Morpheus 8 – The Next Level of Microneedling.

“I love this procedure, it’s so therapeutic.”

So says Kibar, who is currently driving microscopic needles into the depths of my skin.

“You’re a masochist,” I reply. She laughs. “No, I just like making people look beautiful and I can see that this is really working on you.”

Now I’m not a masochist. Not at all. I don’t enjoy pain. Childbirth did me for that one and now I’ll go to huge lengths to avoid any sort of injury. But the old ‘no pain, no gain’ mantra revolves around your mind as you get older and when I heard about the Morpheus8 treatment that promises wrinkle reduction without surgery I thought it was worth a punt.

Regular microneedling uses tiny needles to penetrate the skin to make multiple microscopic holes, then the body naturally heals those holes by producing new collagen to fill them.

Morpheus 8 is the next step up – microneedling with radiofrequency. The procedure adds radiofrequency-generated heat to the skin, which allows the treatment to tighten the skin and contour unwanted fat.

The microneedles used in the treatment are extremely fine and go deep into the skin — up to 4mm – to reach the fatty subcutaneous tissue. The deeper you go past the skin layers, the more collagen formulation you can stimulate… So to achieve the best results, Dr MediSpa’s Kibar was going deeper than East 17 in the 1990s.

Prior to the procedure a thin layer of anaesthetic was applied to my face and neck as I underwent a consultation, then I was left to relax for half an hour for the numbing cream to take effect.

After a short while my face felt weird – like when the dentists numbs you for a filling and you feel like your jaw has swelled to twice its usual size. The cream clearly works, but it doesn’t work miracles and, I won’t lie, the first five minutes of the treatment were absolutely bloody agonising. But, sensibly, Kibar was getting the worst part out the way first. The forehead and eye area have the thinnest skin, so penetration with a needle is going to be painful, but as she moved down to the cheeks and neck the sensation switched to more like pins and needles than puncturing.

The Morpheus8 treatment is FDA approved as a Subdermal Adipose Remodeling Device (SARD). This means that at its most powerful settings, Morpheus8 can sculpt or remodel the fat under the skin. At less deep settings, Morpheus8 treatment can also improve the texture of the skin, providing smoothing, tightening, and improvement of scars and dilated pores.

The transformation between before and after was immediately obvious – puncture marks and pin-prick bleeds covered my face but within a few minutes reduced to redness – but it takes up to three weeks for full results to show.

This is not a lunch hour treatment – there is downtime of up to a week and I emerged from the treatment room looking like a sunburnt tourist after too many lunchtime Sangrias. I was given after-care instructions – no exposure to sunlight for several days, no exercise, no cosmetics or makeup for up to 48 hours – and then I walked briskly back to Paddington, face bowed, hoping my flushed face wouldn’t attract any enquiring stares!

Dr MediSpa staff are trained clinicians and they’re honest from the outset. The downtime after a treatment is on average 3-5 days but this varies considerably from patient to patient. My face was slightly flushed for about two days but it took a good week for the intermittent stinging and redness to ease. However, it wasn’t half as dramatic as I had feared and to be honest, if I hadn’t pointed it out to people they probably wouldn’t have noticed much difference.

It can take up to two weeks for bruising to subside and results to show. As my skin settled I could see that my frown lines were slightly fading. By week two I could see an obvious reduction in the lines either side of my mouth, and a lessening of the depth of my forehead wrinkles. I had been advised that discolouration due to skin damage could be reduced, but this hasn’t happened. However, it is advised that each patient undergoes two to three initial procedures in order to achieve maximum results and I only had one.

Will I book back in? Yes. The procedure was painful but relatively short, and the results are positive. Friends and family have commented on my healthier looking skin and I can see clear results, if not quite as dramatic as I had hoped, but again that is due to only having had one of the recommended two to three initial treatments.

In order to maintain effectiveness the Morpheus8 has to be a long-term commitment with annual top-ups. The cost per treatment is around £500 but, straight from Hollywood, it’s the A-Lister of anti-ageing treatments, and you pay for results.

• Find out more on the Dr MediSpa website or call the clinic on 020 8418 0362.

• Emily received a complimentary treatment at the Baker Street location in exchange for an honest review.