You know the fairy tale, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, in which the Evil Queen kept asking the Magic Mirror: Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? And the Magic Mirror said "You, my Queen, are fair so true. But the young Queen is a thousand times fairer than you." And to this date in the New Millennium a fair skin is unarguably the most sought-after thing on earth.
Beauty is only skin deep, so goes an old saying that is often used to put down someone who is considered beautiful because of fair skin and therefore proud, or in a comforting cum motivating manner to put things in perspective for those who are not considered beautiful. Any which way you look at it, unless you are a philosopher or a sannyasi, physical beauty assumes great importance in determining overall personality traits, especially self-confidence and so everyone wants to look beautiful at any cost.
Ageing is an unavoidable factor that makes the skin lose its youthful look and texture over the years and people looking at themselves in the mirror and heaving a sigh of distress over the steadily declining beauty factor are only increasing day by day, cutting across age, gender and ethnic barriers. No wonder the beauty care market is flooded with beauty aids right from skin creams all the way up to expensive skin treatment spas in up-market European locales.
A procedure called micro-dermabrasion is entering this field with a good impact. Micro means very small or tiny. Derma means skin. Abrasion means scraping away. Micro-dermabrasion is a procedure to scrape away the superficial layers of the skin so that a new looking skin replaces an old looking one. A small hand-held device is used for this purpose. A specialist sprays or rubs fine crystals onto the skin with a wand that gently exfoliates the surface, removing the top layer.
The procedure is by and large not painful. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) estimate that it takes 30–40 minutes for the face and 20 minutes for the neck. Afterward, there may be slight swelling or sunburn-like symptoms for a few days. Multiple sittings are often required for good effect but the improvement is not permanent. Microdermabrasion is also used to enhance the results of anti-aging or skin-bleaching products. The procedure can help these products penetrate the skin.
Side effects are few and not serious. For a few days after microdermabrasion, a person may notice skin swelling and skin redness, similar to sunburn. There can be a burning or stinging sensation with increased sensitivity of the skin to sunlight, which can be reduced by sunscreen agents.
As of now, the treatment is rather expensive but with a growing number of skin specialists focusing on this service, the cost is bound to come down which may be good news for most of the ‘patients in waiting’(MNT 24 October 2018).