In addition to our weight loss treatments, Soza Clinic of the Dallas Metro area also offers a number of innovative and effective skin treatments. One of these is the now-famous vampire facial, launched into the spotlight by none other than Kim Kardashian herself. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about this remarkable new treatment and how it can rejuvenate your look in just a single session.
This treatment is barely a decade old but has been shown to work in a number of studies, with more on the way. The vampire facial is an FDA-approved treatment to combat aging and skin damage in facial areas through the use of platelet-rich plasma, or PRP.
The results speak for themselves. You can read many positive reviews and the official website of the treatment highlights comments from several doctors and famous patients.
The key ingredient in this kind of facial is platelet-rich plasma or PRP. To administer the treatment, we take some blood from your body and produce PRP right there in our clinic on demand. Then, the PRP is applied to your skin through a microneedling technique.
This method ensures that PRP is delivered evenly, with a special focus on trouble areas, for example in wrinkles or spots where sun damage is evident. So, what makes PRP so effective and where does it come from?
PRP has been in use for over 40 years now. It began as a way to help patients recover from the hardest surgeries imaginable: open-heart surgeries. Naturally, these are highly invasive and call for months of rest just to get out of bed. Doctors found that when they added PRP to surgical wounds before closing them that patients would recover faster.
This led to much more exploration of how PRP works and what it could be used for. Sports medicine embraced PRP to help athletes get back into action faster. Cosmetic medicine using PRP has taken off in the last decade, and that’s how we got the PRP facial. PRP isn’t magic, it’s science, and it works wonders.
PRP is primarily composed of platelets, one of the four main components found in your blood. Platelets are normally responsible for helping you to heal a cut or an injury. When you get hurt, blood swells into the area, and the concentration of platelets helps to heal your body.
Platelets assist in blood clotting when you have an open wound. They also release growth factors that tell your healthy cells to multiply while simultaneously labeling damaged cells for removal. White blood cells can then come in and take out dying cells.
What makes this process so impressive is that it can also fight aging by removing older, weaker cells and replacing them with brand new ones. Normally, these cells don’t trigger the body’s healing response because they worsen slowly over time. By using PRP, we jump-start the healing process and let your body do the work.
PRP comes from your blood, which is how this treatment got the “vampire” name in the first place. The process is actually very simple. All we need is a small sample of your blood. The sample is placed in a centrifuge that spins your blood, separating each component.
We extract the platelets and repeat the process a few times until we have a high concentration of platelets suspended in a volume of plasma. Then it’s ready to go! There’s no donor material, no pharmaceutical products, just 100% natural medicine derived from your own cells.
Once we have the PRP prepared, we simply need to apply it to your face. Beforehand we usually apply some topical anesthetic for your comfort. From there, we use microneedling to deliver the PRP to precise spots across your face. PRP works on a very local level, so it must be applied in many small doses so that each area can benefit.
If needles make you uncomfortable, just know that these are extremely tiny needles that do not leave large punctures in your skin. Combined with anesthetic, most patients feel no discomfort at all and the entire process takes less than an hour.
So what benefits can you expect from a PRP facial treatment? We’ll explain those and answer some of the most frequently asked questions about this exotic facial.
One of the reasons more and more people are turning to PRP treatment is that it has essentially no drawbacks and is actually a better alternative to more invasive forms of treatment, including surgery. There are several benefits of opting for PRP over other methods.
Because of its near-zero risk and ease of application, you don’t need to have several appointments before you are ready. One consultation is all it takes to determine if you are eligible for PRP treatment and after that, we’ll set a date for your appointment.
The treatment itself does not take long at all. Making the PRP takes roughly 15 minutes, and can be done while the anesthetic is applied. The actual application takes less than an hour.
When it comes to medicine, time and money are very closely linked. A traditional facelift with surgery means you’ll pay for the doctor’s time, plus that of their assistants including an anesthesiologist. The additional medicine and tools required will also incur an additional cost. Plus, there are multiple doctor’s visits, both before and after, which require you to use your time and money to complete.
A single PRP facial is much more affordable than other options, meaning you can even get a second treatment after some time to see even more results for longer.
Other facial treatments are unable to combat aging the way that PRP does. Although injectable fillers add fullness and remove wrinkles, they do not treat the underlying causes of these problems. Surgery can remove problem areas, but it doesn’t restore healthy cells and it cannot prevent further aging.
PRP, on the other hand, actually reverses damage caused by aging and works to prevent further damage to cells for months after application. Repeated treatments can significantly reverse aging damage and leave your face looking younger and better than it has in years.
If you look for before and after photos of people who have received a vampire facial, you can clearly see an improvement in overall complexion and skin tone. Aging damages cells at different rates, which creates an uneven complexion and a shift in skin tone.
By replacing aged cells with healthy ones, you will see a more uniform tone that improves your complexion overall.
One of the most commonly praised benefits of a PRP facial is how it seems to make your skin glow afterward. Despite being a subtle feature of your face, it’s one of the most striking. Why does this happen?
A healthy glow has a lot to do with how your skin reflects and refracts light. Healthy cells are more hydrated, meaning they retain a healthy shape that reflects light more evenly. In addition, hydrated cells refract light into colors that we associate with this healthy glow.
The glow is further enhanced when your skin’s surface is smooth and even, without wrinkles or harsh lines. Healthy cells are like inflated balloons. When plump, they push against one another and lead to a full appearance. Unhealthy cells are deflated balloons, slumping against one another and leading to wrinkles and lines.
After your PRP treatment, you’ll notice that lines will fade and wrinkles will be less noticeable as the cells in the area have become healthier and more hydrated.
How long do these incredible effects last? How long does it take for them to show up? And are there any other concerns? Let’s look at some of the questions our patients frequently ask about the vampire facial.
PRP treatments usually take a week or two for results to be noticeable. In the first week, swelling from the treatment will go down and in the next week the PRP’s effects will start to take hold. The growth factors released by the PRP will lead to healthier cells replacing old ones within just a few weeks and the process can actually continue for several weeks after.
You should see full results within a month, although some patients find that it may take two to three. Much like a good bottle of wine, PRP treatments get better with time.
The results from a PRP facial can last for up to two years! Because the treatment actually repairs cells and creates new collagen and blood vessels, the results are long-lasting. However, other cells will continue to age and decay. Although the healthy cells don’t just disappear, the presence of unhealthier ones will make the results harder to see after a couple of years.
That is why many patients opt to have a second treatment one year after the first. This produces even longer-lasting results.
One of the best things about PRP treatments is that they are the safest option available. The main reason for this is that since PRP comes from your own body, there is no risk of rejection or complications with donor material.
By not using pharmaceutical products, there is no risk of adverse side effects from PRP. In fact, numerous studies of PRP treatments show that there have never been serious complications from any type of treatment. Of course, a minimally-invasive treatment with PRP is far less likely to have complications compared to surgical procedures.
Virtually everyone can receive PRP treatments because there are hardly any contraindications. The only cases where it may not be possible are when patients have an abnormally low platelet count due to another condition, most frequently liver problems. A simple blood test will tell us if we can use your blood to make PRP and perform the facial.
If you would like to know more about the Vampire Facial or would like to schedule a consultation to find out if it is right for you, just call Soza Clinic in Richardson, TX today. We have offices in Richardson, Bedford, and Winnsboro, and our staff will be happy to help you with any questions you have.
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