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As the practice of medical aesthetics advances, you have more options for rejuvenating your skin — and more choices that don’t require surgery. Learn how many of these choices work to bolster collagen, a protein your skin needs.
Some of the signs of aging can be chalked up to exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) light or lifestyle choices like smoking. To a large extent, though, the bulk of the unwelcome changes that come with aging — like wrinkles and volume loss — come down to one thing. As you age, you lose collagen. This protein plays a critical role in your skin. As your body makes less of it, you see the effects — literally.
Fortunately, at our offices on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in New York City, and in Madison, Connecticut, Norman J. Pastorek, MD, and Janice Pastorek, BSN, RN, offer skin-rejuvenation treatments specifically designed to stimulate new collagen production.
To help you understand your options and how they work, let’s take a closer look at collagen itself.
Why collagen matters
Your body has more collagen than any other protein. It plays a role in your connective tissue, bones, muscles, and — you guessed it — your skin.
In your skin, collagen delivers a support structure. It acts like scaffolding, helping your skin maintain its structure even as it flexes and creases. That’s why decreasing collagen levels lead to visible aging in the skin. With less of this support, you get volume loss and wrinkling, two of the biggest indicators of the passage of time.
Fortunately, even as your body stops making as much collagen on its own, you can choose treatments to stimulate the production of this protein. In fact, Dr. Pastorek offers several options designed to do specifically that.
Your nonsurgical skin-rejuvenation options
Dr. Pastorek recommends platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) as the foundation for many of our skin-rejuvenation treatments. This is a lot like platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which means that it uses platelets from your own blood.
When applied to your skin, the PRF delivers platelets, fibrin, leukocytes, and mesenchymal stem cells, all of which help to power your body’s regenerative processes. Specifically, the PRF can trigger the production of new collagen in your skin.
With PRF, we can address:
- Brown spots
- Dull skin
- Enlarged pores
- Fine lines
- Scars
- Volume loss
Beyond PRF, Dr. Pastorek also offers several other nonsurgical skin-rejuvenation options that can stimulate collagen. These include:
- Microneedling
- Novalis Clareon intense pulsed light (IPL)
- Clear + Brilliant® fractional laser
- Venus Viva™ radiofrequency microneedling
- Phoenix CO2 fractional laser for aging hands
The Phoenix laser specifically targets the signs of aging on your hands, while the other treatments help to trigger collagen production while addressing dark spots, large pores, and more.
To learn more about our collagen-supporting, nonsurgical skin-rejuvenation treatments, call one of our offices or schedule your appointment online today.