The Power of Medical Grade Products For Skin Rejuvenation
Let’s face it. Everyone wants to have clear, beautiful, younger looking skin, but we don’t want to break the bank to achieve it. So how can you make the best choice for your skin and your wallet? Should you care about where you get your skincare products? Does it really make a difference?
At Advanced Laser Clinic, we offer three of our favorite game changing, medical grade skin care lines: Environ, SkinCeuticals and Obagi. And there is good reason why we have chosen these skin care products for the home care of our clients: Science!
While department stores and your friends who are independent beauty consultants have skin rejuvenation products that sound appealing and might be wallet-friendly, you may wonder “Do they actually work?”
Let’s discuss the differences between medical-grade skincare products and over-the-counter (OTC) products and why you should care which type you are purchasing for skin rejuvenation in Springfield Missouri.
When it comes to our skin, we try our best to protect it and keep it looking young and fresh. That's why there's an overwhelming amount of skin rejuvenation products on the market.
But because there are so many skincare products out there, it's hard to be sure what works and what doesn't. Is that celebrity-endorsed skin care product really the right product for your skin? Do you have mountains of skin rejuvenation products that have only really given you so-so results?
It's a common experience to be confused about what really works and it's difficult to find reliable information you can trust. The key to finding a skin rejuvenation product that works for you is knowledge. You need to learn about your products. Where they come from. What's in them? And what quality they are.
You Get What You Pay For
When discussing skincare efficacy there are three relevant levels of skincare to consider: over the counter, medical grade, and prescription skincare.
Have you ever used a skin care product from the drugstore and felt like you had to use a lot of it, which causes you to run out more frequently?
The reason you have to use so much and the reason these skin care products are less expensive is because most OTC products only actually contain microscopic amounts of active ingredients and they typically only work on the top layer of the skin.
Medical Grade Skin Rejuvenation Products Are More Powerful
Medical-grade skin care products have a higher concentration of active ingredients (hyaluronic acid, growth factors, peptides, acids, retinol, antioxidants, etc.) and are developed to penetrate deeper levels of the skin as well as help with cell turnover.
When you purchase a medical-grade face moisturizer from Advanced Laser Clinic like our Environ AVST, you are not only getting a quality skin rejuvenation product, but a little also goes a long way. The ingredients are prescription grade and very concentrated.
Medical grade skin care products are made to be a lot more potent. They have been developed and researched to have a sufficient amount of the active ingredient to actually make changes in your skin. A higher amount of the active ingredient usually equates to better-looking skin.
Over-the-counter skin rejuvenation products are designed to sit on the surface of the skin. Medical grade skin care products are designed to penetrate the epidermis and affect deeper layers of the skin.
Medical Grade Skin Rejuvenation Products Are Tightly Regulated
The primary difference between OTC and medical or pharmaceutical-grade skincare products is that one can only be prescribed by a medical professional.
The cosmetic product industry does not have oversight by the FDA which means thorough product or ingredient testing is not required. Even though medical-grade products fall into the cosmetic product category, many companies that manufacture them using extensive research and only use pure ingredients. 99% pure to be exact.
On the other hand, OTC or seemingly medical grade products that you find online or at your local department store, drug store or highly marketed beauty stores do not hold the same standards.
Some cosmetic manufacturers choose to submit their products for FDA approval and create their products according to FDA regulations, but they are not required to do so. They also leave you trying to diagnose yourself and hoping you get the results you want. Not only do these products not have to be tested in a clinical study, they often contain random fillers.
OTC products are generally formulated to work on anyone and everyone, no matter their skin type. Purchasing and using medical grade skin care products allows you to use skin rejuvenation products that are more tailored to your needs and skin type.
Over-the-counter skin care products force you as the customer to self-diagnose your skin and select the skin care product that you think is best. However, when you use a medical-grade skin care product, it is a trained medical professional who examines your skin and prescribes medicine that will adequately address the issue you have.
The difference between an over-the-counter skin care product and a medical-grade skin care product is the same as the difference that exists between a tooth whitening procedure that is sold at the local pharmacy and a teeth whitening procedure that is performed by your dentist. Since your dentist has access to stronger whitening products, the results are going to be better.
The FDA closely regulates medical-grade skin care products. Most of these are marked as pharmaceuticals. By law, they must have 99.9 percent pure active ingredients. Before they can be used by the public, there must be scientific evidence showing that the skin care product is beneficial and that it does what it advertises.
Before a medical-grade wrinkle reduction cream can make it to the market, there are multiple studies done showing that it really reduces wrinkles. This is not the case with over-the-counter cosmetics.
Many cosmetic products claiming they are effective for treating skin disease are mislabeled, basically not complying with FDA regulations. Moreover, many have no safety or efficacy studies.
Rob Trow, CEO of DermaConcepts, the exclusive US distributor of Environ Skin Care explains, “If you say you're going to eliminate fine lines and wrinkles, that is a medical claim and that product is considered a drug by the FDA. It has to be approved and regulated, and there's a long process to get through.”
“But if you only say that the skincare product will improve the appearance or look of fine lines and wrinkles, then that's not a medical claim, and therefore it's not a prescription product and can be sold without it.”
All drugs must be approved by the FDA, while cosmetics do not need approval, so a few words in a product's description can make an enormous difference for the manufacturer.
“If a product says it will produce collagen and elastin, that's a product that affects the form and function of the body and is a medical claim, and the product should be classified as a drug and go through a very complex and costly approval process,” Mr. Trow says.
“If you look at the ads for skincare, you'll see many ads making those claims, even though they're not allowed to. But most skincare companies qualify the claims with adjectives that talk about ‘the look of, the feel, the appearance of, rather than actually affecting the change.”
The concentrations of certain chemicals and compounds in a product also can determine whether it is a cosmetic or a drug. For example, a product with a 2% concentration of hydroquinone is considered cosmetic, while one with a 4% concentration is considered a prescription drug.
Some medical skincare products with technologies that proved themselves in performance and safety may later move toward implementation in OTC products. These would likely be less concentrated versions, but utilize proven clinical technology. The most famous example of this is retinol.
Some cosmetic companies use airless pumps, because if you let air and light into a product, you destroy its efficacy. Every Environ product we carry is designed with an airless pump, which means the last drop is as effective as the first drop.
At Advanced Laser Clinic, we believe that the biggest difference between OTC and medical grade skin care is not only the amount of active ingredients, but also their level of penetration into the skin.
It is scientifically proven that medical grade skincare products can work their way past the five layers of the surface level of the skin and into the dermis, where collagen, elastin, and new skin cells reside.
Tretinoin (Retin-A) is scientifically proven to increase cell turnover and chemically exfoliate dead skin to reveal plump, new skin faster. All in all, Medical grade skin products are truly more effective.
Which Level of Skin Care is Right For Me?
With all of the different types and categories of skincare, it can be overwhelming or difficult to decide what exactly you should choose for your skin conditions. The easy fix to that is to consult with a trusted professional.
Let Us Simplify Your Skin Care Regimen
Book an appointment with us today and let Shelly, Jill, and Cynthia walk you through flawless skin at a fraction of the time and cost you would have spent purchasing products on your own that aren’t game changers and waste your time. We’ve got you covered.