If only there were a way to tighten and lift loose, sagging facial skin without any downtime such as the typical recovery experienced from facelift surgery or with the swelling and redness from laser treatments. But wait, there is! And it's deep tissue skin tightening with the power of ultrasound, known as Ultherapy!
What is Ultherapy?
Ultherapy uses the technology of ultrasound, to send focused waves of ultrasound directed at the deeper layers of skin tissue, into the skin fascia layer. This layer of skin fascia is the anchor that holds facial tissue in place. This is also the layer that surgeons will address when performing a surgical facelift procedure, lifting up this sheet of tissue to pull up the overlying skin layer with it. But with Ultherapy ultrasound, the sound energy is delivered through the skin, without the need for an invasive surgical procedure, or with the penetrating energy of laser. The ultrasound waves pass through the skin, leaving overlying skin completely unaffected and undamaged. The sound energy directly heats up the deep tissues in the skin, directly tightening them and stimulating more collagen for even more lifting and tightening.
What Areas Are Treated with Ultherapy?
Facial areas that are typically treated with Ultherapy include the skin around the eyes, which includes the crows feet areas and underneath the eyes, to help diminish eye lines and to open up the eyes for a more youthful appearance. Also, the skin above the eyebrows can be treated to lift eyebrows. This is called the Brow Lift/Eye Opener procedure.
The whole lower face is most often treated, to treat heavy jowls along the jaw line, the tissue just below the chin and also, the heaviness along the sides of the nose, known as the nasolabial folds can all be treated. Utilizing Ultherapy in these areas, targets fatty tissue that can be diminished and softened, and the overlying skin is tightened.
What Can I Expect During the Ultherapy Treatment?
For you treatment, no prior preparation is required, there is no numbing needed. Prior to your treatment, Dr. Michelle Parsons, M.D. will apply a cooling gel to your facial skin, just as with any ultrasound treatment. This ultrasound gel allows the sound energy to better penetrate the skin and keeps the skin cool during the treatment.
To treat the whole face, including around the eyes, lower cheeks, jawline and under the chin area, takes about an hour. After the treatment there is typically no redness and no bruising. Many patients will already begin to see improvement around the eye area with a noticeable brow lift and opening of the eyes. But otherwise no one will know that you had a procedure that day and you can go about your business as usual!
How Long Will My Results from Ultherapy Last?
After the initial skin tightening that day, further skin tightening will continue in a slow and gradual process, occurring over the next few weeks and even months. "It is around 8 weeks that most patients will begin to receive unsolicited compliments from their friends and family, telling them that they look well rested, or perhaps look as if they had just come back from a vacation. They will notice the subtle improvement, but will not know the cause!" - Dr. Michelle Parsons, M.D.
The improvement in facial skin firming and lifting will continue to evolve and improve over the next few months and sometimes even as long as a year after the one treatment. Results from Ultherapy are long lasting, as there has been stimulation of new natural collagen and tightening of the deeper fascial layer.
Ultherapy Breast Lift
Ultherapy is not just for the face
During bathing suit season, the decolletage is an area that becomes more front and center, so to speak. Our friends - time, sun and gravity - work their deleterious effects on this sensitive skin area, leaving our skin here looking more weathered than maybe the rest of our skin does. The skin of the chest is definitely more thin and more fragile than a lot of other skin areas, such as back skin, which is some of our thickest skin and so does not tend to age as badly compared to chest skin. Not only can the skin of the decolletage appear more crepey and have more uneven pigment from repeated sun exposure, but this thinning of the decolletage skin can also lead to dropping of the breasts, and nobody wants that!
Welcome Ultherapy ultrasound skin tightening of the decolletage!
Jowls
Ultherapy works great for sagging jowls, where the skin is fatty, heavy and drooping. Ultherapy is able to reduce this fatty heaviness, tapering the jawline, for a more youthful look. Ultherapy can restore a more youthful shape to the face from a square to the inverted triangle.
Nasolabial Folds
Ultherapy also works well to minimize the drooping of excess skin that we get along each side of the nose or lower cheeks. You may think that you need to fill in these areas with a filler, but the real problem may be that fat and loose skin is just falling down due to the effects of gravity. With ultherapy, we can target this area and minimize the fattiness and tighten up that skin. Again this will restore the more youthful balance of the face with the center of gravity higher in the cheek areas.
Neck
Ultherapy can tighten up that loose skin underneath our necks as well. The area that Ultherapy works the best is that area just underneath the chin and extending into that curve of the neck. Ultherapy won’t duplicate the results of a surgical neck lift. But if you have somewhat loose and fatty skin in your upper neck, hanging just beneath your chin, Ultherapy can improve this area, and improve your profile.
Eyelids and Brow Lift
Perhaps one of the most dramatic areas that Ultherapy can improve on without surgery is the eye area and creating a brow lift, helping to lift heavy drooping eyelids. Ultherapy can make the eyes appear more open, more awake, rested and more youthful. This may be a subtle change but this small difference can have a significant effect! Our clients really love this part of the Ultherapy results.
Ultherapy on The View! from Ultherapy on Vimeo.
Ultherapy - Before And After
Photo courtesy of Dr. Michelle Parsons of Renove Med Spa of an actual patient.
One week after my Ultherapy Treatment, my husband, after being out of town for a couple of days asked me “what’s different about you,” he was staring at my face! Not having told him about the treatment I innocently said: “what do you mean?” His response was “I am not sure but your face looks different.” I asked “different good or different bad?” He replied “different good, looks stretched.” I was surprised that the results were noticed quickly. I found the treatment to be bearable, certainly wasn’t pain-free, but tolerable. I was very happy when it was over! For the past 2 weeks following the treatment, my face has been tender which is a reminder that the treatment is continuing to work! I would highly recommend it to all!
I had Ultherapy about 4 months ago by Doctor Michelle Parsons everyone looks at me and says “you look so rested.” I would highly recommend this painless procedure. Thank Doctor Parsons and wonderful staff.