When you come to Face Forward Medical Aesthetics, you might already know what kinds of med spa treatments you'd like to have, and we're more than happy to provide those for you.
But you may also want to take advantage of a service we offer to all our customers: a free skin consultation, using both our years of expertise as well as our VISIA Skin Analysis system. This enables us to tell you which treatments are best suited to the condition of your skin, using real data rather than just a hunch.
What is a skin analysis machine?
One part of the VISIA is a rotating camera that photographs your entire face using UV and other types of light to capture a complete look at the condition of your skin, on the surface and beneath it. The other part is the software that shows us the resulting images and helps us analyze what we're seeing in them.
Many other med spas and dermatologists charge $150 for this high-tech skin analysis, but we're the only med spa in Lexington to offer it for free. It’s part of our commitment to educating our customers.
How does VISIA Skin Analysis work?
First, you place your face (makeup-free) in front of the camera on the chin rest with your eyes closed. Then the machine photographs your face at different angles — a fast and comfortable process — using various light spectra to reveal more than we can see with the naked eye.
Next, we'll calibrate the program to your skin color and outline your face on the screen. This is basically telling the computer where to focus for the most accurate results. With this info, the VISIA takes about a minute to deliver its skin analysis, which is computing certain features of your face, such as wrinkles, spots, pore size and more.
VISIA Skin Analysis means accurate results
We'll show you eight images on the screen, corresponding to each of the features the VISIA scan has analyzed, along with a score for each. The scores are percentiles, comparing your numbers to others the same age as you, using a database of over 250,000 people. So, a score of 60 in wrinkles would mean you have fewer wrinkles than 60 percent of the people your age in the database. Don't let these scores scare you! They're meant to give you an idea of which areas need more attention.
You’ll get images and scores for:
1. Visible spots: Those are the solar lentigos, seborrheic keratoses, or other discolored brown and red spots we can see with the naked eye.
2. Wrinkles: This is taking a very close look at every line in your face, so it's going to be pickier than you might be when you look in the mirror.
3. Texture: This will look at the raised and depressed areas of the skin, analyzing the overall smoothness.
4. Pores: This score measures your enlarged pores.
5. UV spots: Using UV light, the VISIA shows the sun damage to your skin that we can't yet see with the naked eye.
6. Brown spots: The VISIA also gives us an image of the brown spots that are beneath the surface of the skin.
7. Red areas: This image reveals conditions such as inflammation or spider veins.
8. Porphyrins: A porphyrin is a substance secreted by bacteria on the skin, and an increased concentration of them indicates clogged pores or skin oiliness.
Using all this data, the VISIA can give you something called your "true skin age." This is more than a fun carnival trick or a way to flatter or insult you. It will give you a sense of whether you need to do something to correct the damage the sun has done to your skin over the years, and let you know whether to protect yourself more for the future.
The VISIA gives us some other info, too, which is fun but not entirely necessary for everyone. It can measure your eyelash length, for example. We can use a 3D viewer to get a topographical look at your skin. And for the very brave, we can show you a simulated image of what you'll look like at 80 years old — if you do nothing to prevent the sun and pollution from wreaking havoc on your face, that is. (You can absolutely skip this step if you want; we don't base our recommendations on it.)
Next steps: skin care and treatment
We won't leave you hanging once you see these images and get your scores. We'll also talk to you about your own feelings about your skin. What bothers you and what doesn't? When we look at the VISIA analysis together, we can discuss what changes you might make to your skin-care regimen to correct any problems.
What we always promise you at Face Forward is that we will not give you a hard sell. We can use the information from the VISIA to recommend treatments to correct problems you see or prevent further damage.
We might recommend something like Halo laser treatments, BBL photofacial, or chemical peels to get rid of sunspots, facials to clear pores, or fillers to replace volume. But all of that is entirely up to you. We're here to educate, not to persuade. Whatever you decide, we're happy to help you!
The other great thing about VISIA is that we can analyze your skin after you’ve undergone any treatments or changed your skin-care regimen, to see whether your skin has indeed improved. It’s so satisfying to see those results.
