Skin Tightening Treatments

Wrinkles and sagging or creepy skin appear naturally as you get older. That’s because the collagen and elastin—which maintain your skin’s elasticity and firmness—lose their ability to produce over time.

In recent years, a number of treatments have been developed to help tighten your skin. Depending on the specific areas of concern, each treatment option will create a different effect on your skin. If you’re not comfortable with needles or knives there are some great alternatives out there like radiofrequency, ultrasound, and laser which can gently tighten your skin.

What is skin tightening?

Skin tightening stimulates the production of new collagen and promotes the absorption of collagen by the patient’s skin from other areas. As new collagen is encouraged by this process, clients notice smoother and improved skin texture.

Who is an ideal candidate for skin tightening procedures?

Anyone between the age of 30-60 years irrespective of skin type and skin tone could be the ideal candidate for skin tightening procedures. You may opt for skin tightening procedures if you:

• Have loose skin on your face, neck, abdomen and arms
• Stretch marks
• Have residual skin laxity and want to improve the quality of your skin
• Are not pregnant
• Have no pacemaker, metal, or steel rod inside your body
• Don’t have severe diabetes
• Don’t have a history of epilepsy

What are the types of skin tightening treatments?

Non-surgical skin tightening treatments reduce the appearance of loose skin on your body by stimulating collagen production underneath the surface of your skin. The following treatments are used to target areas with loose or sagging skin and deliver energy through ultrasound waves or mechanical rollers in order to help lift your skin up again.

Ultrasound skin tightening – A micro-focused ultrasound sends heat deep into your skin, up to 5 millimetres below the surface. This can tighten and lift skin on particularly troublesome areas such as your face, neck, upper chest and arms, reducing the appearance of wrinkles. Results from your ultrasound therapy can take up to 3- 6 months to appear but you might notice some changes after one treatment.

Radiofrequency (RF) therapy – Radiofrequency therapy is used to send heat into your skin to trigger collagen production. It targets the outer layer of the skin called the epidermis to treat the hands, face, and neck. For better results, Radiofrequency can be combined with other methods like microneedling to reach and treat deeper layers of your skin. In either case, results appear gradually over time depending on the number of treatments needed. Some clients have seen only one RF treatment help them achieve their desired results whereas others may benefit from 2 or 3 or more depending on whether they are treating smaller areas like underneath the eyes or larger ones like the face. Results can last up to three years with a proper skincare regimen.

Laser treatment – Here, handheld lasers conduct heat into the skin. They destroy the outer layer of the epidermis to reach the deeper dermis. Laser treatments are especially effective on the belly and upper arm skin. Most people benefit from this after receiving 3-5 treatments.

Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) – One of the main advantages of IPL is that there are a number of different wavelengths it comes in, which makes it a versatile type of laser for many different situations. IPL is often combined with radiofrequency for better results. The procedure enables the doctor to target deeper layers of the skin and firm the loose skin in your body. It works on almost all skin colours, but it is not recommended for people with dark skin tones.