Plasma is not about TVs anymore. It actually helps diminish wrinkles.

Multiple low-energy treatments with a plasma skin regeneration tool may help to reduce wrinkles and improve facial appearance with minimal healing time, according to an article in the February issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Plasma is a unique state of matter in which electrons are stripped from atoms to form an ionized gas," the authors write as background information in the article. During plasma skin regeneration, energy from plasma is emitted in millisecond-long pulses to target skin tissues. The energy level is set manually on the device, which is, according to the authors, “leared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Previous studies have primarily focused on high-energy single treatments for acne scarring or wrinkle reductions, which may be effective but require a week or more for healing.

Melissa A. Bogle, M.D., then at SkinCare Physicians, Chestnut Hill, Mass., and now at the Laser and Cosmetic Surgery Center of Houston, and colleagues gave three full-face, low-energy treatments to eight volunteers every three weeks.

Three months after treatment, the participants had 37 percent fewer wrinkles as judged by the researchers, and the patients reported a 68 percent improvement in overall facial appearance.

Tissue had re-grown over the treated area after four days, while patient-reported redness lasted six days. No scarring or loss of pigment occurred.

When examining the biopsied skin tissue under a microscope, the researchers found that a new band of collagen, the primary protein in skin, had formed in the inner layers of the skin.

“The healing time in our study averaged approximately five days per treatment; however, this was a patient-assessed number that included days it took for any residual redness and peeling to completely resolve,” the authors write.