We're going to talk about some facial esthetics today because it's important that we all understand how important it really is. I know it's important to look your best today.
Facial Esthetics Options
Facial esthetics come in various forms. Obviously, we can go the old-fashioned way, which is a full facelift. You can do injections of collagen, you can do injections of non-collagen material, and we've taken a little bit of a different pathway. We don't use collagen and we don't use the non-collagen material hyaluronic acid, although we can. We don't use Botox; I'm definitely not in favor of sticking a toxin in your face, but that's what Botox is. What we're doing is we're taking 20 ml of your blood, and from the 20 ml of your blood, we're going to process your platelets and your bloodborne progenitor cells.
The Role of Platelets
Let's talk about platelets. Platelets are essential for wound healing. So if you're going to have any sort of surgical intervention whatsoever, you need a platelet count that's reasonable. That's why surgeons routinely will get a physical done before you go into the OR, so they know exactly what your blood cell counts are. The platelets are these little sacs called alpha granules, and when the platelet becomes involved in a wound healing episode, when it clots, platelets come together, they break open, the alpha granules break open, and all the growth factors, which are all proteins necessary for wound healing, are dumped into the wound. So what we're going to do is we're going to take the platelets from your blood, we're going to concentrate them so that we have a big excess of material, and then we're also going to isolate your blood progenitor cells. Progenitor cells can be equated to stem cells.
Procedure Details
Now that we can use it as an injectable material for your face, everything from the corners of your eyes down to your chin and into your neck—those are all mid-face types of procedures. Our injections are all intraoral, which means there's no scarring, there's no bruising, and if you're in by 4, you're out for dinner by 7. For the forehead, we're going to use injections that come from the hairline down and from the temporal region over. Again, because it's from you to you, you can be in by 4 and out for dinner at 7 without any bruising, as opposed to a facelift where you're pretty much incognito for a month. Even with some of the other procedures, even Botox, hyaluronic acid, collagen, some of these things produce swellings and unwanted postop issues. Now, I'm not guaranteeing you that we're going to give you 100% unwanted postop issues; remember, these are still injections, but our frequency is far, far, far lower than anything that you can really see on the open market today. The key here is that nothing is artificial, so we're taking your blood, your cells, and injecting them into you, from you to you.
New Ingredient: Osteocrete Magnesium
Recently, I've added another ingredient—let's call it an ingredient—to the mixture, and that's osteocrete magnesium. Magnesium in today's world is the molecule of interest for all people in medicine. It's an anti-inflammatory and it promotes all sorts of interesting responses, especially from the standpoint of wound healing. In higher doses, osteocrete magnesium has been approved by the FDA for use in pediatric orthopedics and pediatric oncology. It's been used by orthopedic surgeons for spinal fusions, and it's been used by me for maxillofacial, maxillary, and mandibular bone augmentation. In very, very low concentrations, so as not to produce a bony type tissue, it also has been shown to produce a dense fibrous collagen-enriched connective tissue, which is exactly what we want for fillers in the face. So your options are either just platelets and progenitor cells, or platelets, progenitor cells, and creatine magnesium, which is where we are headed because the results are that much better.
So listen, if you're interested at all, come in, see me. We'll give you a consultation. You tell me what you want, I'll tell you what I can do, and we'll go from there. Thanks for listening.