Microdermabrasion stimulates skin growth by taking off the top layers of skin cells. The dermis, or deep layer of the skin, regularly creates new layers of skin cells and pushes them upward, where they are stacked together as the layers of the epidermis. These cells are not technically alive anymore, but they don’t have to be in order to form a layered barrier against extreme temperatures and foreign substances. The dermis only goes into the skin production cycle again when this epidermal barrier gets a layer or two too thin. This is where microdermabrasion comes in.