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Timeless Skin

Can you believe that this man in the picture is already 70 years old?

dr-des-fernandes.jpgPain and pleasure, like light and darkness, succeed each other. His vigorous and buoyant skin opposes his age, and that could be because 69-year-old South African plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Desmond Fernandes has done more than 50 skin needling procedures on himself.

"Scientists are promising us that we are going to live longer but who wants to live longer if it only means that we are going to look and feel old for longer. We have to do something to lengthen our youthful years and shorten our senile period.", says leading cosmetic surgeon, Dr Des Fernandes.

"Skin needling is very controversial because it sounds wrong," said Dr Fernandes at an interview in Kuala Lumpur recently.

According to Dr. Desmond Fernandes, starting at a very early age and learning to maintain and nurture one of the greatest assets every person has, makes perfect scientific sense. Choosing the correct skin care routine for your age is crucial to maintaining beautiful skin throughout your life and well into your mature years.

"What we've discovered is that when you prick your skin, it doesn't leave a scar," said the Cape Town-based surgeon.

Dr Fernandes began testing the method in 1994 to treat lip lines. It took him another four years to unfold skin needling into what is being exercised now.

"If you don't bleed, you won't get the results and that is the part that most people aren't willing to do!" said Dr Fernandes, who published “Minimally invasive percutaneous collagen induction” in the 2006 edition of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgical Clinics of North America.

This system of skin needling was first outlined during the 50s by the founder of mesotherapy, Dr Michel Pistor, who disregarded the method himself but came up with the idea that perforating skin would develop collagen formation.

Skin needling assists in repairing lip lines, lines on lower eyelids and pigmentation marks, lightening, and in some instances, even detaching traces of scars from shallow to deep cuts, uncompromising acne scars, stretch marks and chicken pox. Before needling, topical anaesthetic is applied to numb the skin, which must be pricked down to the dermis layer where the nerves and blood vessels are found.

Typically, when the blood vessel is pricked, it causes bleeding and this releases the platelet cells inside the blood that carry a mechanism to clot up blood vessels. At the same time, it carries out a lot of growth factors.

"When you injure skin tissue, the platelets release growth factors for the skin to heal. It promotes more collagen and elastin. We found that Transforming growth factor beta-3 molecule helps tissue to regenerate instead of scar. When you needle skin, there is a surge of TGFB3. Normally, if we cut the skin, the TGFB3 lasts 24 hours, but when you needle skin there is a surge for two weeks." he said.

 Witnessing the results of skin needling and how it can aid with scars, Dr Fernandes strongly affirms that this method should be made accessible. However, he stressed that needling alone will not provide the optimal results unless it is supported with both vitamin A, part of the reconstruction of the skin, and vitamin C which helps to make normal collagen.

"I'm a big opponent of dermabrasion skin, and does not support a deep exfoliation of the skin due to the potential for serious side effects. I believe that we should do everything to keep the epidermis and dermis in the best condition. This is our protection against the outside world, and in fact the stratum corneum is a natural protective barrier. So why destroy it dermabrasion, peeling, or laser therapy?

I believe that it is possible to repair the skin from the surface of the epidermis and dermis to stimulate cells (fibroblasts) to force them in this way to a better job. This can be achieved by the physiology of the cell. We just have to deliver active molecules to incorporate the action deep in the skin.

I believe that each of us must supply the skin in optimal dose of vitamin A. All of us are exposed to some degree of impairment of vitamin A in the skin through exposure to our part of the body to the sun. As we age, the need for vitamin A increases, as it is essential for the normal functioning of cells. Adequate vitamin A will always be part of the reconstruction of the skin. " he explained, adding that he was horrified that people are so easily embracing laser skin treatments.

Skin needling is absolutely a far cry from laser treatment as the aftereffects aim to last much longer and skin genuinely becomes wholesome. Skin needling is one of the safest procedures that you can do to your skin. While you can't do multiple laser skin treatments to smoothen the skin, you can do several sessions of needling and it makes the skin thicker.

 

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