As microneedling continues to gain popularity as a skin care essential, a number of at-home devices, known as dermarollers, have been introduced as an alternative to professional, in-office microneedling treatments. This has many of our patients here in the Washington DC area wondering, which is the better option of the two?
As with other skin care services, there is no at-home substitution for the quality of care that you will receive at Capital Laser & Skin Care. Dr. Tanzi reminds her patients, “in-office dispensed skin care that is customized to the particular needs of the patient will almost always provide superior results.”
Professional Customization
While both professional microneedling and at-home dermarolling work similarly—they both create micro-wounds in the skin’s surface to stimulate collagen and elastin production—at-home dermarollers achieve different results than that of the microneedling we perform at our Chevy Chase practice.
Whereas at-home devices are simply a needle-studded roller that employs one depth of needles, professional microneedling uses a hand-held device with mechanically controlled settings that allow us to reach multiple depths in order to achieve optimal results. Dr. Tanzi explains, “the device is set to a certain depth and the number of passes—which is ultimately how thorough the treatment will be.” Both of which are specially “determined by the practitioner” to ensure you receive the optimal treatment for your specific skin concerns.
Going Deep Enough to Treat Your Skin Concerns
To ensure your safety, at-home treatments use shorter needles that offer substantially less effective results. With needles reaching only one millimeter, most dermarollers have a needle length under 0.3 millimeters. At Capital Laser & Skin Care, we use needles that vary from one to three millimeters depending on your specific skin concern. Going deeper, we are able to more aggressively target specific skin concerns including skin laxity, acne scarring, and stretch mark—all which require the use of a deeper needle depth that is not available with at-home dermarollers.
Performed in a Safe & Clean Environment
Both at-home and in-office techniques require that you puncture microscopic holes into your skin. Thus, its is important that microneedling be performed in a clean and professional setting. At-home dermarollers are nearly impossible to sterilize completely, which can lead to infection and further scarring. To ensure your treatment is as clean and safe as possible, we utilize sterile, single-use tips that are discarded after each use.
Enhance
Professional microneedling has shown to increase serum absorption by up to 300 percent. At our Chevy Chase practice, we take advantage of medical grade skin care products before, during, and after your treatment to maximize your results. We also serums that are available only to skin care professionals, like serums with growth factors, to further enhance the benefits of microneedling.
When needed, we also perform Infini™ Radiofrequency Microneedling. Dr. Tanzi explains that this unique treatment offers the latest is deep skin tightening “by utilizing tiny gold-plated microneedles so the radiofrequency energy can be delivered to targeted layers within the skin”—something you are sure not to get with any at-home treatment.
You will find a huge difference between at-home and professional microneedling. Make sure to treat your skin to only the best by scheduling a microneedling consultation at Capital Laser & Skin Care.
