What Is Micro-needling?

Micro-needling is a cosmetic procedure. It involves pricking the skin with tiny sterilized needles. The small wounds cause your body to make more collagen and elastin, which heal your skin and help you look younger. You might also hear it called collagen induction therapy.

Micro-needling is less expensive than laser treatments, which can cost about four times as much. Micro-needling may work better for people with darker skin tones because it doesn’t involve heat the way laser treatments do, which can affect your skin’s pigmentation, or color. Ask your dermatologist what’s best for your skin and your budget.

What Happens When You Get Micro-needling

Dermatologists (doctors who specialize in skin care and skin disorders) can do micro-needling. Aestheticians also do it. If you try it somewhere other than a doctor’s office, first check on the person’s experience and credentials, and make sure that all of the equipment is sterilized. There are do-it-yourself versions of micro-needling devices. But dermatologists warn against using those because you might accidentally hurt your skin, and you may not have a good way to sterilize the needles.

The procedure usually takes 10-20 minutes, depending on how big the area is. Most people need 4-6 treatments to see a difference.

First, you’ll get a numbing cream smoothed onto your face so you can’t feel the needle pricks. Then the person doing the micro-needling will move a pen-shaped or rolling tool with tiny needles around your face. The needles make small cuts in your skin, which causes a bit of bleeding. Your doctor may spread a cream or serum on your face after that.

The goal of the procedure is to start your body’s healing process by sending collagen and elastin to patch up the tiny injuries. Collagen helps fill in and smooth out wrinkles.

Most people get micro-needling on the face, but it can also done on other parts of the body, such as your stomach or thighs.