Cosmetic or facial acupuncture is a beauty treatment that involves receiving a refined form of acupuncture that uses ultra fine needles to stimulate solely the facial region of your body. The goal is to reduce the signs of aging as well as encouraging the skin to look healthier. The treatments are completely painless for all but those with the most sensitive of skin, and even then it should be no more than the mildest of discomforts given the fineness of the needles involved. In fact, most people that receive this treatment claim to be unable to feel the needles at all. As such, the treatment is considered not only painless and safe, but quick and relaxing as well. If you want more information on perspective treatment regimes then you should go to an acupuncture clinic near you and discuss your options with their practitioners.
Initial expectations
Upon receiving any cosmetic treatment, especially ones to the face, the general expectation is to have a certain recovery time whilst the body adjusts to what has been done. With cosmetic acupuncture, this is almost non-existent as the moment the needles are removed you should be back to normal. In rare cases of delicate skin, some very minor bruising can occur, but this will disappear within a few days and still leave the same result. In the case of cosmetic acupuncture, these results are to have healthy looking skin that has a natural glow and a brighter complexion as the needles will stimulate the blood flow and collagen production of the skin.
Conventional comparison
Conventional cosmetic treatments, such as dermal fillers and botox will also work fairly quickly, but they have a much longer healing period as they are far more traumatic for the body and they introduce foreign agents into the skin. These chemicals are naturally rejected by the body and this can lead to complications further down the road. However, chemical based cosmetic treatments will also provide the quickest results, but their results tend to be short lived and require more treatments in a shorter time frame to maintain them.
Medium term expectations
The majority of patients seem to report that they see results in five to ten treatments, and for rapid results it is advisable to have treatments twice a week for four to six weeks to really see a difference. From this point you should be able to enter a maintenance stage of treatments where a session is only required once every one to two months to keep the skin invigorated and glowing.
Long term expectations
In the long run, the goal of facial acupuncture is to promote healthy skin that will work to maintain itself with some gentle encouragement from your acupuncturist. These long term improvements then require less maintenance as opposed to chemical based treatments which will inevitable require increasing numbers of treatments to maintain the appearance as time passes. The exact long term benefits may well vary between patients, but if you are at all curious, it never hurts to give something a try.
