Pain-free tweaks? Here’s how

I’ve written a lot about how much things hurt (see No Pain No Gain?) but that’s a) just so that you know and b) because some of you have a ghoulish streak and like reading this kind of stuff.  Here’s how to sidestep the pain and make tweakments a breeze. First, find a great practitioner who will take the time to talk through your concerns about potential discomfort and explain everything about the treatment to you, so you know what to expect, and what your options are for minimising that discomfort. Because here’s the thing: they don’t want you to be in pain. They want you to have a good experience and a great result, and to come back another time and maybe tell your friends about them. Believe me, it is not in their interest to have you suffer, and no one will give you a prize for acting tough.

So, what are the options?

Squeezy stress ball

It sounds hardly worth the bother, but having something to squeeze is a very decent distraction from what’s going on in your face.

Use your thumbnail

Digging one thumbnail into the pad of your other thumb. I find that creating a small bit of pain like that takes my mind off the treatment.

Paracetemol

It’s not much, but I find it takes the edge off if I’m tired/stressed etc. Not ibuprofen, if you’re having injectables, as it thins the blood a bit which makes you more susceptible to bruising.

Vibrating T-bar device

These are usually sold and used as face massagers and de-puffers and you might not think it would do much good, but holding this device against one part of your face distracts your brain from noticing that a needle is being slipped in to another part of your face.

Numbing cream

This comes in different strengths and is great for taking the edge of anything from injections to high-intensity energy treatments. Half an hour of a cream with 23% lidocaine on your face and you’ll hardly feel a thing, even if you’re having your lips microneedled….

Local anaesthetic

As in, something like a dental block. 20 years ago, practitioners would always do a dental block before lip fillers. It made the whole experience more comfortable, but they did also make the lips swell a bit, which made it harder to judge the effects of the filler that was going in, and they gradually went out of fashion. But it’s usually an option.

Putting your mind elsewhere

When all else fails and it’s clearly going to go on for a bit, I try to zone out and put my mind in a shady lounger on a faraway beach, watching the sunset. Dissociation, self-hypnosis, whatever works.

Have a hand to hold

Seriously. It sounds cheesy but having a friend, or a friendly nurse at the clinic, hold your hand makes a huge difference if you’re nervous about a treatment. During one  drawn-out and stressful procedure (in an operating theatre and surrounded by cameras, which didn’t help) the best thing was the kind nurse who just put a warm firm hand on my shin, which was about as near as she could get. I could have cried with gratitude.

Turn it down a bit

Energy-based treatments (laser, ultrasound, radiofrequency etc) all aim to get a lot of energy into, or through, your skin, to stimulate collagen renewal. That is rarely comfortable, and the level of discomfort is closely related to the intensity of the treatment. How intense is too intense? It varies from person to person and from day to day.

What you need to know is that if it feels too much, your practitioner can always turn it down, and with many energy treatments from RF needling to plasma, there’s a definite trend to offer a series of less intense treatments rather than a single big one-and-done procedure.