Unfortunately, the consequences of mesotherapy can occur even if this procedure is performed correctly for all indications. This is why I warn you against “mesotherapy inexpensively, at home” - complications occur even in famous clinics.
The mesotherapy technique is excellent - it is not aggressive for the skin, it allows you to quickly deliver the substances it needs to the skin, bypassing the skin barrier, and allows you to select a treatment regimen that is individual for each patient to solve many problems.
But, while minimally damaging the skin barrier, mesotherapy, like any medical procedure, can cause undesirable consequences and sometimes complications. And, before giving your consent to mesotherapy, you must carefully weigh all the pros and cons.
All the troubles associated with the mesotherapy procedure can be divided into 2 large groups:
- Nonspecific undesirable consequences associated with the procedure technique.
- Specific complications associated with the reaction to the drug.
Possible complications after mesotherapy
Most often, patients encounter side effects after mesotherapy such as: • Irritation and redness. This is quite expected - after all, the skin was pierced with a needle, and it triggers self-healing mechanisms. Pain is also normal. But these reactions should go away in a couple of days. If redness and irritation persist or intensify, you most likely have an infection under the skin, and inflammation begins. • Infection. It can occur during the rehabilitation period if the rules of care are not followed, or during the procedure itself - for example, if the master did not properly clean the face or instruments, or used an opened ampoule with a cocktail. • Acute allergic reactions - itching, redness, peeling, etc. Individual intolerance to components is rare, but no one is 100% immune from it. • Bruises, swelling and hematomas. This is also normal - the needle damages peripheral vessels. When a bruise appears, the body intensively supplies it with blood to speed up recovery. And swelling even reduces pain. However, if you care for them incorrectly, you can provoke subcutaneous bleeding and, as a result, a hematoma. It is very difficult to deal with - sometimes surgery is required. • Appearance of pigmentation. The main reason for increased pigmentation after mesotherapy is exposure to intense sunlight on the skin. Some patients experience post-traumatic pigmentation. For them, the joys of mesotherapy, alas, are not available. • Long healing of microtraumas. Sometimes they can develop into scars and welts. This may be a consequence of skin infection with further development of tissue necrosis (death). But this is only possible if you really start the problem by ignoring the symptoms for a long time. But some people have an individual predisposition to the growth of keloid scars, and this can only be revealed after the procedure. For any of the listed complications, you should have a recommendation from a cosmetologist, as well as a telephone number where you can promptly receive instructions from a specialist. But most of these negative aspects can be avoided if you carefully follow the recommendations for facial skin care after mesotherapy. About them - below.
Indications for mesotherapy
The wide range of applications of microinjections includes:
- decreased skin tone;
- age-related skin aging, wrinkles;
- cellulite;
- acne;
- oily skin with enlarged pores;
- rosacea;
- baldness;
- scarring;
- stretch marks;
- pigmentation;
- excess fat deposits;
- restoration of the skin after insolation, surgical interventions, laser thermolysis, peeling.
Absolute taboos after mesotherapy
Let's first figure out what absolutely cannot be done after beauty injections: • Any thermal effects on the skin are excluded. You cannot go to the sauna or bathhouse. You can only wash in a warm shower (not hot). You will also have to refrain from taking warm baths. Moreover, hot foods should be avoided for the first few days. The fact is that along with perspiration, a nutritional cocktail is removed from the skin. In addition, sweat creates a favorable environment for inflammation. • Avoid touching your face with your hands. Constantly control yourself. Often we don't even notice how many times a day we touch our skin. Microtraumas of the epidermis give a “green color” to bacteria, which are countless on our hands. • Protect your skin from any mechanical influences. Do not rub it with a towel, but blot it carefully. Forget about massage for now. If you like to sleep on your stomach with your face buried in the pillow, it's time to give up this habit - at least for the rehabilitation period. Limit your skin from any irritating factors to avoid causing inflammation. • Forget about the solarium for a while and hide your face from direct sunlight. Firstly, we have already talked about the dangers of overheating. Secondly, the production of melanin also does not benefit injured skin - the risk of pigmentation increases. Thirdly, the skin dries under the influence of UV rays, and this aggravates inflammatory processes. • Sports are also temporarily banned. In addition to increased sweating and overheating of the skin, it stimulates blood circulation. This slows down the absorption of meso-cocktails and can lead to the formation of edema. By the way, this also applies to swimming - no matter in the pool or reservoirs. • Alcohol and caffeinated drinks are prohibited. They slow down the skin's self-healing processes and increase the risk of allergic reactions. • Decorative cosmetics clog pores and irritate the skin. In addition, we apply it using sponges, brushes, and fingers. Therefore, during the rehabilitation period you will have to give up your favorite make-up. • Mesotherapy is a powerful intervention in the body in itself. Therefore, you should not aggravate its impact with other procedures. The skin after injections is too vulnerable - enough is enough for now. Fortunately, strict bans do not last too long. You will have to endure from 4 to 7 days, and then, if everything goes well, you can return to your usual way of life. Care after facial mesotherapy at home To speed up facial healing after the procedure and get the maximum benefit from it, you need to provide your skin with balanced, comprehensive care: • Do not wash your facial skin with water for 24 hours after injections. Then, throughout the entire rehabilitation period, use only bottled or filtered water for hygiene, and wipe your face with Chlorhexidine. • Healing ointments such as “Bepanten” and “Panthenol” will help speed up rehabilitation. Swelling will be relieved by drugs such as Troxevasin, Traumeel, etc. You may need antihistamines. A cosmetologist should definitely give you a list of recommended medications. • Even if you did the procedure in winter or autumn, when the sun is not too active, you need to use a cream with SPF filters before going outside. Care after eyelid mesotherapy requires wearing sunglasses. • Not all cosmetologists talk about the importance of diet during the rehabilitation period. To speed up regeneration, you should not rely on protein foods - meat, beans, eggs, etc. Enrich your menu for this period with fresh vegetables and fruits, grains, and dairy products. Replace the usual black tea and coffee with green and herbal tea without sugar, fresh juices, and plain clean water. • It is important to get enough sleep so that the body has enough resources to recover. • If there are no specific reactions, usually already on the second day after the procedure you can use your usual lotions, creams and gels. However, it is assumed that your daily facial skin care routine is balanced and hypoallergenic. • Traditional methods of care have not been canceled either! For example, fresh cucumber perfectly relieves swelling and irritation. For care after mesotherapy around the eyes, you can place slices of this healthy vegetable on your eyelids, after keeping them in the refrigerator for a while. It can also be grated and applied to the skin of the face. Rubbing with ice from herbal decoctions - for example, chamomile, or compresses from the same decoctions - will also not hurt.
In fact, most recommendations for care after mesotherapy are simple. Apparently, this is why many patients underestimate their importance. If you decide to undergo such a procedure, you should make the most of it. So trust the cosmetologist, but commit to doing everything possible on your part.
Mesotherapy technologies. Injection technique for mesotherapy
In modern cosmetology, several types of effects on the dermis are used. Classic mesoinjections remain in demand - the injection of drugs to a depth calculated depending on the indications. This technology complies with all the canons developed by Pistor.
Recently, new effective techniques have emerged that allow deviations from classical execution:
- mesopuncture – superficial impact on acupuncture points;
- mesoinfiltration - the use of injections to penetrate the deep layers of the dermis;
- mesoperfusion – a single-use hardware administration of a medicinal cocktail in doses equal to several Lebel needles;
- non-invasive mesotherapy – achieving an effect without injections by treating problem areas with electrical impulses.
A professional cosmetologist knows several mesotherapy techniques that require a certain “hand positioning”. Among them are:
- nappage – performing a series of frequent microinjections, the volume of each of which does not exceed 0.02 mg;
- papular technique - the creation of papules (skin swellings) of various diameters to speed up the deposition of injected drugs;
- linear technique - injection into a canal formed in the dermis; Depending on its shape, there are such linear modifications as fan, tracer, tunnel and mesh (reinforcement).
There are manual and hardware mesotherapy. The first is more valuable, as it has the advantages of an individual approach, allows you to penetrate the most delicate areas and use medications sparingly.
It is advisable to use automatic injectors when treating large areas of skin. They make the procedure less painful, speed up its progress and make the doctor’s work easier. However, expensive equipment increases the cost of hardware manipulations.
How to solve the problems that have arisen?
Consequences arise after mesotherapy as a standard or due to the fault of the master, or if the prescribed recommendations and restrictions are not followed by the client himself. You need to start from the cause of side effects.
Be sure to consult a doctor, since you will not be able to correct most of the consequences on your own, since they give rise to a number of fairly strong inflammatory processes in the dermis.
If we talk about normal redness, bruising or increased sensitivity of the skin in the treated area, you should not take special action. Most often they go away on their own within 1-2 days. To speed up skin recovery, it is recommended to follow the precautions and recommendations prescribed by the specialist at the end of the session.
To avoid similar consequences in the future, pay attention to the choice of the salon in which you will perform the technique, the qualifications of the master, as well as the quality of the meso-cocktail used in the work. Be sure to follow all the recommendations and prohibitions prescribed by the master before and after the session.
Medicines used in mesotherapy
The success of a cosmetic procedure depends not only on the technical skills of the performer, but also on the competent selection of ingredients for a healing cocktail. Cosmetologists have at their disposal a whole range of medicines used in mesotherapy. They can be divided into two groups:
- traditional pharmacopeias: hophytol, procaine, trental, piroxi-cam, ribomunil, myacalcic, dicinone;
- specific for mesotherapy: lipodystrophin, Achyal, triac, embryoblast, X-ADN.
When selecting medications, the doctor proceeds from the indications for their use. At the same time, he is guided not only by the traditional grounds for carrying out the procedure, established during more than half a century of experience in mesotherapy, but also by new indications discovered in recent years.
The drugs used - both primary and auxiliary - should not cause addiction or rejection by the body. It should be borne in mind that in hypersensitive people a number of components can lead to undesirable consequences. The sulfurous acid salt, which acts as an antioxidant stabilizer, can cause an allergic reaction. Someone may develop an intolerance to parabens used as preservatives. Propylene glycol, which is part of injectable drugs, can also produce a toxic effect when administered intradermally.
In the world practice of aesthetic mesotherapy, there are two approaches to the selection of drugs for injection. Italian experts insist on the use of ready-made mono-medicines or multi-drug preparations prepared in special biotechnological laboratories. French doctors advocate a personal approach to patients, based on the compilation of arbitrary prescriptions for injection cocktails.
The second option requires more experience and knowledge from the doctor. After all, an erroneous combination of medications can cause drug incompatibility of a chemical or physical nature. Moreover, one drug can not only neutralize another, but also cause its action to have the opposite effect.
Adverse reactions to cosmetic products
An allergic skin reaction does not always occur to meso-cocktails. The procedure can only provoke its manifestation when using low-quality cosmetics or infection of the body.
Let's consider two cases in which mesotherapy is not the cause of undesirable consequences.
Allergic dermatitis
Most often, dermatitis in girls occurs due to cosmetic products - cosmetics, care products, perfumes.
Dermatitis manifests itself in the form of local redness, the appearance of an orange peel on the damaged area, as well as a small rash with ulcers. When pressing on the dermatitis, a mild pain may be felt.
Allergic dermatitis indicates problems with the girl’s immune system, since in this case the body begins to fight with unknown components of cosmetics, trying to eliminate their activity.
Contact dermatitis
Contact dermatitis is a more dangerous disease because it indicates the presence of toxic substances in cosmetics or meso-cocktails used in the salon. Such substances are quickly distributed throughout the girl’s body, contributing to the occurrence of massive inflammatory processes.
Contact dermatitis is not a type of allergy, since it has a destructive effect on living, healthy epithelial cells.
Treatment of contact dermatitis takes quite a long time, since it most often takes place in a hospital and includes intravenous administration of antihistamine and anti-inflammatory solutions.
Mesolifting – rejuvenating mesotherapy
The author of mesolifting, an injection method for tightening facial skin, is the Parisian cosmetologist Bernard Herzog. Achieving a visible lifting effect occurs due to the launch of skin restoration mechanisms, returning it to youthful elasticity and freshness.
This anti-aging procedure is considered one of the most effective non-surgical ways to combat a double chin and facial deformation. A rejuvenating course, consisting of 5-15 weekly procedures, completely replaces plastic surgery.
Beauty and youth during mesolifting are returned to the patient by a series of microinjections introduced into pronounced facial wrinkles and neck folds. Withered skin is saturated with the vitamins, microelements and amino acids it lacks. A noticeable result can be observed after the end of the 5th session. The patient's face looks rested and refreshed, regaining its previous contours and healthy color.