Needleless Serum Infusion Treatment

The COVID19 pandemic has changed the world and changed our lives in so many ways. Wearing a mask when we are out has become the new norm. Working from home has become the default for a lot of us. These changes inevitably cause some of us to alter our lifestyle drastically, including staying up late, eating unhealthy meals and forgetting to exercise. This indirectly causes our skin quality to deteriorate and become more prone to acne and scars. In addition, wearing a mask in our hot and humid climate leads to developing mask-related acne, or commonly known as maskne.

How do we deal with these adverse skin changes due to mask wearing and poor lifestyle? Here are the 5 tips that can help improve and maintain your skin quality during this period.

Invest in good skin care products

We often ignore the importance of skin care (and skin care products) when we are not meeting people regularly. It is as if we take care of our skin just to look good in front of others. Like it or not, how you look does affect your self esteem and confidence. Good skin makes you look and feel good about yourself.

Invest in yourself – by investing in good and suitable skin care products. Use quality cleanser, moisturiser, sunblock and skin anti-ageing serum such as vitamin C and peptide serum diligently. This will keep your skin under control on good and bad days, and reduce the likelihood of having acne breakouts and acne scars.

Protect your skin from the sun, and cleanse your face thoroughly each time after you workout. This can prevent bacteria proliferation around the facial skin that leads to acne.

Have good regular facial treatment

Due to prolonged mask wearing, there is often trapped moisture around the face. This causes congested skin and pores, which becomes a perfect breeding ground for bacteria that inevitably leads to maskne. It also does not help that some people do not change or wash their mask regularly. This explains a sudden increase in acne breakouts during this pandemic period. Therefore, what you do at home (cleansing) may not be sufficient sometimes.

Go for a regular facial treatment, such as the popular Hydrafacial. Hydrafacial is an effective multi-step treatment that combines the benefits of hydra der­mabrasion, a chemical peel and painless extractions with a special delivery of antioxidants, hyaluronic acid and peptides. This helps cleanse the facial skin more thoroughly and improve overall skin hydration and skin health.

Use retinol

Retinol is a form of vitamin A, which is one of the body’s key nutrients for boosting cell turnover. It is commonly used to treat acne and reduce wrinkles.

Retinol works by triggering the skin cells to turnover faster so that new skin cells can generate. By doing so, it also helps increase the production of essential chemicals such as hyaluronic acid and collagen that help improve overall skin quality.

Retinol helps improve acne skin by accelerating cell turnover and reduces oil production. Decreased oil production prevents oil from clogging up pores and helps to prevent acne.
Collectively, this results in a smoother skin with less acne. Add a retinol in your skin care routine!

Try facial laser

Facial laser treatment has set a new standard for skin rejuvenation treatment. Laser helps improve skin pigmentation, pores, acne, overall skin tone and skin texture.

Gentlemax Pro laser is an option to explore when addressing concerns like acne, redness, and acne scars. While it’s not a one-time solution, regular sessions can contribute to maintaining healthier skin.

Pico laser toning is a lunchtime laser treatment that you can do on a monthly basis to help improve your overall skin quality and maintain a radiant and glowy skin tone. It is almost painless with minimal to no downtime, perfect for individuals with busy schedules.

See a doctor

If you struggle with keeping up with your adverse skin changes, perhaps it is time to seek professional help. Sometimes, in more severe cases, you may require medications such as antibiotic cream, retinoids (stronger version of retinol) and antibiotic tablets to treat maskne. These can only be prescribed by doctors.

Let your doctor assess your skin condition and prescribe the most appropriate medication and treatment for you.

If your acne has subsided and you end up left with scars — typically lumps or uneven bumps — you may want to seek effective remedies in reversing the condition. Here are a few typical acne scarring treatments available in Singapore skin clinics.

Laser treatment: A nonsurgical procedure, where your skin is exposed to laser beams that provide high levels of energy. This removes the outer layers of skin and heats up the skin, and stimulates regeneration.

Radiofrequency microneedling: This is comparable to laser therapy, except that insulated microscopic needles and radiofrequency are used rather than lasers. These direct the energy to targeted spots. These are offered under brand names such as Infini and Venus Viva.

Chemical peels: Sounds gross, but it is only an acid solution that is applied to the skin to slough off the surface. Remember how we mentioned creams with salicylic to help exfoliate skin? Think as an amped-up variant of that of chemical peels. Based on the solution it could be sold under a brand name such as TCA Cross or as a chemical peel that is generic.

Subcision: This is a surgical process to bumpy skin with depressed scars. A needle is inserted to break down the scar tissue, elevating up the scar .

Punch excision/grafting: This one is kind of a”cut & paste” method. The scar not unlike a cookie cutter cuts . Then a plug of skin is used to fill the emptiness up. The graft is held in place with steri-strips sutures, or a unique skin glue.

Dermal fillers: Not especially a acne scar remedy, but frequently provided by skin clinics to plump up the epidermis and make it appear younger and smoother. In the process, a protein called hyaluronic gel is injected beneath the skin’s surface. It marketed under brand names such as Juvederm and Restylane.