li­ate it. This tip is sol­id with no crys­tals. Once the ap­pro­pri­ate tip is de­cid­ed on, it is glid­ed mul­ti­ple times over sec­tioned off por­tions of the face, so that no area is left out. Once com­plet­ed a mask is ap­plied to help cool the area and add ex­tra mois­ture. You are then able to walk out of the pro­ce­dure and con­tin­ue all your dai­ly tasks look­ing re­ju­ve­nat­ed.

Who is el­i­gi­ble Mi­cro­der­mabra­sion and who isn’t?

Mi­cro­der­mabra­sion is suit­able for all skin types, colours, and gen­ders, and will not cause scar­ring or colour changes. Any­one is able to re­ceive one for sim­ple main­te­nance of their beau­ti­ful skin. We would on­ly ad­vise peo­ple who have had ex­tend­ed sun ex­po­sure to wait about two to four weeks be­fore get­ting such a pro­ce­dure done, as their skin is like­ly to be sen­si­tive.

How of­ten do you need mi­cro­der­mabra­sion?

Once you’ve de­cid­ed to try mi­cro­der­mabra­sion, it is rec­om­mend­ed that you get this pro­ce­dure done every two to four weeks un­til you see best re­sults.

What is the af­ter­care like?

The af­ter­care is min­i­mal, you would have to en­sure that your skin stays hy­drat­ed and that you use on­ly gen­tle skin care prod­ucts. You will have to avoid us­ing top­i­cal ac­ne med­ica­tions for a few days af­ter treat­ment. It’s ex­treme­ly im­por­tant to pro­tect your skin with sun­screen, and stay away from di­rect sun ex­po­sure as your skin can be more sen­si­tive to the sun in the few weeks af­ter the treat­ment.

What are the lim­i­ta­tions of Mi­cro­der­mabra­sion?

Mi­cro­der­mabra­sion has its lim­i­ta­tions as it is de­signed for mi­nor im­per­fec­tions and gen­er­al im­prove­ment.

It will not be able to treat se­vere cys­tic ac­ne on its own, and it can cause more ir­ri­ta­tion on in­flamed ac­ne.

It won’t im­prove ac­ne scars, as these are much deep­er than the sur­face of the skin.

It won’t flat­ten hy­per­trophic or ac­ne scars, it can make them worse.

It can­not be used on its own for an an­ti-age­ing treat­ment as it will not elim­i­nate lines and wrin­kles or tight­en the skin.