The complexion is the natural color, texture, and appearance of a person’s face. Each of us is born with a different complexion, but what ultimately shapes our complexion is how we take care of it throughout time. WellMedica offers multiple cosmetic treatments to help you achieve your perfect complexion.

Most of us desire to have a blemish-free, wrinkle-free, glowing complexion in order to feel more confident. The skin is our largest external organ, making it important. However, our complexion tends to change with age and sun damage. It also can depend on genetics and environmental factors.

Here at WellMedica, we have many different cosmetic treatment options to create a healthier complexion, such as acne treatment, skin lesion treatment, wrinkle reduction, reversing sun damage, and more.

Skin rejuvenation and resurfacing treatments can help restore a more youthful, aesthetic complexion by removing the damaged outer layers of skin. Complexion treatment helps encourage collagen production, promotes new and healthy cell growth, and reveals healthier-looking skin beneath the damaged layers.

As we age and are exposed to more damaging chemicals and various environmental factors, our skin will begin to reveal wear and tear. This often results in the presence of age spots, wrinkles, scars, discoloration, and texture changes in our skin. Skin resurfacing and complexion treatments help to reverse these adverse signs of age and stress. WellMedica uses a variety of techniques in our complexion treatment process to address a myriad of complexion and skin concerns.

There are a number of procedures and technologies used to improve skin complexion. Some of the most common complexion treatment technologies used at WellMedica are listed in detail below.

MICRODERMABRASION

Microdermabrasion therapy is a treatment option that utilizes mechanical exfoliation to extract the outer damaged and dead epidermal layers to reveal the healthier, smoother, and younger-looking skin beneath. During the procedure, a powder will be administered to the face, neck, hands, or body (depending on the type of treatment) and the device will be used to both scrub and suck the dead particles of skin off the body. The contents of the powder vary but typically include crystals of aluminum salts, sodium bicarbonate, or sodium chloride. Some doctors use systems that use a different device containing small particles of diamonds to abrade the skin. Once the outer layer of damaged skin is removed, the layers of skin beneath begin to increase their production of new skin cells and collagen resulting in a more subtle freshening of the appearance and texture of the skin.

Wellmedica does not offer microdermabrasion therapy. Until recently, this method was encouraged as a minimally invasive, non-damaging procedure. However, more recent studies have shown that the effects of microdermabrasion may be harmful to the skin and can cause broken capillaries.

Here at Wellmedica, we use vibradermabraision therapy instead.

VIBRADERMABRASION

Vibradermabrasion is a competitive method of skin abrasion therapy without causing the unnecessary harm found in microdermabrasion therapies. Vibradermabrasion gently exfoliates deep into your skin using “sonic vibration technology,” penetrating twice as deep into dead skin layers as traditional microdermabrasion, to remove dirt, oil, and build-up deep in your skin. Post-treatment will result in a more even skin tone and texture, as well as a reduction in fine lines and wrinkles. Vibradermabrasion is the latest dermabrasion technology, using personal sandblasted paddles that remove dull, dry skin cells safely and effectively without causing additional harm to the skin.

Other benefits of vibradermabrasion technology include:

• Effective and gentle treatment on the skin.
• Stimulates collagen production leaving your skin stronger and firmer.
• Leaves your skin looking healthier, more radiant, and even toned.

LASER TREATMENTS

Lasers use highly-concentrated beams of light energy to improve skin tone, texture, and appearance.

Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT), also known as ALA, is a treatment performed with a typical photosensitizing agent called Levulan® (5-aminolevulinic acid or ALA) that is applied to your skin and then activated with the correct wavelength of light.

PDT has been proven to showcase a variety of benefits that have been well-documented. It is commonly used to treat inflammatory conditions such as acne and rosacea, sun-damaged skin, and even precancerous conditions (such as actinic keratosis), in cases where the cancer cells may be too small to be seen. Not only does PDT treat these conditions, but it also offers significant cosmetic benefits, leaving your skin looking and feeling smoother, more even, and healthier without any unnecessary scarring.

Smoothbeam Therapy

The Smoothbeam collagen stimulation laser treatment is one of the best scientifically proven methods for tackling the signs of aging, primarily fine lines and wrinkles. This laser works by heating the middle layer of the skin using a combination of heating and cooling. When the Smoothbeam heats the skin, it then begins to gently treat an array of skin problems. Smoothbeam may be used to treat skin problems like fine lines and wrinkles, which the laser works to combat by stimulating collagen production. This, in turn, causes the skin to look healthier, more elastic, and moist. Collagen is what we need in our skin to keep it looking fresh and young, and the Smoothbeam does just that.

Primary benefits of Smoothbeam laser therapy include collagen rebuilding to treat:

• Fine lines and wrinkles of the face, especially around the lips, cheeks, and forehead.
• Crow’s feet around the eyes.
• Smoker’s lines and frown lines.
• Scars, especially acne.
• Loose skin around the neck and jowls.

Fraxel CO2 Laser

Fraxel is the pioneer of “fractional photothermolysis,” a technology where thousands of microscopic laser columns – each just one-tenth the diameter of a hair follicle – treat a fraction of the skin at a time without affecting the surrounding tissue. These laser columns stimulate the production of younger, smoother, healthier skin to replace damaged tissue.

It can be used for the reduction of fine lines and wrinkles, and repair sun-damaged skin, freckles, age spots, acne, acne scars, hyperpigmentation, and other skin problems that come with age. In general, Fraxel can help with the skin’s tone and texture as a whole. It can also help with certain cases of melasma and reduce precancerous lesions by replacing sun-damaged skin with new skin. It does not only have to be used on the face, as patients often also get treated on the hands, neck, and shoulders. Each treatment replaces about 15 - 20% of the sun-damaged, scarred, or wrinkled skin. It triggers the body’s natural healing process accelerating the production of collagen and new, healthy skin cells.

Venus Viva™ MD

The Viva™ device uses patented nanofractional radiofrequency and SmartScan® technology to deliver energy to the dermis. This generates heat in a controlled manner to initiate skin change, rebuilding collagen and fibroblast stimulation, all resulting in tissue remodeling. This achieves results with minimal discomfort and little to no downtime.

The state-of-the-art patented tip allows for a depth of penetration of up to 500 microns and provides varying energy densities, enabling simultaneous ablation of the epidermis and coagulation of the dermis area, resulting in skin resurfacing with minimal discomfort.

The treatments are most effective when done as a series. Six treatments about four weeks apart are recommended. Once the treatment course is completed, results continue to develop and improve over 6 - 9 months. This is because it takes the collagen and elastin cells that long to regenerate. The end result is firmer, more even-toned, radiant skin with little to no downtime.

LIGHT TREATMENTS

Intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments are often used to treat a wide range of different vascular and pigmented problems in the skin. These may include:

• Spider or thread veins
• Port wine stains
• Rosacea
• Spider naevus
• Age spots
• Solar keratosis
• Pigmented birthmarks
• Warts
• Verrucae
• Acne scarring
• Stretch marks

Intense Pulsed Light Skin Rejuvenation

Intense pulsed light (IPL) treatment is similar to laser treatments as it uses light to treat various skin conditions or issues – most often pigmentation problems. It also seeks to rejuvenate the skin’s complexion and leave behind healthier, younger-looking skin. Yet, instead of using highly focused, single-wavelength beams of light (lasers), IPL uses a broader spectrum of light wavelengths in short pulses.

IPL benefits the skin in two ways:

The primary benefit is that it absorbs excessive pigmentation in the skin (reds and browns) to restore a more even skin tone. Although light therapy may not encourage it to the degree that laser treatments do, IPL also encourages collagen production to help improve overall skin tone.

IPL treatment is a non-ablative treatment, meaning no skin is removed during the procedure and it typically requires little to no downtime.

It is important to note here that IPL treatments are not encouraged for those with a darker skin complexion, as it can be harmful and damaging to the skin. If you have olive-toned skin or darker skin, IPL can make certain skin issues worse, as the skin holds more melanin. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) is often seen in those who have undergone an IPL treatment in an effort to achieve a more even skin tone. Many times, the worsening pigment doesn’t show up until weeks after treatment.

MEDICAL COMPLEXION TREATMENTS

Medical cosmetic treatment often refers to two types of treatments: microneedling and mesotherapy.

Microneedling

Microneedling, also known as collagen induction therapy, is a treatment that uses a device with small needles to open microscopic channels into the dermis and stimulate natural collagen production. At WellMedica, we offer two state-of-the-art, modern microneedling technologies to encourage natural collagen production.

The SkinPen® is one of the devices we use. SkinPen® works with multiple, small, sanitary needles that create hundreds of microscopic punctures in the skin’s outer layers. Thus, the treatment goes deeper than many traditional microdermabrasion therapies and stimulates the skin much more successfully. The needles cycle at 100+ punctures/stamps a second, creating upwards of 1,600+ microchannels during a microneedling session. It is a safe, non-surgical treatment that boasts successful results with little to no downtime!

WellMedica is proud to be one of the only providers in the VA, MD, and D.C. areas to provide the new Viva™ MD device for skin rejuvenation and complexion treatments. The Venus Viva™ MD is a portable and versatile tabletop device that enables a wide range of treatments with two applicators. When used with the new Viva™ MD applicator, the Venus Viva™ MD device is intended for use in dermatological procedures requiring ablation and resurfacing of the skin, including for conditions such as acne scars, dyschromia, striae, and enlarged pores.

The Viva™ MD applicator is a fractional handpiece that offers a new 80-pin tip design, which doubles the output energy up to 124 mJ per pin electrode as compared to the 160-pin tip option used with the existing Venus Versa and Viva™ devices. The new 80-pin tip output results in increased depth of ablation, which enhances treatment outcomes while maintaining the safety profile.