The Axoloti salamander is famous for its ability to regrow it’s own arms, legs, tail, brain and heart! But it’s not alone in this amazing regenerative capacity. Many members of the animal kingdom have a surprising capacity to restore injured or damaged tissues – including humans!
The practice of regenerative medicine has been exploding in recent years as advances in research and technology lead to new procedures and treatments. Aesthetic medicine is fast embracing these discoveries.
Whether an individual has injury (eg. acne scars) or damage (UV damage, wrinkles and sagging) or just wants to maintain healthy skin regenerative medicine products and procedures are increasingly popular for patients seeking natural and long lasting results from treatment.
The primary goals in aesthetic regenerative medicine are:
- Replace lost and damaged collagen (to thicken skin)
- Replace lost and damaged fibrin (to firm skin)
- Increase elastin (to improve elasticity and skin snap back)
- Reduce redness
- Improve surface irregularities (wrinkles, pores, lesions, scars)
- Reduce hyperpigmentation
- Restore optimal physiological function of the skin and skin barrier
Regenerative procedures harness the power of the human body to repair and restore itself to optimal function. Post treatment results can be dramatic while also being entirely natural and long lasting.
What types of regenerative medicine treatment options are available?
- Controlled Injury – these are procedures where a controlled injury stimulates skin repair/restoration by use of lasers, heat, light, mechanical or chemical injury
- Microneedling (mechanical) – thousands of small puncture wounds lead to improved skin texture and tone while boosting collagen/elastin and fibrin
- Laser – resurfacing by destroying damaged tissue and having the injured area replaced with new and healthy skin
- Light – IPL targets overgrowth of vessels/pigment deposits and stimulates the body to cauterize the vessels and clear the pigment while boosting collagen production
- Ultrasound and radiofrequency energy – heat based injury that stimulates collagen/elastin and fibrin production to tighten and thicken the skin
- Chemical – acids in combination with pharmaceuticals cause skin sloughing/peeling resulting in skin renewal
- Injectable biostimulatory treatments
- Calcium suspended in a gel matrix is injected into the skin; this matrix acts as a scaffold onto which the body builds new collagen, elastin and fibrin
- Platelet rich plasma/fibrin – a patient’s own blood serum is condensed to yield high concentration of platelets then injected into the scalp, skin or applied post treatment; growth factors in the platelets stimulate new collagen/elastin/fibrin production
- Topical agents
- Peptides – amino acid chains that act as building blocks and signals to stimulate skin regenerative processes
- Retinols – Vitamin A acids proven to rejuvenate skin through multiple pathways
- Antioxidants – aging prevention; increased collagen production; increase fibrin health; clear pigment
- Exosomes – growth factors derived from donor stem cell lines; applied topically to boost regenerative processes and speed healing after treatment
Harness your superhero power through regenerative medical procedures and at home topical treatments.
Visit a trusted and experienced medical aesthetics clinic for a consultation to determine which options suit your goals, budget and lifestyle.
ArtMed in Guelph offers a variety of skincare solutions. Contact them online to learn more.
This article was sponsored by ArtMed, a 2024 GuelphToday Reader Favourite.