Do you need to sterilise before first use?

[purple_buttefly]

Hey everyone

So I've just got my DR Roller in the mail, do I need to sterilise it before using it for the first time or is it safe to not?

Many thanks

[SarahVaughter]

They come Gamma-sterilized.

BTW Disinfecting the dermaneedling instrument after dermarolling is more important than disinfecting the skin before dermarolling. The most important part of the disinfection is to clean the dermarolling instrument after dermarolling with dishwashing detergent and warm water and rinse it under a very strong stream of water to remove blood and skin debris from the needles. Then soak it in Chloramine-T or Ethanol.

[purple_buttefly]

Ok thanks, I guess it's ok to use without sterilisation beforehand then?

Another question, does the roller become un-sterile after the shelf life has expired (on the leaflet in the box it said about the shelf life being 6 months from sterilisation date)

[SarahVaughter]

I understand your concern, but it is unwarranted. Even after you thoroughly wash your skin with soap and apply alcohol, there are orders of magnitudes more bacteria on your skin than on a roller that comes from the factory.

It is theoretically possible that a factory worker has a dangerous infection and handles the roller and for some reason the factory sterilization process malfunctions and the bacteria sporulate.

Then, if you would have a serious immune deficiency, you could theoretically, I suppose, end up with an infection. However, this has never happened to anyone in the history of dermaneedling, to my knowledge (and I read everything published in that regard - all the time).

The roller, once disinfected and not used, is shielded from the environment by several layers of packaging. It is not realistic to fear that there are harmful bacteria such as Anthrax floating around in your environmental air, and even if they were, you'd be breating them in and that would be the same, or worse, as rolling them into your top layer of skin.

So no, I would not worry at all about the sterileness of unused rollers.

If you still have doubts, then simply sterilize them before first use, as per our instructions.

[bronwen]

Hi, I would like to reply to your question about whether it is necessary to sterilise the dermarollers before first use !!

I have inflammatory arthritis which is autoimmune in origin and am using anti-TNF medications which means that I am very susceptible to infection both as a result of my condition and also as a side-effect of the medication I am using. On occasion my neutrophil count has been as low as 0.65x10/9. I regularly use the dermastamp and also both a 0.25  and a0.5 dermaroller bought from Sarah's web store and can say that I have never had any problems with infection. I wash my skin beforehand with ordinary soap and water and afterwards I always clean the dermaroller/dermastamp according to Sarah's instructions and then soak them in the Chloramine T , again, according to the instructions on the website. I hope that this puts your mind at rest as I speak as one prone to infection !!

[purple_buttefly]

Thank you so much for the advice.

[kkEspana]

I'm surprized, thanks!