PlasmaLift Tightening is a non-surgical cosmetic enhancement designed to shrink the skin using a sterile, disposable probe. When the PlasmaLift is used to stimulate the cells called fibroblasts, they begin creating white blood cells to repair the surface tissue. This process recreates collagen.

PlasmaLift is performed with a device called a Plasma Pen, which is used to produce a plasma arc. The flashes are directed as tiny dots along the wrinkle lines.

The tip of the pen never touches the skin (and the needle-like attachment is a sterile, disposable, one-time use product). The pen is held above the skin and a tiny plasma arc connects the tip of the device to the surface of the skin. Using plasma, skin (old collagen) is removed by sublimation (evaporation), and fibroblasts are stimulated to produce new collagen.

The targeted skin contracts and is essentially eliminated without any cutting, which results in the tightening and shrinking of skin. A series of tiny brown spots are strategically placed to attain the desired result. The skin around the dot tightens instantly, putting the cells closer together.

Below will take an indepth look at plasma, sublimation, fibroblasts, collagen, and the nitty-gritty details in the stages of healing. 

There are two types of plasma that factor into this treatment, blood plasma and plasma gas. During the PlasmaLift, the plasma gas heats to administer micro trauma to the epidermal layer of skin using arcs of electricity. These tiny arcs create the dots in the tissue that are seen after the treatment. These dots are small blood clots with scabs over the top, which indicate the tissue is closed and less likely to be infected. The plasma in our blood is vital to the overall healing process of PlasmaLift. Ensure that you are properly hydrated and refrain from alcohol and/or caffeine prior to your appointment. Hydrated skin will greatly increase your rate of success and overall satisfaction.

Sublimation, in physics, means the conversion of a substance from the solid-state to the gaseous state without it becoming a liquid. When you are truly using a plasma arc, the tissue you are treating is SUBLIMATED, meaning solid tissue turns into a gas, bypassing the liquid state of matter. This avoids spreading unwanted heat to surrounding areas of skin. The principles of an electrical arc from the pen combining with ionized gas create plasma.

A fibroblast is the most common type of cell found in connective tissue. Fibroblasts secrete collagen proteins that are used to maintain a structural framework for many tissues. Most, if not all, methods of skin resurfacing are based on creating controlled skin damage, which activates its healing. Fibroblast cells are activated by this controlled damage, a precursor to collagen, and this leads to the skin remodeling. When your skin endures the controlled injury of the plasma arc, it forces your skin and your immune system into activating its wound repair response. This makes your skin's fibroblasts produce the collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans that it needs to sufficiently repair its structure. 

The fibroblast is the major cell type of the dermis. These cells produce and secrete procollagen and elastin fibers. Procollagen is cleaved by proteolytic enzymes into collagen that aggregates and becomes cross-linked. These tightly cross-linked collagen fibers provide tensile strength and resistance to mechanical forces. Collagen makes up 70 percent of the weight of the dermis. Of this collagen Type 1 is about 85 percent of the total collagen and Type 3 collagen is the remaining 15 percent.

Although etastin only accounts for less than 1 percent of the dermis' weight, it gives skin its cushiony, "bounce back" feel that's so prevalent when we are young. Etastin's ability to return the skin to its resting shape is crucial for maintaining a youthful glow. The plasma pen treatment is fantastic for kick-starting your skin's natural processes to create more of these skin components. These types of cells will form during the healing process to create growing, healthier skin.

Type 1: provides tensile strength in dense connective tissues of the dermis (reticular layer), tendons and ligaments, also loose supportive tissue (papillary layer) and bone.

Type 3: it is found in reticular fibers and helps at wound healing. The most abundant form found in the dermis is Type 1 collagen, which constitutes 90% of the total collagen in the body. Collagen fibers are a major component of the extracellular matrix of connective tissue, particularly the dense irregular connective tissue found in the dermis of the skin, tendons and ligaments.

During wound healing, Type 3 collagen initially appears in the wound about four days after the injury. Wound collagen or Type 3 collagen is immature collagen tissue and does not provide a great deal of tensile strength, it takes approximately three months for Type 3 collagen to mature into Type 1 collagen.

There are three phases of skin healing 

Inflammatory Response 

Regenerative Phase 

New Collagen Production

Phase 1 - Inflammatory Response (1-5 days) 

From the first moment of the skin tissue damage, the mast cells in the tissue release histamine, triggering the inflammatory response. Simultaneously capillaries begin dilating and release plasma into the area as a part of the inflammatory response due to controlled injury. Plasma contains nutrients, oxygen, antibodies and white blood cells, which flush away foreign material from injury. Plasma carries fibrin and other material to clot and repair the damaged area. After the initial inflammatory response, leukocytes and arriving macrophages (a large phagocytic cell found in stationary form in the tissues or as mobile white blood cells, especially at sites of infection) remove the dead tissue and foreign material and the fibrin net is slowly dissolved. (Fibrin, an insoluble protein, formed from fibrinogen during the clotting of blood. lt forms a fibrous mesh that impedes the flow of blood).

Phase 2 - Regenerative Proliferative phase or Fibroblastic phase (3-28 days)

Now that the wound is clean, the proliferative phase which lasts 3-28 days) begins the process of filling and covering the wound with new skin. 

This phase of the wound healing process has 3 stages that operate in an overall and ongoing process:

1. Filling the wound 

2. Contracting the wound margin 

3. Growing new skin over the wound or re-epithelialization

First, red granulation tissues fill the wound bed with connective tissues and new blood vessels. Next, in contraction, the margins of the wound begin to pull to the center of the wound to close it up. Finally, epithelial cells come up from the wound bed and margins, and migrate until the whole wound is covered with new skin or epithelium. The wound repair phase, the regenerative phase of wound healing, where "collagen synthesis" is taking place.

Phase 3 New collagen production "Remodeling" (28 days + up to 4 months)

The remodeling (or maturation) phase of the wound healing process is where the wound bed slowly strengthens and gains flexibility. The collagen fibers reorganize, remodel, mature, and regain the tensile strength of up to 80% pre-injury. The collagen deposit in normal wound healing reaches a peak in the 3rd-4th week, and maximal tensile strength is usually achieved by the 12th week. Depending on the severity and type of wound, the remodeling stage can last from 21 days to 2 years.