Min's Beauty Equipment: May 2013

Friday 17 May 2013

LED Light Beauty Therapy for Face and Body

LIGHT THERAPY BENEFITS


Light-emmiting diode (LED) light can help in dealing with a variety of skin problems starting with slowing down the signs of ageing, such as smoothing out fines lines and wrinkles, and finishing with the reduction of acne and eczema symptoms.

Blue LED light therapy
Blue LED light therapy
Here is a more extensive list of the potential improvements in your skin:

  • Reduction in roughness and fine lines
  • Softening of skin texture, large pores
  • Acceleration of wound and bruise healing, mitigating burns and acute sunburn effects
  • Massive improvements for atopic eczema
  • Improvement in erythema (redness of the skin caused by increased blood flow to capillaries) and pigmentation
  • Reduction of inflammation.  Particularly effective after having thermal non ablative skin treatments such as intense pulsed light (IPL), pulsed dye laser (PDL) and others.
  • Reduction in acne

THE PROCEDURE


  • Face gets cleaned
  • Light positioned close to the skin and the person sits for a certain number of minutes until the treatment is over.
  • Goggles need to be worn to protect eyes from illumination.
  • Moisture and sebum (oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands) levels may decrease, therefore, it may be helpful to apply moisturizer after each treatment.
  • A series of treatments (often eight) is required, usually delivered over the course of a few weeks.

IS LED LIGHT THERAPY SAFE?


Most of other non-surgical rejuvenation techniques involve thermal injury to the deeper layers of the skin.  Healing of those wounds cause skin tightening, thus, resulting in more beautiful skin with less fine lines and wrinkles.

LED does not cause thermal injury.  It activates energy switching in mitochondria, which is the energy source for cellular activity.  Mitochondria absorbs the light of certain wavelengths with certain pulsing sequence.  This absorption of light enhances cell's functions.  It enhances cell growth and repair of compromised cells.

It is important to select an appropriate wavelength as different wavelengths cause different reactions in cells.  Various wavelengths are associated with different lights of the colour spectrum.  The most popular LED lights are red, yellow and blue or a combination of those.  Red is associated with longer wavelengths, blue with shorter and yellow is somewhere in-between.

The lights are often used in combination with other treatments to achieve an enhanced effect in treating ageing skin, but can be used as a primary treatment.  It is considered to be very safe with hardly any side effects.

YELLOW LIGHT BENEFITS


  • Softening of skin around eyes (crow's feet)
  • Softening of skin texture, reduction in roughness and fine lines reported by 90% of people after the treatment.
  • People after skin rejuvenation with laser or other light source experience reduction of post-treatment erythema.
  • Burns and acute sunburns heal a lot faster.  There is a lot less redness, peeling, swelling and burning sensation after LED treatment.
  • People report disappearance of eczema and increased speed of any type of wound healing.

BLUE LIGHT BENEFITS


LED light therapy device
LED light therapy device
  • Blue LED light is proven to be particularly effective for acne treatment.  It is a lot more effective on the inflammatory acne, but also has some effect on non-inflammatory acne.
  • Red and blue lights combined together usually give better results, possibly due to synergistic effect between anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial effect. 
  • Around 75% of people rate the treatment as good or very good.
  • Photodynamic Photorejuvenation (PDT) is a treatment technique which normally uses blue LED lights together with aminolevulinic acid to reduce acne spots.  It is claimed that using LED lights on their own often produces effective enough results so that PDT does not offer significant advantage when the adverse effects of the treatment are taken into account.

RED LIGHT BENEFITS


  • Improves softness, smoothness and firmness of the skin.
  • Microscopic analysis show thicker collagen fibers (reduction in the quantity and quality of collagen is one of the main signs of ageing).
  • Most of the people report positive results.

SIDE EFFECTS


  • Usually none
  • Erythema and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation may be experienced in the treatment of acne of dark-skinned individuals 


(This article is for information purposes only and not intended to be used as an instructions manual.  For every device, manufacturer’s instructions and/or practitioner's advise needs to be followed.

Photographs are courtesy of AZ Skin Aesthetics)

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Ultrasound Therapy Device Uses in Beauty


Usually when we talk about ultrasound we think about expectant ladies. However, here we will talk about ultrasonic devices used in beauty industry.


What is an ultrasound therapy?

There are three main uses of ultrasound in beauty sector:


  • Skin tightening and lifting (Ultherapy). The device causes tiny injuries to the deeper layers of the skin, thus, encouraging collagen and elastin regeneration, which causes skin lifting.
  • Ultrasonic devices that are used to massage and heat skin, thus, resulting in increased metabolic activities, cell regeneration, skin's permeability and, thus, potential improvement in wrinkles, skin cleanness and tightness.
  • Ultrasonic cavitation is used to reduce fat. If you are fairly fit, but have some lumps of fat that cannot be shifted through normal exercise, then ultrasonic cavitation may be a good method to get rid of the undesirable fat. It's a non-invasive method which requires no downtime. It's an alternative to surgical liposuction.

How does Ultherapy work?


Ultherapy works by having a thermal effect on the skin. High frequency ultrasound creates wounds in the deeper layer of the skin. The healing process causes tightening of the skin, production of collagen and elastin, thus results in skin rejuvenation.

Wound healing is a slow process that can take weeks or months, therefore, results usually most visible 3-9 months after the treatment.


How is Ultherapy performed?


Here are the step and results of the treatment:
  • Anesthetic may be used, however, it is optional.
  • The treated area must be divided into linear zones to avoid overlapping.
  • Ultrasound gel is applied to the skin.
  • The probe placed on the skin and firing initiated in a linear way. Then the probe gets repositioned parallel to the previous treatment line. The process repeated until all the treatment area is covered.
  • After the procedure the gel is wiped off and a moisturizer may be applied.
  • The probe needs to be pressed into the skin, otherwise, the injury may occur on a more superficial layer of the skin than it is intended.
  • During the treatment mild discomfort may be experienced.
  • After the treatment the skin may feel raw, tender, red and swollen. It takes a day or a few for the symptoms to disappear.  
  • Approximately 75% of the treated people are happy or very happy with the result, 25% see little or no change in their skin. 


Which frequency ultrasonic devices should be used?


You need to follow a manufacturer's advice, however
  • the above mentioned results were achieved using 7.5 MHz, 4.5 mm or 3mm probe for the neck skin which is the thinnest, 7.5 MHz, 4.5 mm probe for the forehead and temple skin and 4 MHz, 4.5 mm probe for the cheek skin which is the thickest;  
  • the higher the frequency the more superficial effect on the skin. Rarely using superficial probe can cause striations;
  • using two ultrasound beams one of low frequency and the other of high frequency, the best skin permeability can be achieved.

Ultrasonic cavitation for body contouring or liposuction


  • The second use of ultrasound in beauty is for non-surgical liposuction. This technology is completely different from the one described above. There is no thermal effect on the skin. Ultrasound damages the skin’s fat due to mechanical cavitation. All other surrounding structures remain intact.
  • The damaged cells are removed through the liver and the usual metabolic pathways. 
  • Fat reduction by ultrasound should not be used for weight loss. The ideal candidate is someone who is not overweight, but has localized fat deposits that cannot be eliminated by good diet and exercise.
  • The body gets rid of the damaged fat cells over a period of 2-3 weeks. After 3-4 weeks the treatment may be repeated.
  • Pain during the procedure is usually mild. 

(This article is for information purposes only and not intended to be used as an instructions manual.  For every device, manufacturer’s instructions and/or practitioner's advise needs to be followed.)


Here is a YouTube video for those who prefer watching to reading: