Charleston Wound Care: Where Healing Can Be Beautiful
If you’ve explored the realm of nonsurgical beauty treatments, you’ve likely heard of the benefits of microneedling, especially when combined with radio frequency. In case you haven’t, here’s the way it works:
Radio frequency microneedling, powered by an aesthetic platform, creates microscopic injuries using a handheld device containing hundreds of tiny, thin needles that puncture the skin, stimulating cell regeneration. The radio frequency heats the surrounding tissue, tightening the skin and remodeling the collagen structure within the affected tissue. It might sound like a torture device, but, in reality, it’s a nearly painless way to help tighten and repair skin.
“While treatments like this are most often used in aesthetics,” said Dr. Christopher Michaelis of Charleston Wound Care, “we’re very excited to make use of this for medical reasons.”
Because of the practice’s passion for wound healing, which involves skin care, they recognized there was an overlap of aesthetics and wound care.
“It’s the same body of knowledge,” Dr. Michaelis said. “It’s just two ends of the spectrum.”
“We recently had a patient who came in for some assistance with a hypertrophic scar,” Dr. Michaelis shared. “He’d had a bike accident about a year ago, and, though the wound had healed, the scar had become hypertrophic, which means an abnormal physiological response caused the scar to be thick and raised. You’ll often see them where the skin is pulled taut on the body, especially joints, such as knees and elbows, although they can occur anywhere you’ve had an injury. The scar was also draining.”
“Since our patient didn’t want surgery, we suggested that the area could possibly be treated with lasers at a different practice or that we could try the Morpheus 8 from our new aesthetic practice next door. He didn’t want to go outside our practice and was game for the Morpheus treatment,” Dr. Michaelis continued. “So that’s what we did.”
The patient was thrilled with the result after just one treatment, although the team at Charleston Wound Care has suggested two or three more sessions.
“Using Morpheus 8 to address and remodel the disorganized tissue is great,” said Dr. Michaelis. “It takes a very short period of time, maybe a whole minute, if that, for this particular patient, and it’s relatively painless. Because of its convenience and minimal discomfort, it encourages patient compliance. I have no doubt he’ll be back for his follow-up treatments. That’s great, because the Morpheus 8 technology has a cumulative effect.”
“Another great feature of this option is that the device grades the temperature as the needles go in, so it’s not hot at the surface, which leads to few signs of external trauma to the skin. There’s no superficial burning, and the downtime is almost nil.”
In the simplest of terms, the science behind the treatment takes disorganized tissues – imagine a bunch of knotted threads – and reorganizes them, giving you smoother skin, or, in the case of the knotted threads, a beautifully knitted blanket.
“Scars often create those areas of disorganized tissue, and, using this treatment, you basically hit the reset button and heal the wound all over again,” said Dr. Michaelis.
Though one can see immediate results, the treatments have a continuous effect so multiple sessions are sometimes needed.
“We’re very pleased having added this technology to our practice,” Dr. Michaelis shared. “The Morpheus 8 product is just one of many devices we use from the Optimus Max platform by Inmode. We were one of the first practices in South Carolina to get a hold of one, which allows us a great deal of flexibility. Using different handheld attachments, such as Morpheus 8, we’re able to offer a variety of procedures – whether those procedures are for healing or aesthetics. There are attachments for fractional radio frequency, hair removal and vascular treatments.”
In addition, Charleston Wound Care has begun utilizing a product called Ariessence pure PDGF+ that, when used after microneedling or laser treatments, helps the skin heal faster. The PDGF stands for platelet-derived growth factor, which is known to improve skin elasticity as well. The product provides more than 1,000 times the amount of growth factor than other post-treatment products.
“This product has shown to have some really exciting effects for wound healing,” said Dr. Michaelis. “Additionally, as far as these treatments go, it’s relatively inexpensive.”
The aesthetics component of Charleston Wound Care also adds to the practice’s already spa-like setting.
“Yes,” said Dr. Michaelis, acknowledging that the environment at Charleston Wound Care alone resembles a spa. “Part of our attitude toward healing and recovery is that there is no reason a medical practice has to ‘look medical.’ If you’re wounded or in pain or need treatment, there’s no reason for us to shove you into a room that looks clinical. Healing is a whole-body and mind process and being treated in a welcoming, soothing setting can help.”
“As we dive deeper into the technology of wound healing and the preventive aging of tissue, it just made sense to us to include this type of technology into our practice. Much of what we see in wound care is a product of neglect of tissue, general health and natural degeneration. With this technology, there is so much you can do preventive-wise.”
“As I’ve said, it’s the same technology, working at two ends of the spectrum,” Dr. Michaelis concluded.
By Amy Gesell