Is Ultherapy the new facelift alternative?
“I’d be hard-pressed to find a patient who isn’t interested in combating wrinkles and sagging skin without surgery. So when we began offering Ultherapy, I knew we had a powerful new option in our hands,” Dr. Fitzgerald shares.
The treatment is the first of its kind to use ultrasound technology to allow treatment providers to “see” precisely the tissue that needs to be addressed and then use the ultrasound energy to stimulate collagen production.
The Wall Street Journal recently examined the ultrasound and radiofrequency options currently on the market and declared Ultherapy “the hottest option available”, (essentially determining that Ultherapy treats deeper and hotter than its competition).
In the WSJ September 11th, 2012 article, “Fighting Wrinkles with Heat: Radiofrequency and Ultrasound Facials”, reporter Laura Johannes explains how radiofrequency and ultrasound options are different from lasers – penetrating deeper and offering less downtime.
Dr. Fitzgerald believes the early treatment of Ultherapy, Sculptra, and fillers seems to slow down the aging clock. With a boost of technological stimulation, it’s easier to keep the skin’s collagen cycles running more energetically. In one sense you can look at early procedure choices as a way to prevent the heavy lifting that would occur if you waited until everything had already slowed down.
It’s very similar to how you normally have preventative maintenance on your car. Those 15K tune-ups keep the car running better and longer with far less need for a major overhaul. If we apply this same idea to the skin, then it’s easier to apply a pattern of “along the way” procedures to keep everything running smoothly.
One of the nice features of Ultherapy in particular is the “no downtime” aspect. You can have a treatment and go about your everyday activity. There’s no recovery outside of a short-term pinkness (though some patients will bruise and more so if you’ve been taking a lot of heart-healthy supplements). Expect some temporary tenderness and possible swelling.
Within months you can potentially get noteworthy results and bear no telltale signs at all. In our experience, Ultherapy works no matter what your age, but does seem to have a stronger effect faster on skin that has not already hit a high maturity mark.
Call our office to schedule your Ultherapy consultation. Our Special Procedures Family Nurse Practitioner, Angela Sarff, is one of a very limited group of Advanced Ultherapists. Her in-depth training gives her quite an edge in getting the best results with the best and most advanced techniques.