The Clinical Side of Microdermabrasion: Which Clients Are Best Suited for This Treatment

Microdermabrasion is a wonderful treatment for many patients, providing an opportunity to rid a client of the outer layer of skin, dead skin, and bring to light the fresh, youthful appearing skin beneath. It is accomplished through many different methods including mechanical abrasion from jets of zinc oxide or by aluminum oxide crystals. Clients best suited for microdermabrasion are those who have sun damaged skin, dark skin spots, acne scaring or rough skin that can be helped through the process.

The darker a client’s skin, the better suited they are in general for the microdermabrasion process. Those clients who have extremely light or fair skin, and especially those with freckles, need to avoid exposure to the sun afterwards.  

Fortunately for those who need microdermabrasion it is a safe procedure that requires no anesthetic. It works best in removing scars that are level with , or above skin level and not as well with sunken scars. For treatment of acne it is effective but the process needs to be repeated periodically. It is very important that those who have taken the medication Accutane, or Isotretinion in the previous 12 months avoid microdermabrasion as it can cause complications.

When microdermabrasion came to the United States in the 1990’s it was quickly adopted for use by many spas. It was found to work effectively with clients who have fine wrinkles, stretch marks and moderate scares. Of course, clients should be in good health, should have reasonable expectations, and should understand the sun avoidance that is recommended. Microdermabrasion has become one of the most popular treatment methods in the United States. In 2005 for instance it was one of the top five procedures with almost 150,000 performed. This is an increase of twenty-six perform from just two years earlier. Microdermabrasion by the way was developed in 1985 in Italy and quickly spread throughout Europe, being a successor to the outer lay of skin removal methods that date back to 1500 BCE in Egypt, when a sandpaper method was used to remove scars. In the 1800’s dermabrasion, a cousin that is more invasive, was introduced in Europe using human powered machines, eventually replaced by wire brush devices. Dermabrasion however can be painful, has a long down time for recovery and requires anesthesia, as well as having the possibility of infection, so many people consider microdermabrasion to be a step forward.