Hello Ladies and Gentlemen! I am delighted to be writing this monthly article for Healthy Family Palm Beach. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am Dr. Kanwal Bawa, and I am the founder of Bawa Medical, a rejuvenation-based medical practice in Boca. I have lived in South Florida off and on for almost 19 years. I left for a few years when I completed my internship and residency at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. I also lived in Houston, Texas for two years. Other than that, I am a Floridian and have roots in this beautiful state.
Bawa Medical stems from my passion for rejuvenation from the inside out. We provide our patients incredible skin rejuvenation, hair restoration, body contouring and sexual wellness. We are truly changing lives at my beautiful practice, and people fly to us from all over the world. I am going to discuss one main topic every month. This month I am going to discuss the Vampire Facial made famous by a viral photograph of Kim Kardashian after she received one a few years ago.
A Vampire Facial can transform your skin but too many people are going to unqualified providers at salons and spas. This is a medical procedure that involves blood. It should not be taken lightly. It is a three-step process, and you must understand what those steps are.
Microneedling:
This is a procedure that creates thousands of microchannels in your skin. The goal is to cause a small amount of injury to your skin which then causes your body to heal those wounds. This process makes your skin better than it was before the treatment in many ways. It is a great procedure for scars especially those from acne. It also helps minimize, or in some cases completely eradicate, fine lines and wrinkles. And it makes your skin glow. In fact, micro needling has a host of benefits.
It promotes collagen production and makes skin thicker and healthier. We even use it for hair restoration. Since this involves needles, you must wonder if this is excruciatingly painful. In reality, if your doctor numbs your face with lidocaine cream, this should be quite a comfortable procedure. You may be a little red with minimal bruising for a couple of days but there is no real down time. At Bawa Medical we use SkinPen, a US made medical grade FDA cleared device. We use disposable cartridges and a biosheath to keep everything sterile.
We eliminate the risk of cross-contamination with blood from other people. This is something that you need to be aware of. While micro needling is a perfectly safe way to take years off your face, you must ask your provider important questions. When people disregard safety and hygiene protocols, they can cause you to be infected with HIV, Hepatitis C, and more.
The other issue is that incorrect equipment and training will lead to no improvement at best, and horrible scarring and lifelong damage plus or minus a blood borne disease at worst. Many places avoid the expense of a proper FDA cleared micro needling device like SkinPen,and use tattoo pens that cause microtears in your skin instead of microchannels. Some places even reuse needles. This is a real problem. My goal is not to scare you away from micro needling but to make you aware of certain issues so that you can ask the right questions.
PRP:
Platelet-rich plasma essentially consists of two parts. The first part is plasma and the other is platelets. PRP is basically blood that contains more platelets than blood at baseline. This contains growth factors that stimulate stem cells. Whether PRP is put in the scalp for hair restoration, on the face for anti-aging purposes, or in your genitalia for sexual wellness, it makes magic happen. At my Boca Raton practice Bawa Medical I also use PRFM (platelet- rich fibrin matrix) which is a more concentrated form of PRP. It stays in the area longer and has more concentrated growth factor, and so leads to more rejuvenation, collagen production, and more.
Again, the quality of the materials used makes a big difference. The PRP kit used by your provider can make a huge difference. At Bawa Medical we use an FDA-cleared kit that leads to a higher platelet yield. We then further concentrate it into PRFM for added benefits.
Aftercare:
No matter what is done in the medical office, what you do at home afterwards makes a big difference. The sun is not your friend. You will hear me say this many times. When you go into the sun after a procedure that has disturbed the top layer of your skin, you risk, among other things, issues with pigment. You may streak as you heal. I am sure that no one wants to look worse after a treatment than they did before. This is not a deal breaker. You must wear a mineral physical sunscreen and avoid prolonged time in direct sunlight for four weeks. Let me clarify this. You can walk to your car. Just don’t lie on the beach in the middle of the day.
With a little bit of aftercare, comes a lot of improvement. I also recommend using a high-quality growth factor serum after the procedure to not only speed up your healing but to increase the anti-aging effect of this treatment. In addition to sun avoidance, sunscreen, and growth factor, I also recommend a silver-based healing ointment after the procedure.
Now that we have discussed what a Vampire Facial is, and the different steps involved in the process, you must realize that most places that claim to be doing Vampire or PRP Facials are not certified in the procedure. You must ask important questions before booking your treatment. The most important of those questions is who will be performing your treatment. Do not feel embarrassed to ask about your provider’s qualification and certification. Do not feel embarrassed asking them details about their device or even the PRP kit being used. These are reasonable questions, and you must be an advocate for yourself. Now that you know better, you can do better. Remember that a Vampire or PRP facial is a perfectly safe procedure in the right hands. It is a procedure that I believe in not only for my patients, but also myself.
If you have any questions, or would like me to cover a specific topic, feel free to email me at info@bawamedical.com.