A conversation with Dr. Kim Peirano about Cosmetic Facial Acupuncture
A conversation with Dr. Kim Peirano about Cosmetic Facial Acupuncture TTW: Hello Dr. Peirano, introduce yourself and tell us about your specialty Cosmetic Facial Acupuncture. KP: Yes, I’m Dr. Kim Peirano. I’m a doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine and I see patients here at Tao to Wellness in Berkeley, California and one of my specialties is cosmetic facial acupuncture. I wanted to give you some information around the treatment so it can help you understand how it works, who it’s right for, who it’s not right for and what to expect during a treatment. So, cosmetic facial acupuncture is often referred to as an acupuncture facelift. And while this term isn’t completely false because we do see a lot of lifting and rejuvenating during this process. If you’re looking for the results of a surgical facelift or other medical cosmetic procedures like Botox, filler or laser resurfacing, these types of things, then cosmetic acupuncture is probably going to fall short for you. Now, on the other hand, if you’re looking for a treatment that is going to help you feel like yourself again, help you reconnect with that inner spark that drives you and show that out into the world, bring that glow back, get a little bit of lift in your face, a little bit of softening of those wrinkles you have and also learn how to feel less reactive to them and to the process of aging. Then facial acupuncture is the perfect treatment for you! TTW: Got it, who else might benefit from this treatment? KP: It’s also a really great treatment for those of you who are younger and looking to kind of stave off the aging process. Maybe you’re thinking about getting preventative Botox, so coming to facial acupuncture is a really great first step before doing that preventative Botox because we get really great results with younger skin because of your skin’s natural inherent reserves of collagen, elastin, glycosaminoglycans, and all those things that help your skin stay really plump. TTW: So, what can you expect during a facial acupuncture treatment? KP: We’re actually going to do a whole regular acupuncture treatment. So we’re going to do a full intake just like you were here for regular acupuncture and go over any and all other complaints you might have. Maybe pain in your body, digestive issues, issues with sleep, hormone imbalances, emotions, stress, everything, because all of those pieces affect the way we actually look in the world. So part of what I love about facial acupuncture is that it’s addressing this piece of underlying factors that are affecting the way our face looks. You can kind of think about like the face you make when you stub your toe on a table is a pretty wrinkly and stressed looking face. So when we get ourselves out of pain, we get digestion moving again, we’re sleeping better, this is all going to show up on your skin and out in the world. So, a big piece of this treatment is the holistic healing that we do. Now, once we go your medical history and state of current health, we’re going to talk about your intentions for treatments, I’m actually going to give you a mirror and have you point out the things that you want to address because what I see is not what you see and it’s all about what you see. You’re going to help guide me as to what you want to focus on for this treatment. And then we’re going to just go over the process of the treatment and get you on the table. TTW: So you’re doing a full body acupuncture treatment and addressing the face as well? KP: We do full body acupuncture for this treatment and then a directed facial acupuncture treatment, which includes some kind of lift and pinning where we do some needles in the scalp, we do some needles in the face to lift wherever we need, lifting and then some smaller needles into specific wrinkles. What’s happening is the act of the needle in the skin triggers fibroblasts in the connective tissue. Now, fibroblasts are responsible for healing wounds. So when we needle the skin, that’s technically a wound and fibroblasts are going to be triggered to help heal it. How do they heal it? With collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans. All of these things that make your skin naturally look plump, firm and softened. So, we’re triggering that process and we’re also relaxing muscles that are over engaged. So, when we’re squinting like this, we’re engaging these muscles and we’re reengaging muscles that are losing tension, they’re losing mass. And this is why we get sagging in the skin. So when skin starts to sag, we’re losing mass and tension in our muscles, with acupuncture we are helping re-gauge and balancing the area. So we can do both at the same time, which is really cool. I call these the four pillars of holistic skincare. So, we’re addressing the muscles of the face. We are addressing fibroblasts. We’re triggering that collagen production. We’re addressing the whole person. And the fourth thing is that we’re doing no harm, Some treatments – if we do them too much or too aggressively or on the wrong type of skin, they’re going to cause damage to the dermal papola layer of the skin. This is the layer that kind of connects and transmutes nutrients through the epidermis and the dermis. And when it gets damaged, it buckles and this is how we get wrinkles. So if you do too many chemical peels, this is a risk that you might have. With acupuncture, it’s an incredibly safe treatment. The damage from the needling is very, very minimal. And so it doesn’t produce that damage to the derma papola dermal pele layer and it hits all of four of these pillars of holistic skin care. TTW: What does a person notice specifically and what does a
Dr. Kim Peirano’s Enhanced, Holistic Acupuncture Facelift Treatment
Dr. Kim Peirano’s Enhanced, Holistic Acupuncture Facelift Treatment Tao to Wellness is now offering an exciting new service with Dr. Kim Peirano! Dr. Kim is the creator and instructor of the Integrative Cosmetic Acupuncture Method and will be offering it in our Berkeley office starting in October! What is Cosmetic Acupuncture, Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture or an “Acupuncture Facelift”? All of these are essentially the same, a way to address the concerns that many of us have around aging with the magnificence of acupuncture! The practice is actually thousands of years old and originally a treatment reserved only for royalty in China What is the Integrative Cosmetic Acupuncture Method? While Dr. Kim’s method is designed to help with diminishing fine lines and deeper wrinkles, reducing bags, firming jowl areas, lifting droopy eyelids and minimizing double chins – all the things that a typical Cosmetic Acupuncture treatment focuses on, she’s expertly layered it with a protocol taking it one step further paying special attention to the whole body and approaching it from a holistic viewpoint for total wellness. This method utilizes the best of both worlds. What are the benefits of doing an acupuncture facelift instead of botox, lasers or peels? For one, it’s completely natural, safe, effective and much less invasive. One of the biggest problems with other procedures like IPLs, chemical peels and lasers is that they compromise the epidermis and cause thinning over time. Acupuncture does not do this at all. In addition, by doing it this way the dermal papillae remains intact, which is a layer of the skin that’s very important for an effortless exchange of oxygen, nutrients, and waste products. This method treats the whole body and brings your essence or radiance from the inside out. How does the Integrative Cosmetic Acupuncture Method work? We administer tiny hair like needles into the face along areas where you would like to see change. When we do this, a micro trauma is sensed by the body’s immune system signaling the cell to release growth factors and increase fibroblast division. Fibroblasts are cells responsible for making collagen, elastin and glycosaminosglycans (GAGs) which are three components that create ideal features in the complexion and skin overall- plumpness, firmness and elasticity. Can the Integrative Cosmetic Acupuncture Method help with sagging? Oh definitely! Did you know that there are 57 muscles in the face that can lose their tone and mass as we grow older? With acupuncture we can actually retrain those muscles to contract or relax, depending on what outcome we’d like. Am I a good candidate for the Integrative Cosmetic Acupuncture Method? Simply put, if you want to look and feel your best or even utilize cosmetic facial acupuncture as a supplement to your already existing cosmetic treatments, this service is a great match! Dr. Kim Peirano has worked with patients from 18 to 80 years old, and very often the patient sees a recognizable difference on the same day with fantastic results over a series of 10 weekly sessions. What can I expect during a treatment? Very similar to being a new patient at Tao to Wellness, Dr. Kim Peirano will go through a very thorough Chinese medical intake, she will also ask you what it is that you would like to enhance or target, because what she sees isn’t necessarily what you see when you look in the mirror! From there, you’ll get comfortable on our massage table, and simply relax while Dr. Kim gently inserts tiny hair like needles into the body and into your face, the experience is mostly painless, and if there are any sensations, it might mimic a mosquito bite at most! Patients will then rest with the needles in for around 30 minutes, most patients usually fall asleep! In conclusion, facial acupuncture may rewind or erase five, ten or fifteen years off your face! Aside from the disappearance of fine lines and deeper wrinkles, bags can be reduced, jowls firmed up, droopy eyelids lifted and double chins completely minimized. There are other advantages as well, like enhancing the moisture of the skin with the increased circulation of blood and lymph, increased collagen production of course, tightening of the pores and brightening of the eyes to bring back the radiance to your face and demeanor. If your curious and have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Dr. Kim at kim@berkeley-acupuncture.com.
