When it comes to remembering major events of your life, you enjoy looking at pictures, letters, and other memorabilia. But no one wants a record of a life change marked on their skin in the form of an unsightly stretch mark.
Unfortunately, pregnancy, breast development, gaining weight rapidly, and even building muscles can spoil your skin with stretch marks. These marks used to be permanent. But if you’re tired of covering them up, an innovative new therapy can help: microneedling.
Board-certified internal medicine physician and skin specialist, Rawan Abu-Zeitoon, MD, and the team at Chrysolite Aesthetics in Houston, Texas, use this minimally invasive treatment to minimize the appearance of stretch marks and give you tighter, smoother, firmer skin.
If you’re ready to banish stretch marks, keep reading to learn how microneedling can help!
Stretch marks are a type of scar. They develop when your skin stretches rapidly. For example, during pregnancy, periods of rapid weight gain, or if you build muscles in a short period, the middle layers of your skin must tear to allow the rest of your skin to stretch and accommodate the new size of your body.
While women experience stretch marks more frequently than men, both genders can develop these unsightly skin scars. And although people often think stretch marks only affect the belly or abdomen, you can get them in many places, including your:
It’s helpful to know that stretch marks can look different on different people depending on your skin tone, pigmentation, and how long you’ve had the stretch marks. For example, they may look maroon, purple, or pink when they first form, but stretch marks often fade to a silvery blue or white with time.
Microneedling is a treatment that uses extremely tiny needles to create tiny areas of trauma on your skin. While the needle pricks are too small to cause bleeding or pain, the micro-wounds they cause send a signal to your body that your skin needs repair.
As the signal is received, your body’s natural healing processes kick in, stimulating your body’s natural collagen and elastin production, rebuilding your skin from the inside out. These proteins and other growth factors promote new cell turnover, giving you firmer, smoother skin — with less visible scarring.
Dr. Abu-Zeitoon and our team uses the revolutionary SkinPen®, the only FDA-cleared microneedling treatment, to revitalize your skin and target your stretch marks safely and effectively.
Since microneedling works to erase stretch marks by targeting the problematic cells below the surface of your skin, it takes time for results to become noticeable. After your treatment, you can expect to see an improvement in a few weeks as new skin grows.
For the best results possible, Dr. Abu-Zeitoon generally recommends having a series of microneedling sessions. While we always create a personalized treatment plan based on your unique needs, generally speaking, our patients with the most optimal skin results have 4-6 sessions spaced four to six weeks apart.
Final results usually take 6-12 months to appear after your final treatment session. To enhance your results, Dr. Abu-Zeitoon may suggest combining microneedling with platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy or radiofrequency (RF) energy therapy to stimulate deeper tissues and boost collagen production even more.
To discuss microneedling for stretch marks, schedule a consultation online or over the phone with a provider at Chrysolite Aesthetics in Houston.
