Collagen Induction Therapy – AKA Medical Needling
Dr. Des Fernandes, one of the world’s leaders in skin health and the founder of the Environ skincare product line, is seen as the pioneer of Collagen Induction Therapy (CIT). The name might sound technical but is very elegant and self-explanatory once a person understands the process and concept behind it.
Dr. Fernandes noticed that when the skin is repeatedly punctured with microneedles, it produced dramatic amounts of collagen. This is a very effective regeneration technique indicated for the repair of damage to the skin’s structure (wrinkling, laxity, scarring, stretch marks etc). The skin is in essence plumped up by its own collagen. Our skin cannot grow collagen from the topical application of “collagen” in a bottle or from the application of a lotion or serum to the skin. An injury can be as severe as a laceration from a knife (then it grows wound collagen – unwanted cosmetically) or the injury can be as mild as a needle prick (grows embryonic or soft baby collagen).
Blasts are stimulated by a needle prick or a laser beam. A good analogy for CIT is that it’s similar to aerating a lawn: the microneedles penetrate the full thickness of the skin (like an aerator penetrates a lawn), similar to new grass growing into the openings, our skin will grow new collagen into the puncture sites.
When CIT or Medical Needling is performed in a Medical Spa, it requires a clean surgical procedure. This means each client has their own, individual labelled, roller head that is sterilized to Operating Room standards between treatments. The skin is sterilized and then numbed with a topical agent – the procedure has very little, if any, discomfort. Immediately after the micro punctures are made, medical-grade vitamins from Environ (contains no perfumes or preservatives) are infused into the skin with Galvanic Iontophoresis (a very mild current) as part of the procedure.