Ultherapy (Skin Tightening Treatment) at our London Clinic

This targeting and rapid heating of the tissues prompt cell renewal beneath the skin and prompts the body to respond by producing more elastin and collagen, restoring the skin’s underlying tissue and rejuvenating and tightening the skin. Ultherapy is the only FDA-cleared procedure to ‘lift’ skin on hard-to-treat areas using ultrasound. Treatment takes between 60-90 minutes.

Ulthera was cleared for use on the chest quite recently and according to the manufacturer, there is no reason why other parts of the body such as the arms, abdominal or skin above the knee, might not benefit from the Ultherapy treatment. It’s just that not enough formal studies have been done yet to prove its effectiveness in such areas.

We often try to minimise this by administering combination pain killers 45 minutes prior to the procedure to provide pain relief. At our London clinic, which is based with The Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth, we are able to use some additional pain relief in the form of Entonox (commonly known as gas and air) to help you past any strong levels of discomfort. Once the treatment is completed however there is no pain and patients typically leave comfortable and excited about the benefits to come!

The ideal candidate for Ultherapy is typically someone who has some mild to moderate degree of skin laxity that wants to improve his or her skin firmness and volume and perhaps is not fully ready for a surgical skin tightening procedure such as a facelift. Typically, those in their thirties and early forties who have a good quality of skin are the best candidates.

Patients who have more advanced levels of skin laxity (sagging) are sometimes advised to consider a facelift procedure to ensure a better result. Nonetheless patients with more advanced and obvious laxity of the skin-but who have already ruled out an invasive surgical facelift, for any number of reasons, may also benefit from the Ultherapy procedure, however these patients will need to understand that Ultherapy in these circumstances can never mimic or achieve the results obtained with a surgical facelift and therefore have to be prepared to curtail their expectations.

Unfortunately, as the years go by, our skin loses a proportion of its collagen. Recent discoveries over the last few years have found that heating the deeper portions of the skin and deeper tissues to a certain temperature will help to kick start the body’s natural repair process to produce new collagen.

In fact by delivering enough heat into the deeper skin layers and beyond, it creates a ‘unique healing process’ through which both mechanical and biochemical effects ultimately lead to an initial contraction or tightening of the collagen fibres. This is then followed by a well-documented wound response with dermal (deep skin) remodelling and ultimately new collagen formation.

With this aim in mind, a large number of heating ‘energy’ devices have appeared. Ultherapy is different and unique in that it uses very controlled, focused ultrasound energy directed to the deeper levels of the tissue in order to cause this heat effect.