How a radio-frequency microneedling machine reduces hyperpigmentation

• Cosmetic nurse and founder of The Things We Do Vanessa Lee offers the Vivace microneedle treatment.
• The treatment helps to reduce hyperpigmentation and stimulate collagen production.
• It's safe for darker skin tones because the needles release heat at the deeper layers of the skin.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Vanessa Lee: My patient today has obviously such beautiful skin, but some of her concerns are working on slight hyperpigmentation from previous breakouts. What we're gonna work on for her is a little bit of microneedling with radio frequency with Vivace. And we are going to be working on brightening her skin and evening her tone while simultaneously tightening and plumping the skin.

So, right now, we are going to numb our patient over the entire surface area of her face. [machine beeps]

Client: Oh, my God. I didn't even feel it.

Lee: See, isn't it great? The reason why I love this machine specifically is because it combines the well-accepted treatment of microneedling for darker skin types with a safe heat stimulation with radio frequency, and it has minimal discomfort and minimal downtime. Specifically for darker skin types, I really like to concentrate on areas with higher range of movement in the face, like around the eyes and the mouth.

Because some patients have this crepey skin right underneath their eyes that they want to get to that we can't with other devices, but we can get really high in there to make sure that we're brightening exactly where we want. And I'd also like to get over your brow bone. So, people who have kind of this crepiness over the hood of the lid, we can tighten that skin with this treatment.

The Vivace device has two LED light choices. While you're working on the skin, you can choose the red light for overall rejuvenation, and you can also choose the blue light for someone who is prone to acne. The blue light will kill the acne.

So, Riki has really clear skin, but if someone came in and had some mild breakouts, what I would do is treat the areas around the breakouts and not go over the breakout itself. And what's going to happen is you're going to see that because the heat is penetrating the skin, it's going to reduce the sebum production and not only prevent breakouts, but also stop the breakouts that are presenting.

Typically, patients with darker skin types don't heal very well when heat is applied onto the skin. If we place heat at the very surface of the skin, our melanin doesn't heal very well, and we'll end up with possibly post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation. But within the microneedling-radio-frequency world, there is insulated and non-insulated needles, which means they're coated or they're not coated. So, non-insulated needles have heat going all the way through the needles, which is not as safe for darker skin. And insulated needles are coated except for right at the bottom. And that's a lot safer for darker skin, because the heat is emitted only at the deeper dermis. And in that area, we can accept this heat without having the post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

So, after the treatment, you have these tiny micro-channels -- thousands of them, in fact -- placed all over the skin. So it's a great time to put on a specific serum that's going to pull off the results you're hoping for. So, in this case, protection, but also a nice growth factor for the skin. And then you want to place on a mask to just kind of moisturize and hydrate the skin, because there's been some heat involved as well.

You can expect to see results starting as soon as one week after your treatment. At about three to four weeks is usually the optimal time when you see the full result of your Vivace treatment. Patients of a younger demographic, anywhere from late 20s to early 40s, can expect to see results lasting from around 12 to 18 months. Patients of a more mature demographic, in their 50s and 60s, can expect to see results lasting up to six to 12 months, at most.

Having this treatment specifically gives me so much confidence and so much pride that I'm able to safely treat people who look like me and who might not have had representation in the field or might have a little mistrust with the field in the past.