When you think of a quick way to fight wrinkles, Botox might come to mind. However, Botox simply relaxes the muscles in the skin and usually lasts for just a couple of months.
Doctors then turned to facial fillers. They last longer, but are expensive, and they only work on certain areas of the face.
Now, a new procedure called the Vampire Facelift uses the body's own blood to repair damaged skin.
Turn on the TV these days, and you are bound to encounter a show about vampires, and the recent fascination with fangs has even spread into the real world of cosmetic medicine.
"Give me a little blood and I'll give you eternal beauty," said Michael Escobedo, M.D., one of the doctors of cosmetic medicine who performs the Vampire Facelift.
In the procedure, doctors draw the patient's blood, then separate the platelets from the blood and inject those collagen-activating platelets into problem areas of the skin.
"In actuality what we're doing is we are reversing the aging process by creating more collagen," explained Dr. Escobedo.
Escobedo says if you have a cut or scrape, calcium in the body is exposed to the platelets in the blood stream and that calcium activates a reaction which then creates a clot.
"And in doing so, we're capturing those growth factors, re-injecting them under the skin and creating collagen production, as well as other growth, new blood vessel growth. So basically, repairing the skin," said Escabedo.
In the past, doctors would just inject a filler into certain areas of the face to make up for what's been lost. Escabedo says the beauty of the Vampire Facelift is no foreign substance is injected into the body.
"A patient never rejects their own body," said Escobedo.
Aside from using one's own blood, the reason the procedure is called the Vampire Facelift is that it only takes 4cc to treat the problem areas on virtually the entire face. Other skin fillers can not be used on all areas of the face and Escabedo says they only last about a year, where as the Vampire Facelift should last for two years.
In addition to lasting nearly twice as long, Escobedo says the $1,000 price tag of the Vampire Facelift is about half the cost of other filler procedures.
If you'd like more information on the procedure, visit the Escobedo Skin Center website.
