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Category : Facelift / Tuliplift, : New Treatments, : Thermage / ThermaCool
Wednesday, July 25. 2007
Non-Surgical Lifts
Read this if you ar not ready for a conventional cutting facelift.
Thermage, or Thermacool, is one modality often used to tighten the skin and underlying structures. Five years later and having performed hundreds of procedures I have learned to perfect the technique. I sometimes hear from patients that their friends had a Thermage procedure with no visible results. Upon further examination it becomes evident that the procedure was done not by a board certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon, but by a nurse at a mall. Performing Thermage is an art. There is a delicate balance between visible and long lasting results and diappointment or possible side effects.
I perform the Thermage procedure myself. I lightly sedate the patient with 10 mg of oral valium and an Intramuscular Demerol shot. Topical numbing cream (EMLA) is applied one hour before the procedure and the face is coverad with a special dressing. By the time the patient is in the operating room she is comfortable, anesthesized, and ready to be sculpted.
It still takes me 1-2 hours to perform the procedure. Just like an actual facelift, lines of tension, skin type, presence of fatty tissue, patients age, and many other factors are taken into account. The third generation hand pieces by Thermage allow deeper penetration, more aggressive tightening, with less discomfort. The jowl area, neck, peri-orbiatl areas are treated with 4 to 6 passes until I actulally see the improvement while the patient is on the procedure table. The results continue to improve for the next 4-6 months. I also often combine the Thermage procedure with fillers in the nasolabial folds and peel (TCA, Jessner, etc) to remove superficial lines (remember lifts LIFT, Fillers Fill, and Chemical Peels peel the skin—see my other blog on that).
COMMENTS:
this is very informative and explains about the surgical infections and surgical dressing during skin related surgeries
this is very helpful and explains about prevention after surgery great
Dear Dr Rahimi,
Your interview on Lets Talk Recovery.com was very impressive. And thank you for your site, very very informative.
I'm off to read about peels!
Best,
Antonia Jackson
New Jersey
Posted by: Antonia Jackson 2007-08-09 15:31