EXCLUSIVE: Bio aesthetic points for skin bio remodelling: Dr Jaishree Sharad on new approach to fight ageing

What causes ageing of the skin? Why does skin lose its firmness and elasticity as we proceed from the 30s to the 40s? What makes your once tight and vibrant skin sag and lose volume after you cross the prime of youth?

These questions are at the centre of every anti-ageing approach adopted by aesthetic physicians today. While a popular approach employs the technique of freezing wrinkle-causing muscles, other procedures work to lend more hydration and volume to thinning skin or fill up wrinkles, nasobial folds and marionette lines. Effectively, they serve to address the overt signs of ageing. However, researchers and experts have continued to explore ways that can address more than just the symptoms of ageing and boost skin’s regeneration ability at the root.

The Bio Aesthetic Points (BAP) technique, pioneered by dermo-aesthetic major IBSA Derma, is one of the latest advancements in this direction. However, before coming to this technique we need to understand the key role Hyaluronic acid plays in keeping skin youthful and how delivering it at strategic points into the multiple layers of the dermis achieves remarkable anti-ageing effects.

Hyaluronic acid: the potent anti-ageing weapon Hyaluronic Acid is a substance found naturally in the skin. With its ability to retain water and its viscoelasticity, HA plays a crucial role in maintaining hydration and volume of skin tissues and ensure healthy existence of other structural proteins such as collagen and elastin. Age-related depletion or degradation of skin’s natural HA reserves are a major reason for the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines on the skin.

With ageing, the ratio between different collagen types changes. Along with it, the skin’s turnover rate also diminishes, resulting in lacklustre appearance and signs of ageing. The depletion of HA also results in physiological alterations of keratinocytes and fibroblasts – two crucial cell types that play a pivotal role in skin regeneration. A healthy interplay between fibroblasts and keratinocytes enables the process of healing and regeneration of the epidermal barrier layer of the skin.

Hyaluronic acid, therefore, plays a central role in ensuring a healthy composition of skin components as well as a healthy skin regeneration response. This knowledge has led to HA becoming a key element of skincare and anti-ageing regimes in recent years. From serums to topical skin creams to fillers and injectables, HA is today used in a multitude of skincare products. Its ability to induce lubrication and healthy inflammatory response also makes HA useful for wound healing and maintaining joint health. BAP technique for skin bio-remodellingThe technique called Bio Aesthetic Points (BAP) and is specifically designed for Profhilo®. The BAP technique has been studied at IBSA laboratories and developed by a team of experts. While most HA-based derma fillers use the Hyaluronic Acid to give hydration, volume to the skin and fill up lines & folds, IBSA Derma has taken its use a step ahead with its brand Profhilo that uses a skin bio-remodelling approach through the BAP technique.

The Bio Aesthetic Points (BAP) technique identifies 5 strategic points on facial skin to deliver intradermal injections of HA for best anti-ageing results. These BAP sites maximize the diffusion of the product administered in the malar and submalar areas which are particularly predisposed to dermal atrophy caused by the ageing phenomena. The points identified as — the Zygomatic protrusion; the Nasal base; the Tragus; the Chin and the Mandibular angle – are the 5 anatomically receptive areas of the face with an absence of large vessels and nerve branches, therefore, minimizing the risks of any adverse effect and maximizing the diffusion of the product in the malar and submalar areas.

A bolus should be injected at the deep dermis level for each one of these points, causing a discreet lump that normally disappears in less than 24 hours as the product is distributed. The BAP protocol includes a second treatment, which is exactly the same as the one described above in terms of technique. The second treatment took place approximately 30 days after the first.

To put it further in perspective, traditional biostimulation shows several limitations including the need for many injections, greater patient discomfort, increased possibility of bruising, protocol requiring many treatment sessions, and greater time commitment for the patient. However, compared to this, the new BAP technique using new-generation hyaluronic acid complexes achieves several advantages: only 5 injection sites per side of the face, reduced pain (slow injection), less chance of bruising and hematoma, fewer treatment sessions and better patient compliance.

The skin bio-remodelling procedure uses a highly pure hyaluronic acid without any cross-linking, making it closest to the substance found in nature. The result is also more natural and effective with anti-ageing action unleashed at the source of ageing, rather than just on the surface.