"However, unlike microneedling, which creates teeny-tiny punctures, using a plasma pen chars the skin,' says Lara Devgan, M.D., a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City. "[Plasma pens] basically cook a little dot of tissue," says Dr. Devgan, who adds that doing so does provide a "transient appearance" of tighter skin."
Despite the immediate results and benefits of using a plasma pen, the long-term results are less desirable. '"When you apply heat to tissue, you can tighten the tissue, but you're denaturing its proteins. Let's say you have a raw steak and you cook it. You're denaturing the proteins of the steak, so you're fundamentally changing it. The cooked steak doesn't look anything like the raw steak and it doesn't move the same way. It has a leathery quality; it doesn't have the same suppleness,' she says. 'So if that's your face, you want the smoothness, suppleness and movement of 'raw' or 'uncooked' tissue. And so that's the reason why applying heat or electrical or burning energy to the skin is not a desirable way to achieve tightening."'
'"The treatment also poses a risk of creating scars and pitting,' says Dr. Devgan. And people of color in particular are susceptible to treated areas becoming hyperpigmented. According to Dr. Devgan, these side effects 'can happen after [just] one session.'"
Xx Dr. Lara