Skin Care Education

Microneedling

A professional treatment that uses a device fitted with fine needles to create thousands of tiny, controlled punctures in the skin, triggering the body’s natural repair response and stimulating the production of new collagen and elastin.

What Is Microneedling?

Microneedling is a professional skin treatment that uses a device fitted with very fine needles to create hundreds of tiny, controlled punctures across the skin surface. These micro-injuries are too small to cause visible damage but are enough to activate the skin’s natural healing response. The body responds by increasing collagen and elastin production in the treated area, gradually improving skin quality, firmness, texture, and the appearance of scars and lines over the weeks and months following treatment.

The idea behind the treatment is straightforward: the skin responds to any injury by repairing it. By creating a large number of very small, controlled injuries across the skin surface, microneedling prompts the skin into a sustained repair and rebuilding response. This is the same principle behind the clinical term for the treatment, collagen induction therapy, which describes what the treatment achieves rather than how it is performed.

Microneedling is one of the most versatile professional skin treatments available. It can be performed on the face, neck, decolletage, and body, and is used to improve a broad range of concerns including fine lines, mild to moderate acne scarring, enlarged pores, uneven texture, stretch marks, and general skin quality. It is suitable for most skin types and tones, which makes it one of the more universally applicable treatments in a professional skin clinic.

What to Expect

A numbing cream is applied to the skin before treatment and left for 20 to 30 minutes. Once the skin is adequately numb, the microneedling device is moved systematically across the treatment area. The sensation with good numbing is typically a mild scratching or vibration rather than pain. Some areas feel more sensitive than others, particularly around bony areas and the nose.

After treatment the skin looks and feels like mild sunburn, red and warm, which is a normal part of the healing response. This typically settles within 24 to 48 hours. Tiny pinpoint marks may be visible on the skin surface for the first day or two. Most people are comfortable returning to their normal routine within two to three days, though some redness can persist for longer depending on the depth of treatment.

Results build gradually over several weeks as new collagen forms and matures. Most people notice improvement from around four to six weeks after treatment, with results continuing to develop for up to three to six months. A course of three to six sessions spaced four to six weeks apart is typically recommended for the best outcome, particularly for concerns such as acne scarring or significant texture irregularities.

Who It’s For and Results

Microneedling is suited to most adults who want to improve their skin quality, address fine lines and early laxity, reduce the visibility of acne scarring, refine enlarged pores, or improve overall skin texture and radiance. It is one of the few professional treatments suitable across all skin tones, as it does not target pigment and therefore carries very low risk of pigmentation changes in darker skin, making it a valuable option for those who cannot safely undergo more aggressive resurfacing.

Active acne, open wounds, and certain skin conditions are contraindications. A consultation will identify any individual factors to consider before treatment. For those with darker skin tones, microneedling is often a preferred resurfacing option precisely because of its favourable safety profile across all skin tones.

Over a course of treatments, microneedling produces cumulative improvements in skin texture, firmness, and clarity. Pores appear smaller, fine lines soften, scars become less noticeable, and the overall quality of the skin is noticeably improved. Maintenance treatments once or twice a year sustain the collagen-building response over time and keep the skin in good condition between more intensive programmes.

Frequently Asked Questions: Microneedling

Yes. Collagen induction therapy is the clinical term for the same treatment widely known as microneedling. Both describe a procedure that uses fine needles to create controlled micro-injuries in the skin that stimulate collagen and elastin production. The clinical name describes the outcome of the treatment, while microneedling describes how it is performed. In practice the two terms are used interchangeably and refer to exactly the same procedure.

With a properly applied numbing cream, most people find microneedling very manageable and describe the sensation as a mild scratching or vibration across the skin rather than pain. Some areas, particularly around the forehead, nose, and upper lip, may feel more sensitive than the rest of the face. The depth of treatment also affects the sensation, with deeper settings used for scarring producing a stronger feeling than lighter settings used for general skin quality improvement. Without numbing, the treatment would be significantly more uncomfortable, which is why numbing cream is a standard part of any professional protocol.

Standard microneedling uses needles alone to create the micro-injuries that stimulate collagen production. Radiofrequency microneedling combines the needles with radiofrequency energy delivered through the needle tips directly into the dermis at the moment of penetration. The addition of heat produces a more intense collagen-stimulating response and also tightens the tissue in a way that needles alone do not achieve. Radiofrequency microneedling is generally considered a step up in terms of results, particularly for skin laxity and deeper tissue remodelling, but it is also a more intensive treatment with a slightly longer recovery and higher cost.

Yes. Microneedling is used on the neck, decolletage, hands, abdomen, and other body areas for concerns including stretch marks, skin laxity, and general skin quality improvement. The same principles apply as for facial treatment, though the depth and protocol may be adjusted for the specific area. Body microneedling for stretch marks in particular can produce meaningful improvement in the texture and colour of stretch marks over a course of treatments, though complete elimination of established stretch marks is not typically achievable.