Cryopen aftercare instructions
Treatment
Post treatment advice for Cryopen
Blog
For All Treatments
• Immediately following treatment, your body will produce histamine in the area which will create an itchy sensation for about 10 minutes, do not worry, this is perfectly normal.
• Do not pick the treated area at any time after treatment, otherwise your treatment could take longer to heal.
• If a wheel/scab is knocked off accidentally, it will also take longer to heal, but you should still have the same outcome of a successful treatment.
• Blistering can happen with any cryotherapy treatment and is indiscriminate. The CryoPen is the most effective way of avoiding blisters as we are only treating the affected area and not healthy tissue, this is quite rare.
• If a blister does appear, leave it along alone and do not ‘pop’ it, it will go down on its own.
• If the blister pops, weeping may occur, if so, use some Savlon, Germolene or other anti-sceptic cream twice a day to avoid infection. An adhesive dressing, such as a plaster can be used to cover the area. You can also use anti-sceptic cream if the area becomes tender.
Skin Tags
These turn black at the base and drop off over a period of 1-6 weeks.
Larger skin tags of 3mm+ may need a second freeze, please contact us after 6 weeks if they need to be re-treated.
Warts/Verrucae
These should fall off between 1-4 weeks.
If the wart/verruca is still present after 4 weeks, a second freeze will be required.
Milia
As these are superficial keratin filled epidermal cysts, these normal flatten and disappear with Cryotherapy within 2 weeks. There is no need to do anything, other than follow the above aftercare advice.
Pigmentation/Cherry Angiomas
The treated area may raise and look like a bee sting, do not worry, this is perfectly normal, it will go down in a few hours.
Over the next 24hours, the area will go darker and create a small crust on the surface, do not pick this off. When it naturally falls off, you will see new skin (shiny pink), this is not scarring. It will re- pigment over the following weeks.
• Please use a sunblock factor 30+ on any pigmentation removal until it has re-pigmented, this may take up to 8 weeks.
• Do not pick the area.
• You can continue to use deodorants or perfumes on treated areas, but try to avoid on the day of treatment.
• If the small crust has not fallen off after 4 weeks, please wait until it has done before contacting the clinic. Skin sometimes takes longer to regenerate.
• If the skin being treated is tanned, the treatment will remove the tan and re-pigment to the skins natural skin colour.
• Treatments that do not heal after 6 weeks should be reviewed by your doctor or dermatologist.
CryoPen™ Therapy Treatment
Information and Terms of Treatment
What is Cryotherapy?
Cryotherapy is a quick, sterile and safe procedure to provide a controlled destruction of unwanted tissue by the precise application of extreme cold known as cryonecrosis. Cryonecrosis occurs when rapid freezing of minus(-)27 is applied to benign human tissue.
CryoPen therapy is relatively low-risk and side effects and complications are usually minimal. Some side effects may occur as a result of treatment. These include:-
• Headaches are not uncommon when freezing on the forehead, scalp and temples and can last for up to 2 hours.
• Pigment changes can occur. Both hypo pigmentation (lightening of the skin) and hyper pigmentation (darkening of the skin). Both generally last a few months, but can be longer lasting.
• Nerve damage. Though rare, damage to nerves is possible, particularly in areas where they lie closer to the surface of the skin, such as the fingers, the wrist and the area behind the ear. Reports suggest this will disappear within several months.
• A blister may appear in the treated area, but will usually only last a few hours.
• Shards of frozen ice. The innovation of CryoPen is the direct application of nitrous oxide under high pressure (55 bar). This high pressure jet may cause minor shards of frozen ice in the air blown away in a circle of approximately 30cm. They will thaw the moment they touch healthy skin.
• Treatments on sites with course terminal hair. The hair follicles may be damaged by cryotherapy and permanent alopecia may occur.