Surgery, injections and laser treatments are a just a few examples of the ways you can reduce the signs of aging on your face. A relatively new option for reducing the appearance of aging is skin tightening using ultrasound. Although it might sound a bit like science fiction, ultrasonic skin tightening treatments can help make your skin look and feel firmer and smoother.

Skin tightening treatments, such as Ultherapy, or Ulthera, are designed not to replace facial plastic surgery. Instead, like injections or laser treatments, they are intended to offer yet another option to patients who might not be ready for a surgical procedure. If you are considering a skin tightening procedure, there a few things it can be helpful to know first.

It Stimulates Collagen Production

While are different methods of skin tightening, using technologies such as ultrasound or infrared light, what they share in common is the way they work on the skin. Treatments such as Ultherapy help reduce skin laxity by stimulating the production of collagen in the dermal layer. The treatments skip over the top layer of skin, leaving it intact, and instead direct the energy from the ultrasound to the dermal layer.

Collagen acts as a scaffold or support structure for the skin. Although the body produces it naturally, its production diminishes as people age. Ultrasound skin tightening treatments jumpstart the diminishing production of collagen.

It’s Ideal for Early Signs of Aging

Non-surgical skin tightening treatments are often ideal for patients who are just beginning to show signs of aging. It’s suitable for people who have some skin looseness or laxity but not a considerable amount of laxity just yet. While there’s no specific age limit for skin tightening, the procedures are often recommended for people under the age of 60.

A facial plastic surgeon can help you determine when a treatment such as Ultherapy is right for you. Based on the amount of skin looseness or  loss of laxity, you  might see greater benefit from a surgical option such as a neck lift or facelift.

It Has Almost No Downtime

There’s a big difference between surgery and skin tightening when it comes to the amount of downtime or recovery time needed. After a facelfit, you’ll need to take about a week or two off from work and your regular activities. That downtime gives your incisions time to heal and your bruising and swelling time to fade away. You’ll then most likely  need another few weeks before you can return to strenuous activities.

After a non-surgical skin tightening procedure, you’ll pretty much be able to skip the downtime and get right back into the swing of things. Usually, the only thing patients have to worry about after the treatment is a bit of redness in the treated area. Some people might feel tingling or soreness in the area, but these side effects usually fade within a few hours.

Along with having a shorter recovery time, skin tightening treatments also take a lot less time and require less preparation. You might have to make significant changes to your life before surgery. Usually, you won’t have to make major adjustments to you life before Ultherapy. The procedure also usually only takes between 30 and 90 minutes, depending on the size of the area being treated.

It does take some time for the results to appear after a skin tightening treatment. While many patients only need a single treatment to get the results they had hoped for, it can take up to six months before the results are visible.

It Can Be Combined With Other Procedures

Just as you can combine multiple surgical procedures to get the results you want, you can combine a treatment like Ultherapy with other non-surgical procedures to create a result you can be happy with. For example, you  might decide to combine non-surgical skin tightening with Botox injections to treat the frown lines between your eyebrows or crow’s feet in the corner of your eyes. You might also combine the treatment with a skin treatment such as a chemical peel, to tackle any discoloration or hyperpigmentation issues you might have.

Dr. Kyle Choe and The Choe Center are one of the first practices to offer Ultherapy in the Virginia Beach area. To find out if non-surgical skin tightening is right for you, call Dr. Choe’s practice at 757.389.5850 to schedule your consultation today.