Bentley Skincare & Wellness & Wellness in Springfield, MO, aims to provide you with the best skincare options available. Thanks to modern technology, we can rejuvenate your skin in no time at all. One of our most popular treatment options is the use of platelet-rich plasma or PRP. This remarkable material is not only the safest way to treat your skin, but also one of the most effective.
Just how can platelet-rich plasma help you? By acting on your skin cells in a number of ways, you will see incredible improvement on the surface and below it too. Let’s see how it works.
How PRP Treatment Can Revitalize Your Skin
Improve the Cellular Structure of Your Skin
Skin is made up of cells just like any other part of your body. However, skin cells need to have specific conditions to perform at their best and look their finest. Your skin has a very different composition from other types of cells in your body, so providing skin with the resources it needs is crucial.
Platelet-rich plasma transforms your skin at the cellular level. It’s much more than a topical cream product that might only work on the outer layers of your skin. We use a microneedling application to deliver platelet-rich plasma to all skin layers and ensure the best effects from the treatment.
So how will your skin’s structure change as a result of PRP treatment acne? There are a few key ingredients that are added to your skin. Water, elastin, and collagen are the most important, but there are other effects we’ll consider as well.
Just Add Water
Everyone knows that humans are 70% water, but did you know that your cells’ ability to exchange water declines as you age? The cell membrane which lets material in and out of the cell can lose some of its ability to transfer material. This makes it hard for the cell to flush out waste and also causes it to dry up as it consumes water in the cell but doesn’t replace it.
What effect does that have on your skin? Picture a prune versus a fresh plum. When the water content of your cells declines, you get more wrinkles and sagging in your skin. Hydration is key to a bouncy, youthful appearance. Platelet-rich plasma restores the health of your cells and allows them to retain water again.
Reviews of platelet-rich plasma treatments have found that skin hydration was significantly improved after just one treatment. Even studies that were looking for other variables noticed this, so it’s clearly a significant benefit.
Elastin for Elasticity
Skin is unique among body tissues because it has the ability to stretch and still snap back into its shape. This is thanks to the protein elastin, which gives skin elasticity. But just like elastic fibers in clothing, it wears out over time and loses its ability to retain its shape.
When this happens to your skin, you’ll see lines and sagging, especially in areas where the skin regularly has to flex. Smile lines, your forehead, and the area around the eyes are the most common places where elastin deficiency is clearly visible. If you smoke or have had a lot of sun exposure, that can exacerbate the loss of elastin also.
One study looked at patients after receiving one platelet-rich plasma treatment and noticed that the patients’ skin was thicker and had better elasticity. They even took samples and looked under a microscope to see the results. A second study focused more on the aesthetic changes, with lots of before and after photos to prove how effective the treatment was.
Collagen for Firmness
Collagen is the skin protein you’re probably most familiar with. There are hundreds of collagen products out there, from supplements to skincare products that promise to increase the collagen in your skin. While you can certainly supplement collagen, that doesn’t guarantee that it will end up in your skin cells.
There are 16 types of collagen proteins and when you take supplements or use other products, your body uses that collagen in numerous locations. It’s helpful for building all kinds of tissues. But if you need it in your skin, the best way is to get your body to make it for you. This makes your skin firmer to the touch and helps to lift your skin overall.
Using platelet-rich plasma, we can stimulate the growth of natural collagen from within your skin cells. One study showed how receiving a single platelet-rich plasma treatment can boost collagen levels significantly. It worked on all the patients in the study too.
Removing Older Cells
Besides providing cells with the building blocks for healthy function, PRP treatment acne also improves your skin’s appearance by simply removing older, damaged cells. Some cells are beyond repair, but your body still sees them as functioning. Therefore, your body doesn’t remove them on its own.
Platelet-rich plasma tells the body’s healing system to go into overdrive. It marks damaged cells like a lumberjack marks trees in a forest. Your body then removes the bad cells and tells healthy ones to replace them. The end result is a lasting improvement in appearance.
Best of all, this process is entirely natural. Your body will start to do the work within 24 hours of your first treatment and will continue working for several months after. You’ll see results improve over time, even weeks after the treatment has passed.
The Results of PRP Skin Treatment
What results can you expect from a platelet-rich plasma treatment? Not only does your skin become firmer and more structurally sound, but it also becomes more uniform in tone. These two key changes lead to a much better appearance.
In addition, platelet-rich plasma treatment produces a lasting effect. Since you get healthy cells where damaged cells used to be, the benefits of your treatment can last for over a year. Patients who receive repeated treatments can see results that last even longer. You are literally de-aging when you use platelet-rich plasma.
Better Complexion and Color
You will see an improvement in your complexion after receiving platelet-rich plasma treatment. Skin cells do not all age at the same rate. A number of factors can influence how they are damaged. By restoring healthy cells, your skin gets a more uniform look.
That is what gives your skin that healthy glow. When light hits your skin, it actually diffuses and bounces off other cells. Increased hydration and better cell shape cause that diffusion to occur more evenly, giving your skin a warm glow.
One study even saw this work wonders on bags under the eyes. This discoloration can be very difficult to treat, but platelet-rich plasma can do it.
Fewer Lines and Wrinkles
The addition of collagen and elastin will smooth out wrinkles considerably. With elastin tightening the skin and collagen giving it thickness, your skin won’t collapse in on itself anymore. That’s the main cause of lines and wrinkles.
The added water content helps with this as well. Water gives the cells more internal pressure so they can support the weight of the cells above. This is especially important on your face because that skin is always being tugged downwards by gravity.
Without using fillers, you can achieve a natural facial rejuvenation using platelet-rich plasma. But what about treating specific trouble spots? PRP can handle those too.
Spot Treatments With Platelet-Rich Plasma
Reduce Scarring
Scar tissue can form from any injury to the skin. Laser scar removal is still the primary way to treat scar tissue, but adding platelet-rich plasma to the mix can certainly improve the results. If you have a troublesome scar that just won’t seem to go away, consider giving platelet-rich plasma a chance.
Platelet-rich plasma injections deliver growth factors to the area. These growth factors help your cells to divide and produce new healthy cells. Scar tissue forms when this process doesn’t go according to plan. So, by using a laser we can soften the scar tissue, and then the growth factors from the platelet-rich plasma will be able to fill it in with healthy cells.
This effect was studied at length by medical scientists in 2018. They reviewed dozens of trials of PRP for scar management and found that it had a significant benefit to the patients across several different trials.
Acne Treatment
Acne also commonly leaves scars that can be difficult to remove. Platelet-rich plasma treatments for this purpose have also proven to be highly effective.
But what about active acne cases? One study found that platelet-rich plasma helped to reduce the P. acnes bacteria that causes acne. By restoring collagen, it also strengthened the skin’s defenses against these bacteria.
Acne skincare products can also be effective, but they may be difficult for people with sensitive skin. They can cause irritation in those cases or make the skin itchy and uncomfortable. Platelet-rich plasma showed none of those side effects and instead was very well tolerated by patients in several studies.
Lesion Treatment
Skin lesions, especially skin ulcers, can be treated very easily using platelet-rich plasma. Ulcers have always been pesky problems that prove difficult to treat since even slight irritation can cause them to persist. The growth factors in platelet-rich plasma can help your body to heal these ulcers and remove skin lesions naturally.
One study examined how effective platelet-rich plasma treatment was compared to other methods and found that patients were 56% likely to heal using PRP, but only 31% with usual methods. The cost difference between the two was negligible, proving that platelet-rich plasma is a much better option.
Hair Restoration
Did you know that platelet-rich plasma can also reduce hair loss in both men and women? If you have alopecia or male-pattern baldness, it’s possible to slow down these symptoms using platelet-rich plasma treatment. Hair loss occurs when the cells in the hair follicle become damaged, producing a weak strand of hair.
As you can already guess, using platelet-rich plasma we can rejuvenate the hair follicle in the same way we’ve treated your skin cells. With microneedling, we can get the PRP directly to the follicles and stimulate the growth of new, healthy hairs. You’ll also preserve the existing healthy follicles and keep hair from falling out.
It’s clear that platelet-rich plasma offers a world of benefits to patients suffering from all kinds of skin conditions. Whether you have a chronic skin problem, a trouble spot, or just would like to make your skin look younger and healthier, there’s only one option.
Schedule a Consultation Today
If you would like to know more about platelet-rich plasma, how it works, and what you can expect from a typical treatment, call Bentley Skincare & Wellness & Wellness in Springfield, MO, today. Our office is open 6 days a week and we welcome walk-ins as well. Ask us about our special offers and free shipping on product orders too!