Advanced Cosmetic Procedures

Advanced Cosmetic Procedures is a new name for ‘Advanced Electrolysis’ plus all the new additional techniques which have now been developed. This speciality treatment uses either Short Wave Diathermy (High Frequency A/C) or Blend (a mixture of A/C and D/C) to treat unwanted skin blemishes with no mark left on the skin.

Advanced Cosmetic Procedures was defined to avoid any confusion in thinking that “Advanced Electrolysis” was simply an advanced form of hair removal. The term, Advanced Cosmetic Procedures (ACP), encompassed far more effectively, the wide variety of treatable skin conditions.

Treatable skin conditions include: 

• Telangiectasia
• Campbell de Morgans
• spider naevi
• minor telangiectasia on the legs
• poikiloderma
• skin tags
• milia
• all types of warts including common, seborrhoeic, plantar (verruca)
• hairs from moles and moles themselves
• age spots
• dermatosis papulosa nigra
• small sebaceous cysts
• sebaceous hyperplasia
• sebaceous naevi
• xanthomas
• Moles
• syringoma
• molluscum contagiosum

In your first appointment with your practitioner, we will clearly explain advanced cosmetic procedure treatment. Your practitioner will examine the skin blemish for suitability tell you whether this is the right treatment for you and whether we can achieve the results you’d like.

We will explain other treatment option out about other treatment options, such as Cryotherapy before you decide to go ahead with any treatment.

We will take a medical history to make sure that there are no reasons why you shouldn’t undergo electrolysis treatment. At this point, you would also normally be asked to sign a consent form which means that you have understood the future benefits and possible risks associated with the procedure.

Photographs of the area to be treated may also be taken by the practitioner for a “before and after” comparison later.

Procedure

The electrologist then touches a wire/filament called a probe and sometimes also referred to as a needle against or within the skin abnormality to cauterise and/or cosmetically reduce the vascular or abnormal growth.

Details on what happens when treating individual conditions is available further down this FAQ.

Repeat procedures

Normally it is not necessary to have repeat treatments once an abnormality has been treated, however if you are prone to a particular skin condition formation then new 'lumps' may appear in the future which themselves can be treated.

A course of advanced electrolysis is often advised for telangiectasia/veins so that treatments can be spaced out to prevent skin damage or hyper-pigmentation.

Some conditions can be quite resilient and more than one treatment may be necessary, your practitioner will advise based on the response noted.

The amount of treatment time that may be required for different areas is extremely variable depending on the skin condition and the proliferation of its effect.

No recovery time as such is necessary. You can return to work and normal activities immediately after a treatment.

Depending on the particular skin condition being treated and the size of it, you can expect some post treatment discomfort and scabbing as the area heals.

If the area being treated is on your face, you may wish to plan treatment around social events if you do not wish to attend them before post-treatment healing has completed.

When the treatments are performed correctly there is little or no chance of permanently marking

With many of the procedures the appearance may look worse before it looks better so careful ‘timing’ of the treatment should be considered, particularly if you have any special events in your calendar and the treated area is in a noticeable place, such as on your face.

You will be provided with an aftercare and suggestion of the appreciate aftercare, to use whilst healing, by following the correct aftercare you reduce the risk of any complications

It is highly unlikely that anyone considering advanced cosmetic procedure treatment with electrolysis would be able to access this free of charge on the National Health Service for a benign, cosmetic indication.

However, depending upon your skin concern, particularly if a defect is growing or changing rapidly, changing shape, colour or starting to bleed, it is worth visiting your General Practitioner before embarking upon a search for private treatment as a referral may be needed to rule out any medical issues such as pre-cancerous conditions.

If we are unsure on a skin blemish, we will refer you to your GP to have a look and  either obtain either a letter of approval for treatment or they will refer you dermatology.