Turn back the clock

Painless and non-surgical Vampire Facelift is serving as a replacement for botox.

Want to get rid of those fine lines and wrinkles but scared of undergoing the knife? Your own blood can help you achieve that through a non-surgical and painless method.

Introduced in England around two years back, Dracula therapy is being used to remove wrinkles, folds and fine lines from face by using the patient’s own blood. The therapy is also being used for hair regeneration.

Under the therapy, also known as ‘Vampire Facelift,’ blood is extracted from the person’s body and is injected on the face or head after processing it with growth hormones in a laboratory. The blood is injected using micro needles after applying local anaesthesia.
“We take out 20 ml of a patient’s blood and remove Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP – a component of blood) from that. After releasing growth hormones in it, the fresh solution is then injected in the face or head,” says Dr Datinderjeet Tulla, consultant at the department of plastic and cosmetic surgery at BLK Super Speciality Hospital.

PRP method was being used by surgeons for around eight years, but for other purposes like healing wounds and transferring fat and stem cells. The technique is now being used against ageing as a replacement for botox. The therapy is called Dracula therapy because it involves injecting the person’s face with his own blood.

According to dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons, the therapy gives a more natural effect and is less costly than cosmetic surgery against ageing. “While a skin tightening surgery costs around Rs one lakh, dracula therapy costs around Rs 40,000,” informs Dr Sachin Maurya, consultant dermatologist and cosmeto-aesthetic surgeon at Fortis Escorts Heart Institute.

Part of regenerative method, which is next generation of plastic surgery, the therapy’s effect comes after three months and stays for as long as three years. A person’s own blood with additions of growth hormones helps stimulate the growth of fresh cells and repair DNA, heal scars and remove wrinkles.

Doctors deny any kind of side effect of the therapy unless the blood is exposed to air and is not handled in a sterile environment.

“There are absolutely no side effects of this therapy as patient’s own blood is used for it. There is swelling and a little pain for about four hours after the therapy, but no side effects as such,” says Dr Maurya, who has performed the therapy on 50 people in the last two years.

Dr Tulla however, has a word of caution and feels that the blood sample should not be exposed to air. “The only thing which has to be taken care of is that the handling of the blood products is done in a sterile environment. Also, the doctor should know how much PRP has to be infiltrated,” he says.