Meet The Collagen-Boosting Laser With No Pain & No Downtime

Do you like the sound of a laser that causes no pain or downtime, and which prevents signs of premature ageing before they even arise by ‘banking’ your collagen? That’s exactly what the RedTouch Pro laser promises. So, Alice went to Atelier by Dr Aggie Zatonska in Egham to find out more and to review the treatment for herself. Here’s what you need to know…

Why is collagen loss such an important topic for age-proofing tweakments?

“Patients are quite surprised when I tell them that we start to lose about 1% of our collagen per year from our mid-20s,” reveals Dr Aggie Zatonska. “And, in the first years of menopause, we lose about 30% of our collagen. So, by the time we’re 50, we have half the collagen that we had before!”

That’s not great news for our faces, as collagen is responsible for keeping our skin smooth, plump, and firm, meaning collagen decline ultimately leads to wrinkles and sagging. That’s why, in recent years, preventing collagen decline – aka ‘collagen banking’ – has become such a focus, with the idea being you can prevent these visible signs of ageing by keeping your collagen levels as high as possible for longer.

“The younger generation is very well informed about skincare, the importance of using SPF and the prevention [of ageing],” says Dr Aggie. “So, they come [into clinic] already thinking, what can I do now to control this process? They want strategies to help them maintain the way the skin changes. Luckily, we now have the technology that can help them.”

What is the RedTouch Pro? 

RedTouch Pro is a perfect example of this new ‘collagen banking’ approach. In fact, the non-ablative laser technology is breaking new ground in multiple ways.

“This laser directly stimulates collagen and is the first laser to do that,” explains Dr Aggie. “They have found out the specific wavelength [675nm] to directly stimulate collagen, without the need for trauma or heating of the tissue [as is the case with many other energy-based devices]. Instead, it directly stimulates the collagen fibres and makes the fibroblasts produce more collagen.

The result: a solution for prejuvenation, laxity, fine lines and wrinkles, acne scars, and melasma, all with minimal downtime. So far, so very exciting…

Who is the treatment suitable for?

According to Dr Aggie, there are three main ways for the RedTouchPro to work its magic:

For prejuvenation

Firstly, it can be used for the first signs of ageing, when someone might start to think, ‘what should I do now to maintain the way I look?’ These patients might need three to six sessions per year to maintain the level of collagen they have.

“RedTouch Pro is a very different approach [to the collagen-boosting treatments we have seen before],” Dr Aggie further explains. “It allows us to have a proactive approach in terms of prejuvenation for younger patients, where we can actually protect and stimulate the collagen before it starts to rapidly decline. Rather than wait for the damage to happen and then start to reactively stimulate it with more invasive treatments, we can now, in a very gentle way, protect this collagen, maintain it for years to come, and actually control the ageing process for those patients. As always in medicine, prevention is better than cure.”

For maintenance 

Luckily, though, it’s not ‘too late’ to try the RedTouch Pro laser if your collagen decline has already kicked in, says Dr Aggie. In these cases, the technology can be used not only to maintain what you still have but also to boost new collagen production, helping reduce the need for more frequent, more invasive treatments.

“The beauty of incorporating this laser into your broader treatment plan is that for someone in perimenopause, menopause, or after menopause, we can work to replace some of the collagen they have already lost, while maintaining what they still have,” Dr Aggie reveals. “That might require a little bit more of an aggressive approach at first, in combination with microneedling, CO2 lasers, radiofrequency, or ultrasound, but we then don’t have to wait for the peak of what we have achieved to start to go down again before having another aggressive treatment. (The patient would also then be one or two years older, and their collagen production would have further declined). Instead, we can use the RedTouch Pro to maintain and boost the results we achieved with other treatments, all in a completely non-invasive way.”

For previously ‘tricky’ patients 

Finally, a particularly exciting aspect of RedTouch Pro’s capabilities is that the laser can even help those patients who are traditionally not good candidates for laser and light treatments, including those with very sensitive skin or melasma. That’s because the laser doesn’t heat the tissue or cause micro-injury. Plus, the collagen stimulation it causes can strengthen the walls of the skin’s blood vessels, making them stronger, while downregulating inflammation. That means patients with rosacea, melasma, and very sensitive skin can see visible skin improvements.

Alice’s review: What is it like to have a RedTouch Pro laser treatment?

In a world where previously ‘no pain, no gain’ ruled, RedTouch Pro is gaining some serious fans for the fact that it “doesn’t cause discomfort, has no downtime, and requires no need for anesthetic or prep,” reveals Dr Aggie. “There isn’t even a need for cover-up [products] afterwards because patients are often not even red.”

Sounds too good to be true? In the video below, you can see how Alice got on trying the RedTouch Pro laser, and in her words, she felt “nothing” and that there was “no redness”, which is pretty impressive.

How dramatic a transformation can you expect from RedTouch Pro?

It’s true – you can’t immediately see collagen stimulation working, so unfortunately, you won’t walk out of the treatment room looking totally different. But then, one day, your friends may suddenly remark how well you look – and that might just be worth the wait.

In particular, your skin will start to have a healthy glow, which is the first clear sign of collagen stimulation, followed by a little firming and tightening effect. “It does literally give you this healthier, bouncier, more glowing-looking skin, which is the holy grail, isn’t it?” affirms Dr Aggie.

And for anyone who really does need to see it to believe it – and there’s no shame in that! – Dr Aggie also showed Alice (in the video above and screenshotted below) some skin-scanned photographs that help you visualise the increase of collagen within the skin; (the yellow is an increase in baby collagen). Plus, the video also contains some great before-and-afters where skin glow is boosted, inflammation is decreased, and pigmentation is less visible.

Can you combine RedTouch Pro with other treatments?

Absolutely. In fact, this is where the technology really shines. “It is very much transforming the way we treat patients because we can actually incorporate it with any treatment plan,” says Dr Aggie. “We can use it with facials, with injectables, and with other devices. It’s brilliant for combination treatments where we tackle a problem from different angles.

Finally, how was this clever laser wavelength discovered?

“DEKA, the manufacturer of the RedTouch Pro laser, was actually looking at a technology to detect breast cancer tumours, by working out what structures in the body absorb different wavelengths,” Dr Aggie explains. “They realised that the specific 675nm wavelength was directly absorbed by collagen, while stimulating the fibroblasts to produce more collagen too.”

The technology then moved rapidly into the aesthetic world, with RedTouch Pro currently the only laser to work at this special wavelength. Practitioners also particularly trust Lynton, the distributor of DEKA lasers in the UK, considering the company has manufactured lasers in general for about three decades.

Want to find out more about this collagen-boosting laser? Head to the dedicated RedTouch Pro laser brand page for more information and for help finding practitioners in your area.

This article is written with the support of Lynton