Why we don't do HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound), for either body skin tightening, facial skin tightening/lifting or cellulite
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HIFU and adverse reactions
HIFU has a 39% dissatisfaction rating, mainly due to adverse reactions
What are the main adverse reactions with high intensity focused ultrasound / HIFU? How about using HIFU for fibrosis reduction?
HIFU ruined my face (and neck and stomach and thighs and butt and…)
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HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) and adverse reactions
HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) has become extremely popular the last few years, for both skin tightening and cellulite removal - and even for fibrosis reduction after lipo.
We have tried HIFU around 2014, way before it became popular in the following years and have found it lacking, both in terms of effectiveness and safety.
In fact, we found the treatment:
Safe but totally ineffective at low intensities
Unsafe and still largely ineffective at high intensities - not nearly as effective as deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency or deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation
…and gave back the machine after a few days of training and after trying it with a few clients.
The best way to understand the reasoning against HIFU is real world evidence, consisting of feedback and reviews from real people in the real world, as opposed to the virtual reality of instagram, tiktok or even science papers…
* Many “science papers” in aesthetics are not worth the paper they are written on - they can prove that white is black and that black is white, even when your experience and common sense say otherwise.
HIFU has a 39% dissatisfaction rating either due to adverse reactions or ineffectiveness
Real world reviews of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) show an average of 39% dissatisfaction rating. This does not include the people who are “unsure” and who, if counted, would elevate the HIFU treatment dissatisfaction rating to around 44%.
It is important to note that a lot of the 39% “not worth it” rating is due to the adverse reactions, not even the lack of effectiveness, which is also shown in the “unsure category”.
39% of ineffectiveness and adverse reactions is extremely high for such an overhyped and unsafe treatment. As we do not want 39% extremely unhappy / skin damaged clients, we do not offer HIFU at our clinic.
(At our clinic, with the combination of deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation that we use, we have higher than 99.5% safety rate - with the less than 0.5% being mild, temporary irritation; plus a 4.9/5 satisfaction rating.)
Sure, people who complain leave more reviews than those who are happy. But then again, many positive reviews are ‘plugged’ by the providers of the treatments and are fake. At least the complaints are genuine.
So, on balance, the 39% ‘mainly unhappy due to adverse reactions’ and the 44% ‘overall not happy due to both low safety and effectiveness’ ratings are broadly accurate.
Given the popularity of high intensity focused ultrasound, we would be more than happy to offer it, IF it was not so unsafe and so ineffective. But evidently, as you can also see below, sadly it is…
What are the main adverse reactions with high intensity focused ultrasound / HIFU? How about using HIFU for fibrosis reduction?
HIFU / high intensity focused ultrasound works by literally burning (they call it coagulating but it is actual tissue burning) the skin inside at 60-90ºC.
After that (not so well) “controlled” damage, the skin reacts by recruiting immune cells to clear the damage and then by building excessive scar tissue quality collagen to repair the damage.
The result, if all goes well (i.e. If intensity is just the right amount and your skin reacts well), is a layer of fibrotic scar tissue* inside the skin that passes as ‘skin tightening’, when in reality it is skin hardening
If things don’t go well (i.e. If intensity is too high and/or your skin does not react well) we have scar tissue bumps, swelling, inflammation, bruising, hyperpigmentation and superficial scars. And these are the results we see on the examples above.
If HIFU intensity is kept low and/or your skin reacts well, adverse reactions are avoided but the treatment doesn’t work
* Given that HIFU literally aims to cause fibrosis, it beggars belief that so many surgeons suggest it for fibrosis reduction after liposuction, vaser, smart lipo and bodytite. This is pure ignorance - you don’t fight fibrosis with more fibrosis. It does not make any sense and neither, of course, HIFU works for fibrosis reduction - it makes it worse.
High intensity focused ultrasound / HIFU ruined my face…
(…and neck and stomach and thighs and butt)
Sure, all treatments carry a small risk of adverse reactions, usually mild. Indeed, no medical, aesthetic or complementary treatment, of any kind, can be guaranteed 100% safe. Nothing biological can be guaranteed. Fair enough.
But these specific examples below are not rare exceptions, they are around 1/3 of actual reviews and they are significant, not mild.
These are real people, who suffer serious adverse reactions and who have to spend months of their life and thousands of pounds, dollars or euros to repair the damage (most of the cases are for face HIFU, but HIFU works exactly the same on the body, with the same ineffectiveness and/or side-effects):
Bad Ultherapy experience - I got a ridiculous amount of welting.
Ultherapy damage - melted fat in my face & aged me 10 years overnight
HIFU Permanently Scarred My Face. Please Do Not Do This Procedure. My Face Now Has Pock Marks All Over It… (The problem with high intensity HIFU is that it is impossible to know in advance how strong the treatment should be for each skin type, as with the numbing cream there is no client feedback, i.e. any feeling of burning, pain etc. This feedback is all numbed by the numbing cream and the therapist can only guess what is the right intensity. This does not happen with traditional, continuous movement ultrasound or radiofrequency provided without numbing cream. With low intensity HIFU, of course, nothing happens…)
Skin Feels Really Weird After This. My Skin Has Lost A Lot Of Volume So Far But Was Scares Me The Most Is That The Skin Itself Feels Like Tissue Paper, Sort Of Numb And Tingly And Underneath, The Fat Feels Almost Like Giggly Foam… (This is what happens when the body does not react to the deep skin burning by building more collagen but with, well, nothing. And it is impossible to know who will get the so-called “controlled damage” and who will get an uncontrolled one, i.e. thinner skin or, the opposite, scar tissue bumps.)
Not able to get thru 1st 3 minutes of treatment because pain was intolerable
The reviews above are for the HIFU market leader, which is usually applied at very high intensities in order to provide “results”. If HIFU is applied at equally high intensities with other machines, the results will be similar. If applied at low intensities (which is usually the case) not much happens.
From time to time HIFU is worth it but still not as worth it as proper, safe, deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency or deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation.
Again, given how popular HIFU is (every corner salon has a cheap HIFU machine these days), we would love to offer this technology at our clinic.
Who doesn’t want to offer a “miracle” treatment and make lots of money in the process or just have plenty of extra business capitalising on the hype and the ignorance? But this technique is neither safe nor generally effective, let alone miraculous.
So we just don’t do it.
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, microneedling-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
And our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
Advanced, infrared / blue / red light therapy treatments in London at LipoTherapeia
At LipoTherapeia we are passionate about phototherapy (also known as photobiomodulation/PBM, red light therapy, infrared light therapy, blue light therapy, LED light therapy etc) and we use the most powerful equipment available today (up to 200mW/cm2), for best results and treatment of large body areas.
We use specialised therapy protocols for skin rejuvenation / anti-ageing, pigmentation / post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH), moderate/severe acne, skin redness, sensitive/inflamed/irritated skin, wound healing, sports injuries / musculoskeletal pain and overall wellness / well-being.
Our LED phototherapy sessions are comfortable, deeply relaxing and super-safe and are great to enhance our radiofrequency/ultrasound treatments for skin tightening / cellulite reduction.
On our booking page you can book stand-alone phototherapy sessions or combine them with our other treatments, as an add-on.
Learn more or check prices and book an expert LED phototherapy treatment at our London clinic.
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