Is it safe to have micropen procedure every 3 weeks ?

Thank you for your question. You didn’t submit a photo, but you state your aesthetician recommended that you get micropen or microneedling treatment every 3 weeks, and ask if this is safe.

I can give you my perspective based on my experience as a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.  Microneedling is a part of my practice along with other cosmetic dermatologic solutions of lasers, etc. We often combine microneedling with the use of topical platelet-rich plasma (PRP), which I will explain further.



Microneedling is basically controlled injury to the skin - you injure the skin purposely to address certain issues, and you need a healing process to improve the skin. This is not only true for microneedling, but also for various lasers whether they’re ablative, fractional,  or non-ablative. Controlled injury is the foundation of a lot of dermatologic procedures.



In wound healing, a very important stage is  the proliferative stage which lasts about 4 weeks. So the question we have to ask is, where is the advantage of re-wounding the skin at 3 weeks? Is it timing to maximize collagen production? If this is the case, I would be more conservative and recommend waiting 4-6 weeks.



When we do microneedling wth the proliferative stage of wound healing in mind, we use platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as a topical to get into the openings created by the microneedling process. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a concentration of the wound healing and growth factors needed when you get a cut, and it stimulates new collagen, blood supply, and has multiple beneficial factors that enhance the healing process. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) augments the body’s response of controlled injury by maximizing the collagen response. If you are re-treating the skin at 3 weeks, you are inducing a new injury earlier than the full healing of the previous treatment.



With that understanding in my mind, even if you’re doing a lighter treatment at about half a millimeter, you have to understand the purpose. The deeper you go, and the range can be half a millimeter to 2.5 millimeters, the more injury you create, so the longer it takes to heal. You need to discuss the purpose of this treatment if your aesthetician is recommending every 3 weeks. If it’s a more superficial treatment, you have to discuss the purpose and the endpoint with the aesthetician, and when does this treatment find a plateau, and when the maintenance phase begins. The idea of therapeutic intervention in the skin is you sometimes do something aggressively either at a single time or over several visits, then you have to do something for maintenance.



These are the questions you have to bring up to your aesthetician to get a clear understanding. It’s not my intention to undermine the recommendation, but it’s my goal to help you understand what the logic is. I feel that every patient should be very educated about the plan so they can participate intelligently in their results. I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck,and thank you for your question.

Spacing Micropen treatments 3 weeks apart is fine. However, I would recommend at least 4 to 6 weeks, as the skin needs to heal between sessions. Please see an expert. Best, Dr. Emer

A 3 week interval would definitely be safe if performed correctly, but it may not be the best interval to allow full cellular response before the next treatment. In our practice we generally wait at least 4 weeks depending on what we are treating, sometimes longer. Best to you,Dr. Norcom