A leading dermal needling specialist, Dr Lance Setterfield M.D., joined dermaviduals last week at a series of educational seminars in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Over 300 skin treatment therapists attended to learn more about this exceptional treatment option from an international expert on the subject.
Dr Setterfield’s visit, sponsored by dermaviduals, was designed not only to educate but promote best practice procedures and techniques to the industry. “With a plethora of needling devices flooding the market and, I might add, a good deal of misinformation fostering less than optimal practices and results, dermaviduals wanted to provide Australian therapists access to an accepted authority on dermal needling,” said Roberts. “We were very aware from the misinformation distributed about IPL treatments in the past, that the industry can quickly lose credibility in the eyes of the public and authorities if best practice procedures aren’t followed,” Simone Vescio added.
Dr Setterfield’s research (and that of other needling experts) shows the key to ensuring needling is an effective treatment modality is the healing response the process stimulates. “Dermal Needling is the only rejuvenation treatment that maximises penetration of essential cell nutrients and maximises release of growth factors associated with the positive aspects of wound healing simultaneously,” says Dr Setterfield. “One of this modality’s major advantages is that it eliminates the risk of melanocyte heat injury and actually optimises cell function, making it the ideal treatment for all skin types.”
Dr Setterfield’s journey to understanding this modality began in 2003, when he embraced the opportunity to combine the broad base of knowledge that his years of general practice had provided, along with the exciting new developments in anti-ageing medicine. Over the ensuing years, using many types of rejuvenation modalities, he quickly came to the conclusion that, despite the initial positive results with other popular modalities, in many cases there was something missing from the long-term results he expected.
In 2005, he decided to undertake his own clinical trials that included the use of the (then) expensive (US$850) dermal rollers. He found that dermal rolling, in conjunction with selective topical applications, delivered exceptional results in a majority of his patients. “I was prompted to explore the science behind the obvious success achieved by my patients and decided to conduct detailed research. Like many others, I initially believed that in order to stimulate collagen, the target for rejuvenation was the “fibroblast”. However, all the evidence I discovered pointed to the “keratinocyte” as being one of the keys to success,” said Dr Setterfield.
During his research, much of which is detailed in his recent book, “The Concise Guide To Dermal Needling,” he focused his attention on the role keratinocytes play in promoting scar-less wound-healing, and in general, the types of growth factors in play during the wound-healing process. “My findings and results in many of my patients were beyond expectation and did not involve any injury to the depth of fibroblasts. I concluded that the best explanation is that needling not only spares the epidermis, but strengthens it. Repeated injury of healthy keratinocytes leads to release of anti-fibrotic growth factors and optimizes cell-to-cell communication between keratinocytes, melanocytes, and fibroblasts. When these signals are boosted, fibroblasts differentiate to form normal collagen and greater amounts of hyaluronic acid, as seen in the ideal situation of embryo wound healing."
Visit www.dermaviduals.com.au for further information.