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Advice for RF Microneedling

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(@merigold)

Posted : 11/03/2019 3:57 pm

TLDR: Should I be worried about 3mm depth of microneedling performed by a new practitioner for fat loss in my face?

Hello all,

I am 37. I have mostly rolling scars with some box car that are ten years old. Before I properly educated myself, I wasted money on 3 fraxel treatments at a medspa that did nothing for my scars. The nurse promised great results and I was dazzled by hope. I did these treatments over the course of 2 year (fraxel was SO painful and ineffective).

Over the last six months, I have visited a facial plastic surgeon who has expert injector status (but I think little experience in scar treatment) who is listed as one of the best facial plastic surgeons in the US. She is regularly featured  in New Beauty. However, I've read the how to find a good doctor post on here, and she nor her staff has not felt my skin in any of the ways described (angled light, pulling the skin, etc.)

Her RN has done a series of 3 microneedling with PRP with subcision (filling the scar area with PRP) ~ one month apart this spring. My texture improved , some improvement to my scars. I have since seen Dr. Lim's subcision tutorial video and I do not believe that the nurse was trained as well as she could be in subcision techniques. I don't think she did the 'washer' movement, instead just a jabbing movement into the scar area. In any case, I have to hope this still helped to break up the tethering. 

The office recently purchased Secret RF machine (microneedling with rf). They gave me a free treatment (as part of their office training), where the setting were lower.  This occurred ~ 3 months post my last PRP miconeedling +subcision. My skin responded well. The scared seemed to lessen somewhat, but I was especially pleased with the skin tightening and brightening effect. 

I purchased another treatment (treatment one month later). This time the RN had the settings at 3mm 50% energy intensity for my scarred areas. This was 5 days ago.  My scar area seems improved already -- I think most of the post swelling is gone and I am hopeful that it will continue to improve. I truly feel that the RN is advocating for me from the best of her personal knowledge.

However, should I be worried about fat loss? Is 3mm too deep in the hand of for an inexperienced practitioner?  If so, when does fat loss begin to show?

If my skin responds well, when should I get another treatment? I've seen talk on here that I should wait 3 months for the next treatment, not 4 -6 weeks later. Should I also advocate that we do not go as deep? Any and all thoughts are appreciated.

I've included photos, not of the greatest quality. The first one is post 3 fraxel treatments. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos pre fraxel -- but trust me, it did not help. 

The 2nd photo is only 3 days post the 2nd rf microneedling treatment, so there may still be some swelling, but I think see improvement. What do you think? I will post more photos as the days go by.

 

 

Year_post_fraxel_pre_microneedling .JPG

Post_2_microneedling_rf.jpg

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(@Anonymous)

Posted : 11/06/2019 11:43 am

Hi,

your skin looks definitely better on the 2nd photo! Do you think RF microneedling was more effective than just microneedling alone? As to your question, yeah, maybe 3mm could have fat loss complications. From what I've read2.5mm seems tobethe safe depth to go to. But there are other factors too. Is your skin rather thick or thin?

I am looking into new treatment modalities right now and have been reading on RF microneedling. What was your impression of it?

oh, and yes I have had microneedling with3 months between sessions. Dr. Chu says that in the first 4-6 weeks post procedure the skin is still remodelling so it makes sense to have the next procedure after 3 months.

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