Home / Procedures / Microneedling
Procedure guide
Microneedling punctures the skin with many fine needles to start a wound-healing response that lays down new collagen. The FDA has authorized microneedling devices for facial acne scars, facial wrinkles and abdominal scars in adults 22 and older.
The map
Every practice whose website names microneedling: medical spas, dermatologists, surgeons, laser clinics and other aesthetic providers. Dot size is Google reviews. Tap a practice for its dossier.
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Providers
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The treatment
A microneedling device carries many small needles that go in and out of the skin. The needles sit on a rolled cylinder, a flat stamp or the tip of a motorized pen. In motorized pens the provider sets the needle depth and speed.
The punctures start a wound-healing cascade. Growth factors are released, fibroblasts move in and new collagen and elastin are laid down. The epidermis stays intact, unlike ablative laser resurfacing.
Radiofrequency (RF) microneedling sends electrical energy through the needles. Each needle tip heats a small zone of the dermis. These devices are Class II devices cleared through the FDA 510(k) process.
The FDA classifies microneedling for aesthetic use as a Class II device under 21 CFR 878.4430. Microneedling devices are not approved to push cosmetics, drugs, vitamin solutions or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) into the skin.
What it changes
What it does not change
The guide
Rollers, pens, PRP and RF microneedling: how each works and what the FDA cleared.
OpenThe layers of the skin and the needle depth that reaches each one.
OpenFrom subcision in 1995 to the first FDA authorization in 2018 and the RF devices since.
OpenDay by day after treatment, the risks in numbers and how long results take.
OpenAnswers to the questions patients ask most, with sources.
OpenFlorida microneedling providers ranked, with their dossiers.
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