What a dermatologist wants you to know about anti-ageing 'tweakments', before you have them done.

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Something is definitely in the Hollywood water right now. From Lindsay Lohan to Kris Jenner, everyone seems to be Benjamin Buttoning their way through life and ageing backwards.

And while good for them (truly!), it's also sent the rest of us spiralling deeper into the anti-ageing rabbit hole.

Sure, we're over here diligently patting on retinol and slathering on collagen, but it's also made us wonder about the more intense stuff, like laser therapy, tweakments and whatever new beauty procedure TikTok decides is the thing this week.

WATCH: Clare and Maryam discuss their non-judgmental approach to anti-aging choices.

But… do any of these actually work, and are there any side effects to getting them done?

That's exactly what a recent episode of the podcast Well set out to uncover. Hosts Dr Maryam and Claire Murphy sat down with dermatologist Dr Cara McDonald to break down what's worth your money and what's worth passing on. 

Laser therapy.

Before diving into results, Dr Cara explained what lasers actually do:

"They are technically a single wavelength of light, and that wavelength of light will penetrate at a certain level of the skin to target a specific target in the skin."

In simple terms, they seek out the specific area that needs treating and "burn" only that spot, without damaging the rest of the skin.

"So if we're treating red blood vessels, broken capillaries, we are actually cooking those tiny little blood vessels under the skin so that they disappear whilst not delivering too much heat around it to damage the other tissue."

Dr Cara said lasers are "extremely effective", BUT… there's one very big caveat:

"The problem with lasers is that it's not so much the device you're using, it's the operator that's gonna determine which result you get," she warned.

"And the result you can get from a laser can be anything from completely underwhelming, I don't even know what I did, to causing severe complications because you've overcooked the skin and caused a scar or a burn."

In other words, a laser is only as good as the person using it.

"Lasers require a lot of training, a lot of expertise, experience, nuance with different people, nuance with different skin types, but they are great when used well, by the right person in the right person."

LED masks vs. lasers.

If you've been banking on your LED mask to replace in-clinic treatments, you might want to think twice because there's a "huge difference".

"An LED mask, which is a light-emitting diode, is usually a red or infrared light wavelength... but it's not a laser, which has only one wavelength," Dr Cara explained.

Lasers penetrate to specific targets while LED masks deliver energy to stimulate the skin, especially the mitochondria, to encourage collagen.

So LED = gentle stimulation. Laser = controlled damage for regeneration.

Both have a place, but they're just not interchangeable.

Injectables.

When it comes to anti-wrinkle injections, Dr Cara said they work in two main ways.

Firstly, they treat dynamic wrinkles, AKA the lines caused by repeated muscle movement (think crow's feet and frown lines).

Secondly, for younger people, injections can be preventative: "You can certainly target those strong muscles to try to weaken them or reduce them so that they never develop those deep movement lines."

Effective? Yes. But (yes, there's another BIG but)…

"If you take away all movement in some areas, those muscles can actually shrink down and down over time and actually give a slightly aged appearance."

Yep, too much anti-wrinkle can actually make you look older.

The issue, Dr Cara said, is that people think any movement equals a wrinkle, which is clearly not true. 

"A wrinkle is only when you see it when you're not moving… Being able to move your forehead and frown a little bit and have some movement, that's not a wrinkle."

Bottom line: movement is A-OK and completely natural!!

And for mature skin, sagging isn't just gravity or sun damage. Often, it's caused by strong downward-pulling muscles.

"So if you have a balanced approach, what you should be doing is actually weakening some of the depressor muscles that are sagging you," Dr Cara said.

A good injector will assess whether this applies to you and treat you accordingly.

"The main side effects are too much, in which case you end up with heaviness where you don't want it."

Think frozen forehead, or brows so heavy you can't fully open your eyes.

The good news is "most of the side effects are reversible and temporary." And the same goes for fillers, which have copped a lot of bad press.

Interestingly, Dr Cara said the issue is rarely the filler, but instead the injector.

"It's the operator again... Most of the problems people are having are because many injectors have a fairly limited skill set."

Too much product, wrong placement, wrong type of filler, or treating the same area over and over is when you see migration, puffiness and overfilling.

Bottom line: "When it comes to all these fancy treatments and procedures, remembering that it's not so much about what's being used, but who's doing it" is key.

And just because something works for someone else doesn't mean it will work for you. A dermatologist or qualified skin expert can assess your skin properly and guide you toward treatments that are actually worth your time (and money).

Want to listen to the full episode? Check it out below. Or, you can also watch Well on YouTube.

Feature image: Instagram @drcara_dermatologist.

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