Advanced Cosmetic Procedures

Advanced Cosmetic Procedures/Advanced Electrolysis

Advanced Cosmetic Procedures involves using Advanced Electrolysis to remove fibrous and vascular skin blemishes such as Red Veins, Spider Veins, Blood Spots, Skin Tags, Warts, Seborrhoeic Warts, Milia (whiteheads), Pigmentation Patches and many other marks or lumps and bumps on the skin.

Advanced Electrolysis is a technique of passing an electric current through the skin from a needle causing heat to be generated. During an Advanced Electrolysis treatment for Facial Thread Veins, each Vein is treated individually and the heat produced by the current destroys the Blood Vessel. This then heals by fibrosis ensuring the Blood Vessel will never reappear. Although other Facial Thread Veins can form the treated vessel destroyed by heat will never re-open again.

This treatment is used for the treatment of Facial Thread Veins and is NOT used to treat Thread Veins of the Legs.

Claudia McGloin Clinic have introduced this Advanced Cosmetic Procedure into the clinic and currently Claudia McGloin is the only fully trained Advanced Practitioner that will carry out this treatment at the Claudia McGloin Clinic and The Vein Clinic Ireland.

Further details on Advanced Cosmetic Procedures can be found on www.claudiamcgloinclinic.com

Call the Claudia McGloin Clinic on 071 9140728 or email claudia@claudiamcgloinclinic.com

Thread Veins of the Face

Facial Thread Veins

THREAD VEINS otherwise known as Spider Veins, Broken Veins, Venous Flares, Broken Capillaries or Surface Veins are extremely common.  On average 40% of women have them on their Legs. Men are not immune from Thread Veins and can also suffer from them. Thread Veins are red or purple in colour and are visible on the skins surface. They can appear in clusters or as individual veins and are usually about 1-2mm. They are also Genetic!

Facial Thread Veins are usually found around the nose but can spread up onto the cheeks. They are very different to the Thread Veins that are found on the legs. Effective treatments for Facial Thread Veins is also very different to the treatment used for Leg Thread Veins.

Although they are called Thread Veins they are Dilated Capillary Networks from your Arteries and not your Veins. (Arteries take blood from the heart to the rest of the body and Veins return blood to the heart). The blood inside them is more oxygenated and therefore appear brighter red in colour.

Treatment for Facial Thread Veins

Effective treatment for Facial Thread Veins can usually be achieved by using one of the following treatments:

* Advanced Electrolysis

* Intense Pulse Light (IPL)

* Laser

All of these treatments work by using heat to destroy the Blood Vessel. Injecting vessels on the face is NOT recommended except in very rare cases.

Claudia McGloin Clinic has introduced Advanced Cosmetic Procedures/Advanced Electrolysis into the clinic. This is currently the only treatment that is used for the treatment of Facial Thread Veins.

For further details on Advanced Cosmetic Procedures please look at the Claudia McGloin Clinic www.claudiamcgloinclinic.com

Thread Veins of the Leg

What are Thread Veins?

Thread Veins of the Leg otherwise known as Spider Veins, Broken Veins, Surface Veins, Broken Capillaries or Venous Flares are extremely common affecting 1 in 4 women and an unknown number of men. 

They are found closer to the skin’s surface and have the appearance of small fine flat red veins or thicker purplish veins which are either isolated or in clusters.

Thread Veins are not just 'cosmetic'. Research performed in 2001 has shown that 89% of people with Thread Veins actually have underlying vein problems. These can either be Minor or Major Varicose Veins. These are very often not visible from the surface and cannot be found without the aid of a specialised Duplex Ultrasound Scan of the legs. If you have Thread Veins, you should have a Venous Duplex Ultrasound Scan before having any treatment to make sure that you don't have LEG PUMP FAILURE underlying the Thread Veins.

On consultation at The Vein Clinic Ireland we use a hand held Doppler to see if there is any evidence of underlying Varicose Veins. If any evidence is found, then the patient will be referred to a Consultant Vascula Surgeon for a Duplex Ultrasound Scan to examine every Vein in the Leg from the Deep Veins right the way through to the Thread Veins of the skin. This scan will show the exact cause of the Thread Veins in the Leg and will show any hidden Varicose Veins.

Following a Duplex Ultrasound Scan the best treatment suited will be discussed with a Consultant Vascular Surgeon. The Varicose Veins will be treated first and then the Thread Veins will be treated.

If the Doppler does not show any signs of underlying Venous Reflux, then we can proceed to treat the Thread Veins by Microsclerotherapy.

Microsclerotherapy

What is Microsclerotherapy?

Microsclerotherapy is a technique of injecting Thread Veins with a substance through a very small needle. Using a large magnifying light, a chemical called a "Sclerosant" is injected into the Veins. This destroys the Vein making the walls of the Veins fibrose (''stick'') together. After treatment on the Legs, you will need to wear compression stockings for 2 weeks day and night.

As Microsclerotherapy closes the Veins by inflammation of the wall, most patients get a patch of inflamed skin over the site of the injection which lasts for up to two weeks. This inflammation is actually very good - it is the body’s way of removing the dead Vein. The area then settles down but the full benefit can take up to 12 weeks to be seen. After that you will find that the Veins often continue to improve for up to a year after the treatment. Depending on the number of Thread Veins on the Legs, several sessions may be needed to get the required results, but usually two will be enough.

How effective is Microsclerotherapy?

Compared with other treatments, Microsclerotherapy gives the best results. It is the Gold Standard for treatment of Thread Veins, with 95% of patients seeing an improvement with a good or very good result.

Some clinics use Laser, Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) or Electrolysis type treatment of Thread Veins on the Legs. Laser and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) are more likely to damage the skin. This does not happen on the face where the skin is more resilient to radiation. As far as the needle-type treatments such as Electrolysis that are used that heat the Vein and destroy it, this is very slow and laborious compared to Microsclerotherapy. In addition, one injection of Microsclerotherapy not only takes away a whole patch of Thread Veins but also treats lots of little Thread Veins that are hidden under the skin that may well be feeding into this patch. Using one of the techniques that employ heat being transferred to the Vein via a needle, each visible vein has to be treated individually every couple of millimetres along its whole length and any Vein that is deep enough to not be visible from the surface cannot be treated.

In a very few cases, Thread Veins of the Legs are too small for treatment by Microsclerotherapy. An alternative is to leave the Veins for six months in which case they often get large enough to treat with Microsclerotherapy.

The Vein Clinic Ireland do NOT use laser treatments for the removal of Thread Veins from the LEGS.

Are there any side effects to Microsclerotherapy?

As with any medical procedure, there are some risks involved, but complications with Microsclerotherapy are very rare and are generally of a very minor nature.

Some 4-5% of people can get brown marks – usually very mild and usually fading over several weeks or months. Very occasionally the brown stains can be dark. At the Claudia McGloin Clinic we check anyone who has brown stains as many can be improved by releasing any trapped blood in the Veins that were treated.

Approximately 1% (1 in 100) people can get a little break down of the skin. This is called a Chemical Ulcer. This can be very tender for a few weeks and then usually heals with a small scar. This scar can be permanent but such a small scar is usually better then the Thread Veins that were there before the treatment. This is rare. Allergies are often quoted as a problem but they are exceptionally rare.

Contact the Claudia McGloin Clinic for further details on Thread Veins and procedures available.