Episode 24: Prism Plasma

Welcome to today's episode where we dive into Prism Plasma which is a fractional plasma treatment that is transforming how we approach skin tightening. Unlike traditional methods, Prism Plasma harnesses the power of controlled thermal energy to stimulate collagen production and cellular renewal at the deepest layers of your skin.

This innovative treatment works by creating thousands of microscopic plasma channels in the papillary dermis triggering your body's natural healing response without the downtime associated with more invasive procedures. Whether you are battling the first signs of aging or looking to restore firmness to mature skin, Prism Plasma offers customizable solutions for all skin types and concerns.

We will also discuss Cold Atmospheric Plasma and the antimicrobial effects that help to minimize acne lesions. 

Thank you for your listenership!

Transcript

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Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well and thank you again for joining us for another episode of Just Laser It and all things cosmetic. It's been a while since I've heard that little music. We always say that every single time, but I promise now that once. You know, we'll start to get back into a schedule because I only have seven more weekends of studying left with this program. Well, maybe you should explain a little bit what that means. You are getting, I'm finishing a translational biotechnology program in regenerative medicine at Wake Forest. And, and to give them a plug. It has been a wonderful eye opening program. I've thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm ready to be done now. It's been about almost two years of your life that you've dedicated to be honest. And I know I'm biased because you're my wife, but I've been very impressed by your diligence and how seriously you've taken it. Well, thanks Cain. But yeah I'm, I'm ready to move forward with the next set of goals, but I'm ready to move forward with our topic. All right, let's do it. So today, Cain, we're going to talk about, I know we talked about age jet, which is a form of plasma treatment. I think that's episode number 16. We talked about it, but today we're going to talk about prism plasma and it's slightly different. Prism plasma. Utilizes, it's still plasma energy. And I'm going to first kind of go through the science of plasma once again, and then we'll go through how it's a different and what that means for the patient. How does that sound? Yeah. Okay. So plasma, as you know, is not blood plasma. We're not talking about PRP. That's a different form of plasma. We're talking about the fourth state of matter. So from solid liquid gas to plasma, which is basically ionized energy. You're, I won't go into all the details of it. You can listen to episode number 16, but it's, you're basically trying to create an ionized gas that's interacting with the skin. So think of it like a plasma TV. Yep. Think of it as a plasma TV. That's definitely one way to think about plasma, but when it comes to the energy, that's what I thought about. Okay. Okay. So, but when it comes to plasma in regard to energy, you're creating again, this, this ionized gas that interacts with the skin. Now, the difference between age jet. is that we're using 99 percent pure pumped nitrogen, and we're creating a plasma with that. Here we're creating a plasma utilizing atmospheric elements. So we're utilizing, while there's nitrogen in the atmosphere, it's like 78 percent nitrogen and then oxygen, we're creating a plasma with the air. So it's, it's slightly different in what we're, we're interacting with the tissue with. The wounds that we're creating. So is it, I mean, it's plasmas plasma. It's just getting to it differently. Is that it's getting to it differently and the elements of it are different. I mean, plasma created by nitrogen or Argon can have different impacts on the skin. So this type of plasma is different because think about this cane. Do you remember the plasma pens? Yeah. So plasma pen also uses atmospheric plasma and we have a plasma pen. I use it for sebaceous hyperplasia. I don't use it so much for tissue tightening because it's a tiny little pen. And if you think about the air, the air is actually a good insulator. Like to have electrical energy, it, it doesn't travel as well through air. Right. Mm hmm. So. How can you create plasma? If you're using atmospheric air, you have to be close to the skin and you have to have electrical source that's high enough to strip the electrons away to create plasma. If you're too far away from the skin, You're going to not deliver a good wound. If you're too close to the skin, you might create a little divot. So you have to have your hand about one to two millimeters away from the skin when you have those plasma pins, which is kind of hard to do. So what happens is you have some areas that are treated a little heavier and some areas that are not. So there's greater margin for error. There is. There's less consistency. There you go with this type of plasma, which again is atmospheric plasma. This prism plasma actually has a tip on it and the tip sits on the skin. You touch the skin with the tip and above that are 25 pins, not just one pin, but 25 little pins that are at the exact distance that you need to be from the skin so that. It takes away that element of having to hover at certain levels and you get a very consistent type of treatment. That's probably, that's a key word. That is that consistency is there. But the other thing, Kane, is it's got 25 pins. So think about if I had to use a plasma pen and I had to make all sorts of little tiny, tiny, tiny dots all the way up a neck. Well, goodness, that takes me forever to really give good coverage here. I can put several passes because with every stamp that I'm putting down, I'm putting down 25 little micro injuries into the skin. So it's more efficient and it's more effective because of the consistency. Correct. And you can, you know, you can go a little more aggressive with it because of that. So with the plasma pen, you get one. You get one power, so to speak, you get that arc that hits the skin. And that's that with this one, you can actually dial the power in from one to 10. I usually run it somewhere around six on the skin around the eyes. I'm somewhere around three, and you can make it more aggressive or less aggressive depending on how thick or thin the tissue is that you're treating. Okay. So it's, it's really a novel little device. I've had a lot of fun with it actually. I think we've done almost, I mean, getting to about 50 treatments. I think we're at 40 treatments where we've done face, necks, et cetera with it. So it's just a good little device. Now, how is it different from a CO2 laser? Which is always a question that patients ask. This is fractional technology, right? And they want to know how is it different from a fractional CO2. CO2 still ablates or vaporizes the tissue. This instead creates tiny zones in the skin, which the heat is transferred down to the top layer of the dermis, the papillary dermis, which is where the fibroblasts are. That's why this is called fibroblasting and you stimulate. Collagen, elastin, but it doesn't vaporize or remove the tissue But you are creating tiny wounds. You are. And that's what's stimulating the elastin and collagen. Correct. Correct. And in fact, when we're done with it, patients will look like they have a stamped effect on their skin for about a week until it sloughs off. So, why would somebody choose that versus a CO2? Well, there are times you might want to ablate the tissue, but I'll tell you, ever since we've had plasma technology, both with H jet and with this, you've seen me do CO2 less and less and less because there, CO2 has a large downtime. This has about two days where you're slightly swollen and then you have that gritty, stamped sensation. You can wear makeup at about. 72 hours, but you have that stamped appearance for about a week that just starts to slough off. CO2, you're bloody and red for five to six days. And so the downtime is less. How does it feel? Let me take that back. You're bloody for one day with CO2, but you're, but you're really, really swollen for five to six days. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So you have a more efficient downtime with prism plasma. What's it feel like in comparison? Well. With prism plasma as, as with CO2 or even with high level age jet you have to numb. And I'm just going to give a little public service announcement on numbing. Whenever you numb, be really careful around the eyes because remember numbing agents are acidic so you don't want to get it in the eye. It can cause burning sensation. It can even cause a corneal abrasion if it's in the eye. So you just want to be careful, We numb till about. The, the crease of the upper lid, that's where I'm going to treat and about two millimeters away from the lower lid. But we numb for about an hour. And with the numbing, there's still some, some spicy sensation around the eyes, but I think for the most part right under the lip patients can feel a little spicy sensation. But other than that, it's really quite tolerated with, with the numbing. So what would a patient. What would their concerns be that would make you say, you know what, I think prism plasma may be a good option for you. Well, and I, I, sure, we'll go into that, but I'm going to also give you a little structure because patients always want to know how it compares with other treatments. So, if I was to go from lowest aggressiveness, to a higher aggressiveness type of treatment. I would say my low level age jet hardly has downtime. Low level means low level energy. Low level energy. Hardly has downtime. Yes, you're still numb, but it's a cumulative type of effect where you take about three treatments or so, and you barely peel, you can go back, you know, you can wear makeup the next day. Then I would go to my prism plasma, which is a little bit more aggressive than your lower level age jet where you have about a two day downtime, as I was saying, and then you'll have that stamped appearance. And then finally, I would go to a high level age jet and that has a deeper cleavage plane. So that's going to be the most aggressive. out of the, out of the plasma treatments. Okay. And just to clarify, Agejet is plasma as well. It's just a different device. A different device. Correct. But in regard to what you're asking, what type of issues might patients have? It's fine lines and wrinkles. It's trying to help with the tone of their skin. We do this a lot for neck area as well, neck and jowl area. And same thing. It's, it's a little bit of a cumulative type of response. I do think more than one treatment is. is probably where you're going to be at for optimal results. And again, this has to do with patients baseline skin level, et cetera, and what they're trying to achieve. But I, I do think it's a, I wish it was all a one and done treatment, but it's not, I think it's about a two to three treatment and typically I'll separate them by about six weeks, but it can be, you know, once a quarter, even if you like, that's, that's totally fine. So, yeah, the treatments may vary a little bit, but essentially if I have fine lines and I wanted to address those and maybe tighten the skin a little bit, this would be something that would be an option for me. That's right. And you know, we actually put a photo up on our Instagram and we're under SalujaLaserMD and I, I did a patient and I did prism plasma all over her face and then one little area by her jowl. Yeah. I did a high level age jet. So I did a combination treatment and you can really see the difference with her skin quality and even the tightness of her skin. She really shrunk the tissue quite a bit in that area. So you can certainly combine it with different things as well. But I think that's typically if we're doing just plain prism plasma two to three treatments certainly. So if I'm summarizing, like you have a lot of different options. So one is to do a low level energy age jet. It's less downtime, but you're probably going to need more treatments. Correct. So it just kind of depends on your lifestyle and what you're able to do. If you want to go a little more aggressive, you might only have to have a couple of treatments, but it'll just be a little bit of downtime with. with prism. And then if you want to get really aggressive, maybe one treatment, two, maybe, and, but you're going to have a little more downtime. That's where you would go. The high level H jet. Correct. And I would give, if I'm doing high level H jet, I would give at least three months in between high level H jet can certainly have more redness, et cetera, afterwards that you have to heal from. So you have options just depending on. How much downtime you want and what your lifestyle is correct. And you know, what's important before treatment also, you know, we talked about what they can expect, but before treatment, it's really important to stop all your retinoids, any retinal products prior to it's also important while this is not. Not targeting specifically melanin. You know how I stopped doing IPLs from May to October. This is, this is not targeting a chromophore. This is plasma energy. It's not laser energy, but I still wouldn't want you to come back from a Caribbean cruise, you know, where your melanocytes are all activated and have an energy based device. So you can do this in the summer. Absolutely. I just want you to sun protect before and sun protect after when you do this. And after treatment. I have patients either utilize Aquaphor, Vaseline, or CeraVe healing ointment, whatever they choose, for about, about 48 to 72 hours afterwards, just to keep the skin nice and moist. And then that's, that's essentially what they need. So really you can expect with the PRISM plasma, you can expect about a two, maybe three day downtime before you start wearing makeup and Correct. Although you'll still have that stamped appearance that, that starts to shed, really, really simplistic, not a lot of swelling. It's more of that grit stamped appearance that will be there. So I've really enjoyed this device, but there's something else of this device that I've enjoyed as well. So we're not quite done. I know you're getting ready. You're looking at me like let's wrap it up, but there's something called cold atmospheric plasma. So the device has actually got. two hand pieces. I use a fractional piece all the time. And then Blair, my esthetician does a lot of cold atmospheric plasma and it became so popular. We actually got two devices because she was using it and I was using it. So we actually have two of these devices and in her room, cold atmospheric plasma runs at much lower of a heat. Sensation. So you do not need a numb for something like that. And it is wonderful. It's a wonderful antimicrobial. So it breaks down bacterial cell walls. It helps with viruses with, with fungus, with yeast, et cetera, on the skin. So it can really be helpful for treating acne. So utilizes it quite a bit for acne treatments and just generalized rejuvenation as well. So when you're using that option of the prism. device, the cold plasma, you don't need to numb. And so let me ask you this on both of them. What's the treatment duration of the cold plasma versus the prism? Prism plasma takes me about probably about a half an hour and cold atmospheric plasma. Again, it's dependent on how many acne lesions are present because what we'll do is we'll hover over that lesion for about 15 seconds or so, and then we'll go to the next lesion and then we'll. Coat over the entire face. This is what Blair does probably about 20 minutes, 25 minutes. No, no. And you, again, you don't have to numb for something like that. However, with cold atmospheric plasma, you can expect to really do about four to six treatments at least. And I recommend them every two weeks. If you, really have bad acne and what would the. I don't know if downtime is the right word, but is it normal activity right afterwards? You can with cold atmospheric plasma. You can, and you're barely red, you're, you're pink maybe for about 20 minutes, but there is a rejuvenant effect. And also Dr. Nina Deep in Ohio is looking at it for she's just starting her first patients for evaluating for hair growth because it does stimulate blood flow and it stimulates cellular proliferation. So there is some. thought that, maybe this can also help with hair growth. So we'll get more data back from her as she does her study. This is a very flexible device that can target multiple things. Oh yeah. I really, really love, you know, in fact, sometimes patients will be sitting in my chair and they'll have a little acne lesion and this is how we really worked with it too. And I'll say, let me treat that. Let me see what you, and I'm going to text you in two days and you tell me what you think. And I will tell you 99. Percent of them will say, yep, it came up, it purged, and now it's gone. So it's, it has been wonderful utilizing it, and with our prism, I'm going to go back to the prism plasma with the fractional delivery. I have patients go back to heavy exercise after 72 hours, but they can even walk after 24 hours. I mean, it's, or do yoga, just do light exercise afterwards as well. Yeah. So super easy. Good. This, this is a cool device. Yeah. I'm glad. I'm glad we did this. Well, that's all I've got for tonight. And I promise, promise I will not be a stranger to this podcast in about seven weeks after May 2nd. That's the last day of classes. Once you, once you get that diploma, once I get that diploma, that's right. All right. Thanks. And I appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the evening. Thanks everybody. Bye bye.