Posted September 10, 2013 in Non-Invasive Treatments and Procedures, Non-Surgical Treatments, Podcast, Uncategorized, Videos
Video Highlights
0:06 Intro
0:17 The holy grail of plastic surgery
0:44 Non surgical tightening
0:50 What is Thermage?
0:59 High patient dissatisfaction
1:13 The case with Thermage
1:24 Other alternatives for non surgical tightening
1:55 The use of radio frequency
2:27 Benefits of radio frequency procedure
2:53 The risks involved
3:11 Ultrasound devise – Ulthera
3:45 Is radio frequency tightening painful?
4:12 Is there scarring?
4:19 Short term side effects
4:57 Why Venus Freeze
5:09 The importance of realistic expectations
5:57 Why not all get the same results?
Hi, this is Dr Michael Persky from Encino California or as we like to call it, the Beverly Hills of the San Fernando Valley. I’m a facial plastic surgeon at the Persky Sunder Facial Plastic Surgery. Tonight I’d like to speak to you for a few minutes about one of the holy grail of plastic surgery which is non invasive body tightening of lose skin. In our practice we see patients who are often complaining of loose skin on various parts of their body including the abdomen, the arms, the legs, the thighs, the butt, pretty much wherever we have skin there are some patients who wanted to be tightened and they wanted to be tightened without surgery, non-invasively. The original skin tightening, non-invasive devise was Thermage, came about 15-20 years ago. The problem being, that there was a high patient dissatisfaction with the procedure. Reports of 30-40% patient satisfaction currently on www.realself.com you can look up whether the procedure [1:16:19] or not. Thermage has a 38% patient satisfaction rate. Other radio frequency devises such as Tighten at 53%, Accent Excel at 56%, Exilis at 70%. We also have not great patient satisfaction rates. The current leader of patient satisfaction with non-invasive skin tightening devises that use radio frequency is the Venus Freeze which has an 87% patient satisfaction rate.
Patients want to know how radio frequency works. It works by heating the skin, similar to the way a microwave heats material. The waves are carried through the skin down to the tissue creating just enough heat to cause some damage. The bodies healing response forms collagen which results in tightening of the skin. It usually requires multiple treatments. Usually a treatment once a week for 4-6 weeks, followed by maintenance therapy which can be once every 1-3 months. The benefits are that it’s a non invasive modality of tightening the skin. No surgeries required. There’s minimal discomfort. It feels like a warm massage. There’s no more risk of skin changes. All skin types could be treated. And there’s no downtime with the procedure. 
The risks are some of these devices have reported rare burns. The skin could be red for a few hours after the treatment and rarely there can be lost of volume. Which is why in our practice we don’t really radio frequency devices on the face. We’re quite happy with using ultrasound devises. Naturally ultrasound devise, Ulthera, to lift and tighten the face, neck and browse. Radio frequency devises such as Venus Freeze, Exilis are good for non invasively lifting or tightening the neck and jawline for patients who aren’t quite ready for the more intensive, effective ulthera treatment.
The frequently asked questions about radio frequency skin tightening – Is it painful? It should feel like a warm massage. There are some devises that are quite painful. Fortunately, the Venus Freeze that we’ve been trialing in our office currently just feels like a warm massage and most of our patients, all of our patients who have tried it so far are quite pleased with their results.
Is there scarring? Very very rarely and it hasn’t been reported with the Venus Freeze devise. One of the short term side effects, there can be temporary swelling, redness and temporary numbness. All these things go away within hours.
Do patients need anesthesia for the treatment? The answer to that is no, not with the Venus Freeze. So, I hope that answers most of your questions about what the current best non invasive radio frequency skin tightening modality is. Currently I believe it’s Venus free. We’ll see. It’s certainly been the holy grail of plastic surgery.
To wrap this up, as with all of our treatments, I think it’s very important that patients have realistic expectations and it’s our job as physicians to convey those to the patient. As you heard from the patient satisfaction rate, even with the best of these technologies there’s a 15-20% patient dissatisfaction rate or patients are not seeing much results or they don’t think it’s worth their money. The last thing I ‘d want on our practice is to have unhappy patients.
Again, it’s important that our patients have realistic expectations. This is currently the best technology that’s non invasive to tighten the skin but doesn’t work for everybody. We’re not smart enough to know why that is, who it’s going to work on, and who it’s not. But there will be patients that will see great results and there will be unfortunately a small percentage of patients who don’t see the results they want. So that’s to be taken into consideration prior to undergoing a cost of both money and time and pursuing these radio frequency technologies.
If you have any questions about any non invasive skin technology, please feel free to call me. Be well. Take care of yourself.
Bye Bye.
Dr. Michael Persky and Dr. Sarmela Sunder are located in Encino, California and Beverly Hills, California but service all of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. Including, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Hancock Park, Brentwood, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Westlake, Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills, La Canada, Pasadena, and more. Please subscribe to our blog by clicking the link above, right, and “Like” us on Facebook. Thank you! + Michael Persky
