NON-SURGICAL REJUVENATION OF FACE AND NECK BY SURFACE APPLICATION OF STEM CELL TRANSPLANTS

When it comes to human psychology and body image, our face is the most important part of our body. It is the part of the body we cannot hide, the part we depend on most for communication.

When we look at another person seeking information, we most often look at the face for clues.

When we speak to each other, we look at our faces.

When we make judgments about each other, we get most of information from our faces.

It is no wonder, then, that 70 percent of cosmetic medical (non-surgical) and surgical procedures are performed on the face.

BRIEF HISTORY

In response to the demands of their clientele that wished to stay young longer, in the late 19th century nameless cosmetologists in Paris, France, began to apply various chemicals to the facial skin. This procedure - later on named ‘chemical peel’ or a ‘chemical desquamation’ - was gradually perfected and in the twenties and thirties of the 20th century it became the ‘secret’ of ageless Hollywood stars.

In the meantime a surgical face lift appeared but for a long time it was a minor operation, a ‘mini-lift’, so called because its benefit was indeed small, and temporary: after 6 – 12 months or so patients sought another lift or ‘tightening’.

Techniques of face & forehead & neck lift have gradually improved, and now the results of such surgery can last up to 10 years, unless the patient’s body is destroyed by severe illness, or gross inattention to health, such as  poor nutrition, drug abuse, chronic alcoholism, cigarette smoking, self-destructive lifestyle, poor personal hygiene, or skin of the face and neck that is damaged by a continuous exposure to elements without protection: sun, other sources of radiation, freezing temperatures, wind, etc.

Of course, we have to add the effects of aging to the list, because aging does not stop on the day of face & neck lift. The only way to slow down the aging is by treatment of aging disease.

Our ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face & neck emerged in 1992-4, when our company developed a new non-surgical treatment of deep burns, the kind of burns that had always required skin grafting before. In 1994, at 10th World Congress of Burn Injuries in Paris, France, we presented our results whereby we proved that patients with burns requiring skin grafting can be treated with nearly 100% success rate by use of a surface application of fetal cells of skin and placenta, faster than with surgery, and with better cosmetic results. In this way skin grafting operations, painful and costly, often repeated many times, could be avoided in majority of instances.

The idea behind the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face & neck was simple. First remove the aged epidermis from the face and neck, or other body parts, and then stimulate growth of a new young skin by a surface application of precursor stem cells of skin and placenta, and of other organs if necessary.

DRAWBACKS OF FACE & NECK LIFT SURGERY LINK TO CHAPTER ON REJUVENATION SURGERY OF FACE AND NECK

With improving, and ever more aggressive, techniques of face and neck lift, a new problem has arrived, a changed appearance of a patient after surgery. In those countries where face & neck lift is frequently carried out this fact has become a common knowledge. All one needs to do is to look at movie or TV screens; some well known actors do look younger but can hardly be recognized by their fans.

With a ‘classical’ face lift this used to be a frequent problem only after the second face & neck  lift surgery of a particular patient. If a surgeon performed a second or possibly third face & neck lift or eyelid surgery for a given patient, he had to take extreme care not to ‘overdo it’. In the hands of less experienced surgeons the face turned into a statue, sometimes with a grotesque smile, or mouth permanently widened.

Besides that, like with every surgical operation, face & neck lift has its complications. There is possibility of damaging the branches of the facial nerve during the course of face & neck lift surgery, and a risk of causing a pull down of the lower eyelid so that the white of the eyes shows under the cornea.

Bleeding under the skin, or hematoma, occurs very rarely after forehead lift surgery, but it will occur in about 2 - 5 percent of patients after face & neck lift surgery. In those cases the patient may need to be taken back to the operating room, where some of the sutures are removed, blood is drained, and the bleeding from a vessel is stopped. Then the skin is stitched back and bandages reapplied. Another 5% of patients has minor hematomas after face lift that resolve by themselves. They cause a lumpiness, usually in the cheek area, which may take two to three months to disappear.  

THE ‘MM’ METHOD OF REJUVENATION OF FACE AND NECK

As the public has become aware that a modern face & neck lift changes the appearance of a person, so that one does not look the same anymore, a growing number of people began to search alternative methods of facial rejuvenation, such as the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face and neck by a surface application of stem cells of skin and placenta.

With the ‘MM’ method we finally can speak of a ‘real’ rejuvenation of skin because the new skin that grows on the treated face & neck  is indeed at the stage of fetal development, and it will take a long time to age.

Remember, no cloned cells are used in the ‘MM’ method, thus the story of a certain sheep ‘Dolly’ will not repeat itself here.

The advantage of this new method of rejuvenation of the face and neck is that you continue to look yourself after such treatment, and it makes no difference how many times you repeat the procedure! If you start at the age of 40 and repeat the treatment every 5 years or so, you will always look as “YOU”, even after five to ten repetitions.  

The main difference is that while the face & neck lift deals with the excessive quantity of skin as a result of aging, the ‘MM’ method of facial rejuvenation improves the quality of skin.

At the same time the ‘MM’ method eliminates all disadvantages of the chemical peel of classical type, such as

1/ possible horrendous complications due to which use of deep chemical peel on the neck has been forbidden because of a high degree of risk of thick scars that cannot be eliminated by any known treatment.  

The ‘MM’ method of facial rejuvenation can be used safely not only on the face, but also on the entire neck.

2/ possible discoloration of the skin due to which chemical peel has been used only for Caucasians with fair dry skin and blue or green eyes, who genetically have low amounts of the pigment melanin in their bodies.

The MM’ method of facial rejuvenation by a surface application of stem cell transplants cannot be used on black people and dark red or olive skin people either, but can be used for all other, such as light olive or light red skinned individuals.

3/ a white sculptured look resulting from a classical deep chemical peel due to uncontrolled regeneration of skin, which is unavoidable with such procedure.

The majority of people prefer a more natural, youthful appearance obtained by the ‘MM’ method of facial rejuvenation, without ‘bleaching effect’, and without the appearance of a statue. The natural look is due to a complete control of skin regeneration by the applied stem cells.

But the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face & neck cannot tighten neck tissues beyond a certain limit. If a patient seeks help too late, when the neck skin is hanging down in folds, then a minor neck lift has to be carried out with the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face & neck – at the same time. All scars from such a surgical intervention are hidden behind ears.

The same applies if the patient has bags of fatty tissue in the upper and lower eyelids: these have to be removed by surgery, which can be done together with the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face & neck. The scars from such an operation are not visible as they are inside of lower eyelids.

‘MM’ method, along with non-surgical ancillary procedures, such as BOTOX, ‘fillers’, replaces a modern aggressive face & neck lift for most patients.

For very deep frown lines above the root of your nose, there is no need for forehead lift to eliminate the lines. All lines on the forehead, or around the eye are removed by repeated Botox injections. In some people, naso-labial lines, which are those lines that run from the nostril down towards the lip, separating the cheek from the upper lip, are so deep that they will never be perfectly flattened to the patient's satisfaction by face lift. Quite often these deep creases are hereditary, with some people developing them in their 20’s. Here an injection of ‘filler’ is appropriate.

WHAT HAPPENS DURING REJUVENATION OF FACE & NECK BY ‘MM’ METHOD

With the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face and neck, the treating physician first applies the proprietary ‘Vargas’ chemical formulas to the skin of the face and neck to remove the epidermis, the superficial layer of the skin. The structure of the top layers of the deeper layer of the skin, called the dermis, gets thereby modified in a desirable way as well.

Then, secondly, two days later a surface application of stem cells of skin and placenta begins, as a result of which the body regenerates the removed superficial layers of the skin - with guarantee - within 48 hours. This new skin is tight and free of wrinkles, free of such superficial blemishes that appear in the aging skin as: keratosis (patches of thickened skin): aging spots; and other forms of irregular pigmentation such as freckles and increased showing of the superficial capillaries (telangiectasia). Most of these blemishes will not reappear at a later date.

We would like to make clear that the ‘MM’ method of facial rejuvenation requires removal of epidermis in the first stage, because otherwise stem cells could not perform their regenerative action. Stem cells cannot penetrate intact skin.

Removal of epidermis is performed under neuroleptanalgesia. In this type of anesthesia drugs separate brain cortex from lower parts of the brain. As a result, the patient can respond to the commands of the treating physician, but does not perceive any pain, or remember any discomfort whatsoever. Without that, when the treating physician would touch any part of patient’s skin with a ‘Vargas’ formula for the first time, there would be a stinging sensation for a second or two, following which the skin becomes anesthetized. With neuroleptanalgesia there is none.

The physician will go over the entire face and neck from one region to the next, using a safe amount of the ‘Vargas’ formula. Different parts of the face and neck are treated by a different amount of ‘Vargas’ formula, and its variations, depending on the amount of skin looseness, the depth of wrinkles, and other clinical considerations.

The procedure is done slowly, because the chemical used is toxic and it has to be removed from the body by the liver and kidneys. During and after the procedure you will receive intravenous solutions, and after the procedure, you are asked to drink copious amounts of fluids to wash the chemical out of the body.

The patient’s heart is monitored by electrocardiograph at all times and in case any irregularities occur, the procedure is interrupted until the heart rate is regular again.

Before the procedure every patient is examined and tested for diseases or malfunction of heart, liver and kidneys.

After the treatment, a special water-repellant tape is applied all over the treated area. Tape is applied in the form of a mask to the entire face and neck, with small openings only for eyes, nostrils, and mouth. This tape stays on for two days.

After two days the mask is removed, and immediately a suspension of stem cells of skin and placenta is applied to the raw skin surface, and such applications are repeated three more times over 48 hours.

After four days a red, thin, fragile skin is unveiled. This new ‘baby’ skin requires a lot of tender loving care: application of cold cream or moisturizers every one to two hours is necessary. The redness gradually fades away over two months.

Will there be any pain after the removal of epidermis?

The anesthesia of the skin caused by application of ‘Vargas’ formulas, wears off after four hours. At this point, and this is the only time during the post-treatment period, the patient will have a burning sensation in the treated face and neck which will last less than four hours, and requires a pain medication. Afterward there is no more pain, and the patient starts to experience itching of the new skin which lasts 2 – 3 days.

What kind of post-treatment care is required?

Even though small openings are made in the mask for the eyes, due to swelling and weeping under the tape, the eyes become swollen shut by the time the patient wakes up from neuroleptanalgesia. So while wearing the mask for two days, the patient cannot see and requires the company of a family member or a friend.

Without this company, radio, mobile phone, etc., it can be psychologically difficult to be in complete darkness for two days alone. The accompanying person helps the patient to go to bathroom, and to eat and drink.

In the mask there is only a very small opening for the mouth so the patient can just have liquids taken through a straw.

It is necessary, particularly during the first 24 hours, to drink copious amounts of fluid so the body gets rid of the toxic chemical used for removal of epidermis.

It is important to move as little as possible, because with motion the tapes on the face pull on temporarily naked skin. For this reason chewing is not permitted and talking must be limited to a minimum.

After the mask is taken off after 48 hours the eyes open immediately and from this point on the patient is fully capable of self-care, and eats regular food.

Over the next 48 hours, four applications of a suspension of cultured fetal skin and placenta cells are applied to the treated skin of face and neck.

One week after the procedure, makeup can be worn to camouflage the red colour of skin, which the public will perceive as sunburn from a recent vacation on the beach.

Actually, it is mandatory to avoid the sun for the first six months after rejuvenation of face & neck at all costs. Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and usage of a sun-blocking lotion with a protection factor of 20 or higher are the usual ways to deal with it. After the rejuvenation procedure the amount of melanin, a pigment in skin cells which protects us from the ill effects of sun, temporarily decreases. Thus, one could suffer sunburn very easily. To develop sunburn during the first six months after the procedure could trigger irregular pigmentation.

What are the complications of this procedure?

Really, none.

Two well known complications of deep chemical peel:

1/ irregular pigmentation, or blotchy skin,

2/ thickened scars,

have never taken place after the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation of face & neck, and could happen only if the procedure would be carried out on a black or a very dark red or olive skin individual.

Can the ‘MM’ method of rejuvenation be used on other parts of the body?

Yes, it can, namely on the back of hands and upper chest.

REJUVENATION OF AGING HANDS

Our hands frequently give away our age. Brown spots, prominent veins, and wrinkled loose skin will remain no matter how much cosmetic surgery or rejuvenation non-surgical procedures are performed elsewhere on the body.

The ‘MM’ rejuvenation procedure can remove brown spots and other blemishes on the hands that occur with age. The procedure is in principle the same as described for face & neck.

DERMABRASION

Because there is so much confusion about the difference between chemical peel and dermabrasion a few words should be said about it. There is no place whatsoever for dermabrasion in the field of rejuvenation of face and neck. Dermabrasion cannot serve as the basis for rejuvenation of face and neck by surface application of stem cells of skin and placenta.

Dermabrasion is a procedure where superficial layers of the epidermis are removed by the mechanical means of a rotating abrasion wheel or brush. The procedure works best for improving acne scars and other surgical and non-surgical scars. Dermabrasion must not be used for removal of wrinkles.

CHEMICAL PEEL OF FACE

Deep chemical peel has been around for perhaps 130 years, yet it never been commonly used  because patients are afraid of it. Even the biggest experts cannot control the healing process after chemical burn induced by the phenol based chemical peeling solutions. Only blond people with a low amount of melanin in the skin and blue or green eyes are good candidates.

Chemical peel can be safely carried out only on the face of such individuals, never on the neck, so that there is a colour discrepancy between whitened face skin and unchanged colour of the neck skin. Classical chemical peel cannot be used on any other body parts. Non-surgical rejuvenation by surface application of stem cell transplants will undoubtedly diminish the use of classical chemical peeling in cosmetic surgery.