You may or may not have recently seen the term Microdermabrasion pop up online on cosmetic blogs. It has quickly gained prominence as a buzzword for facial treatments but there is a lot of conflicting information out there about what it is and how it works.

In this blog post I thought it would be a good idea to take some of the most common questions I’ve been asked about microdermabrasion and help provide a nice insight to help better inform you exactly what it is all about.

So what is microdermabrasion?

Taking the name at face value (no pun intended) it is “micro” abrasion of the dermus (aka skin) on the surface level in a deep and concentrated manner. It’s best to think of it as deep exfoliation for your skin that really gets in there.

And why is that important?

Think of how you would usually exfoliate your face. You might be in the shower and when you’ve run your face under warm water for long enough you give it a good scrub and it can feel a little sore and red after. That’s because (If you’ve done it right) you’ve been disturbing your pores and trying to get them clean and get the oils that can cuase problems out.

Disturbing your pores is bad?

Well yes and no. A good exfoliation can help lift oils and dirt off your skin that would just sit there and plug up your pores.  Getting your pores to be entirely clean is almost impossible though when we’re talking about trying to completely clean your skin at home with a scrubber and some soap. The most visible example we all get of dirt being stuck in our pores are blackheads which commonly accumulate around the edges of the nose.

So what can Microdermabrasion do?

This type of cosmetic treatment can do an amazing job of attacking the dirt in pores in such a precise and small level that anything bad in there has no option but to get up and get out.

And how does it work?

The treatment is administered using a hand wand which is plugged to machine that contains a mix of medical grade crystals that isn’t too dissimilar in touch to sand. These very small crystals are blasted from the wand on to the skin and simultaneously pulled back up another tube in the wand. This dual process gets in to pores, picks at the dirt, lifts it and then pulls it out cleanly.

This leaves a patient with skin that has been expertly cleaned out on a micro level and feels fresher than usual.

And what can Microdermabrasion be used for?

Ideally someone would want to use this treatment as an alternative to repetitive exfoliation at home, especially if they want to try and improve some problems with their skin.

What problems can Microdermabrasion help with?

Common conditions is help relieve the symptoms of include rosacea, skin tone, adult acne, acne scarring and broken blood vessels on the cheeks.