For most women, a tiny pimple on the face is enough to ruin their day. Or week. Even the slightest imperfection that may have a 1% chance of getting noticed by others will freak them out. For these women, Melasma is their darkest nightmare. It’s a pretty common issue, a result of exposure to the sun, that causes brown patches on the face. Permanent patches, I should add.
If you’re suffering from Melasma, the road to “recovery” usually looks like this:
- You hope that it’ll fade away.
- Your friend suggests you try apple cider vinegar and lemon juice treatment.
- Slightly disappointed.
- You visit a dermatologist who’ll prescribe a bleaching cream (hydroquinone or similar).
- Full-on disappointment.
- You Google the hell out of the topic.
- Overwhelm.
- Concealers and makeup become your best friend.
At this point, no one can convince you there is a treatment for getting rid of melasma. Trying more and more treatments only runs the risk of making the condition worse. So what would you do?
What About Platelet-Rich Plasma For Melasma?
According to recent Turkish and Malaysian studies, Platelet-Rich Plasma is showing great promise for melasma. The one good thing about PRP for Melasma is the fact that PRP won’t make the condition worse unlike IPL, Fraxel, or other treatments. So that’s one of the treatments you can confidently try without worry. It’s like getting a natural facial treatment that has a whole lot of potential benefits even if it didn’t help cure melasma.
PRP injections work by supplying growth factors to reduce the pigmentation. And being an independent treatment with no downtime, it can be done in conjunction with conventional treatments for melasma to add and enhance the effects. There are more than 30 bioactive substances in Platelet-Rich Plasma that have separate roles like increasing skin volume and adding new blood vessels to name a few.
Platelet-Rich Plasma with Microneedling
This is the most common combination for Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy. Here’s a video of Dr. Michael Somenek performing a PRP injection on a patient of his immediately after microneedling. The combination is known to have produced results for a lot of varieties of skin pigmentation issues that it’d not be wise for anyone to ignore it for melasma, especially when creams and peels didn’t help. More important is PRP’s ability to stimulate collagen production in the area so it tightens the pores and makes your skin glowing.
Why Platelet-Rich Plasma?
PRP is primarily a healing vehicle. It needs to be injected into the membrane below the skin. The way it works is by supplying the underlying skin membrane with collagen and tenascin stimulated by the transforming growth factors in PRP. These growth factors also promote the formation of new blood vessels that in some cases results in the disappearance of spider veins.
The released growth factors (mainly platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), epidermal growth factor (EGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), and transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß)) can stimulate the proliferation of fibroblasts and epidermal cells, and collagen synthesis. In addition, the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-ß) has been proven to inhibit melanogenesis — or reverse skin pigmentation — the exact opposite effect of exposure to UV-B radiation.
Typically, patients see excellent results with 2-3 PRP injections in the first 3 months. And clinical studies have shown that it will maintain after 6 months. However, Melasma is known to recur even after successful treatments. So you must take precautions against it by using sunscreen with broad-spectrum protection and an SPF of 30 or higher. And avoid skincare products that are harsh as they can exacerbate melasma.
