When I walked into Adele Reising’s Manhattan studio this past summer, I thought I was going for a relaxing acupuncture facial. What I actually got was an opportunity to treat facial scarring that I’ve had since I was a toddler.
I’m no stranger to acupuncture. I’ve been a longtime fan of the ancient Chinese practice and have gone for a myriad of different reasons: seasonal allergies, troubled digestion, headaches, and stress, to name a few. I’ve traveled all the way to Como Shambhala in Bali, Indonesia, to try acupuncture for period cramps and then to the Six Senses in Ibiza, Spain, for an acupuncture facial and Reiki healing. But even I, a routine acupuncture-goer and beauty writer, hadn’t heard of acupuncture as a treatment for scars.
“It’s not as widely talked about as the other benefits,” says New York–based acupuncturist Adele Reising, who has been practicing Chinese medicine for decades. “People see the phrase cosmetic acupuncture and often assume that it’s only a superfluous beauty treatment with no long-term benefits.” According to the National Library of Medicine, some initial studies have reported positive outcomes with the use of acupuncture for scar symptoms, and, with proper protocols, future clinical research sounds promising.
London-based cosmetic acupuncturist Sarah Bradden started offering this specialty treatment in her signature Bradden Method after experiencing her own scar and skin issues. “I fully understand how my clients feel about scarring because I’ve experienced it firsthand,” she says. “If I can change how the skin on my face looks and feels, then I want to bring those results to my clients.”
Essentially, no treatment, laser, or topical can completely erase a scar—but there are things you can do to help improve their texture, appearance, color, and severity. If you, like me, thought the only treatment options were extensive dry microneedling, brutal dermabrasion, expensive lasers, or even more surgery, then read ahead: Acupuncture may be a great alternative option.
How It Works
The treatment for scars is essentially the same as regular acupuncture treatment, only a bit more intense. You’ll start with a consultation where the practitioner will review your medical history, concerns, and goals. Most acupuncturists offer a comprehensive treatment beyond just the scar work, so you still get that holistic, total-body-and-mind rebalancing treatment too. “It’s never just about the scar,” says Bradden. “Everything in the body is connected, and when we take a 360 approach to the treatments, the results are going to be so much better.”
It may seem counterintuitive, but creating these microscopic abrasions on the skin with targeted needle stimulation can help encourage the body’s own healing process and boost cellular turnover around the scars. “Scars—especially on the face—are tricky in terms of healing because once the scar is formed, it can attach to the connective tissue, also known as fascia, that lies beneath our skin,” says Reising. “Once the scar tissue forms that adhesion, it can affect how the muscles in the face move, resulting in fine lines, pulling, drooping, or sagging. By concentrating needles around the scar, we’re able to slowly release that bond.”
You can treat pretty much any scar with acupuncture, says Bradden, with the exception of keloid scars. “Keloid scars are extremely temperamental, so there’s a risk of making it worse,” she says. “It can have the reverse effect and stimulate more growth so I would avoid treating it with acupuncture.” My scars, in particular, are on my face—from my right eyebrow to my cheekbone, above my upper lip, and on the corner of my mouth—and are a result of the reconstructive plastic surgery I had when I was two years old from a dog bite. Reising used what’s called intradermal needles on my scars—teeny tiny versions of standard acupuncture needles placed with tweezers on either side of the scar to help break up the tissue.
However, your scars don’t need to be on your face to get treated by acupuncture. Richelle Marty, COO of Get Plump, a New York City–based aesthetics studio, started acupuncture almost two years ago at Ora for fertility treatments. When she underwent a laparoscopy for endometriosis a year later, her acupuncturist suggested treating the five surgical scars on her stomach with acupuncture. “I work in aesthetics and didn’t know this type of treatment existed until my practitioner told me,” says Marty. “It was a no-brainer. I already had a great relationship with my acupuncturist, and he knows my medical history, my preferences, what my body needs, and how my body responds to treatment, so I trusted the process.”
Marty started the treatment a week after her surgery, going once a week for about 60 minutes. “My scars were too fresh to do any lasers, so I was relieved to have an option to kick-start the healing process,” she says. Both Bradden and Reising agree that unless your doctor specifies otherwise, you can seek scar treatment about a week after the scar forms. “The sooner you can come in, the better,” says Bradden. “We start with a really gentle treatment, but it can make a huge difference in your overall results.” You can also use acupuncture to treat older, fully healed scars. I started my own acupuncture treatment 31 years after my scars had healed.
One of the best parts of acupuncture is that there’s minimal to no downtime after the session, and when you go to a certified practitioner, the risks are low overall. Some side effects include redness, light bleeding, or bruising, the latter of which I experienced after a particularly intense treatment with the intradermals next to my eye. The area was slightly purple and sensitive to the touch for about a week after my session, but then it went away. As for how much it hurts in the moment, again, it depends on the person and their pain tolerance. I have a relatively high pain tolerance; some needles I didn’t feel at all, and some felt like a quick, sharp flash of pain—especially in more sensitive areas like around the eyes or mouth. But once the needles were in, the lights dimmed, and sounds of the ocean played in the background, I felt so zoned out and relaxed that I didn’t feel them at all.
If you don’t find it physically painful, it’s worth noting that you might experience a flood of emotions as well. “Scars are often associated with some sort of trauma whether it’s an accident, dog bite, C-section, facelift, or something else,” says Bradden. “One day, you wake up and your body is just different. It can be hard to process and cope with that.” Bradden says that because the fascia “holds emotional memory,” it’s not surprising that there can be an emotional release when the scar tissue is released.
Like all good things, consistency is essential to see real results. The amount of sessions depends on your age, how fresh your scar is, the size of your scar, the type of your scar, and more. At Bradden’s practice, she recommends roughly 12 sessions for scar treatment and adds or subtracts sessions based on the individual. “Clients usually see a difference after five or six sessions,” says Bradden. Reising agrees, noting that 12 sessions are a good starting point since it’s the length of a TCM season, which is the practice of regular, consistent acupuncture treatments to align with the changing energies of the seasons. Marty, who went weekly, started to see results after only four sessions: “It’s amazing for me to visibly see the progression of healing,” she says. “My scars are smaller, less red, and less painful and itchy.”
It all depends on the acupuncturist, the appointment length, the type of scar you’re looking to treat, and what else is included in the appointments. Bradden’s 90-minute sessions start at $395, but the sessions typically include LED light therapy, Reiki, sound healing, and more. At Ora, the post-healing package includes six 60-minute treatments for $650 (which comes out to about $108 a treatment). And at Reising’s private acupuncture studio, a single session can range from $200 to $350.
The Good Stuff—Results
The best part of acupuncture is that once the scar tissue has been separated from the fascia, it won’t reattach or come back. Acupuncturists often combine the treatment with glow-ifying add-ons like LED light therapy, facial massage, and face masks to enhance the results. At Reising’s practice, I get the acupuncture facial, which includes green-tea bags for my eyes, an herb- or lavender-soaked sheet mask, and jade rolling before we get into the body, scar, and facial points. After she removes all the needles, the treatment finishes with a liquid egg mask to firm and soften, followed by a facial massage with hyaluronic acid and face oil.
While I won’t go as far to say that I’ve seen drastic changes, at the point of writing this, I’ve done 10 sessions and I can see a visible difference. The texture around my scars has smoothed, and the deepest scar (by my mouth) is smaller and no longer pulling downward, which softened some fine lines I was experiencing. “That’s the biggest benefit clients can notice right away,” says Bradden. “There’s a subtle lift and release around the scar.” And while I’ve mostly come to peace about my scars, even the smallest 10% improvement made it worth it and made me feel a million times better. At the very least, Marty and I agreed that we love that the treatment forced us to take 90 minutes to do something inherently soothing—and we always get in a really good nap.