Are Fillers Right for You?
Injectable cosmetic treatments are the medical aesthetics success story of the 21st Century. In 2022, over 15 million Americans requested some form of injectable procedure to improve their appearance.
How Can I Get More Collagen?
About 30% of the protein in your body takes the form of collagen. It’s the most abundant protein you have, a fundamental building block for skin and connective tissues throughout your body. You produce collagen throughout your life, but the rate slows as you age.
As a medical aesthetics specialty practice, the team at Bayview General Medicine can help you regain collagen in the middle layer of your skin, called the dermis. Renewing collagen levels in your skin provides a youthful revitalization of your appearance.
We offer a range of treatments with the potential for collagen renewal, regardless of your age. Dr. Richard Blanchar is proud to offer Potenza™ radiofrequency microneedling and the Elite iQ™ laser system for his patients seeking the benefits of a collagen boost.
The collagen cycle
Type I collagen comprises about 90% of the collagen volume in your body, and it’s a component of your skin. Type IV is also present in skin layers.
The structure of your skin builds upon a matrix of collagen tissue. As you get older, you start to lose collagen volume, so your skin begins to suffer. Lines and wrinkles appear while the skin becomes drier and less elastic.
Though your body retains the ability to make more collagen, it won’t automatically replace that lost in skin tissue. It needs a signal to jump-start new collagen production.
Collagen induction
Your body will automatically start to generate new collagen tissue when you suffer a cut, scrape, or other injury to the skin. This principle has been part of medical aesthetics for decades, and there are plenty of methods to introduce controlled damage to the skin to start a smooth and orderly boost to the skin’s collagen matrix.
In fact, microneedling is often called “collagen induction therapy.” The tiny needles on a microneedling roller place small punctures in your skin’s outer layer. It creates minimal damage to your skin, but it’s enough to trigger new collagen growth.
The dermis is also susceptible to heat. Raising the temperature of collagen tissue just a few degrees above normal body temperature pushes it into the coagulation zone. Again, your body senses the tissue damage even though there’s little or no change to your skin.
Potenza RF
A variation on microneedling, the first of its kind, is Potenza RF microneedling. Potenza RF combines conventional microneedling with the warming abilities of radiofrequency (RF) energy (similar to that used in microwaves) to boost collagen response as much as three times more than conventional microneedling.
RF energy penetrates more deeply than the microneedles, stimulating the regeneration of collagen and elastin tissue in the dermis, providing tighter, well-nourished skin that shaves years off your appearance.
Elite iQ
Using tissue heating to its best advantage, Elite iQ uses laser light energy to selectively warm dermis tissue without affecting your surface skin. There’s even less downtime, often none at all, when compared with microneedling treatments. Elite iQ is all about the warming power of laser light to bring back more collagen.
Consult with Dr. Blanchar and his team to determine the best treatment to meet your aesthetic goals. Request an appointment online or call the office to arrange your visit to Bayview General Medicine today.
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