“TL;DR: It is OK (just OK, never amazing) for nine out of ten people who play the Russian roulette of high-risk, high-reward, “instant miracle” aesthetic treatments, based on literally burning the deep skin layers at 60-90ºC.
But spare a thought for the depressed, anxious and distressed tenth one who spends ££,£££ on Harley Street “professors” (they always look for professors...), looking for a way to repair the damage of such treatments. Not very wise...
The gradual, natural, stimulating way is always better than the instant, unnatural, destructive approach. In fact, after 10-30 years of looser skin and with another 20-50 years ahead of you, you don’t need to have firmer skin “yesterday”. Results in 2-3 months with a natural, safe treatment are absolutely fine.”
Looking for overnight cellulite removal with the latest celebrity-endorsed miracle cellulite treatment?. Think again…
Playing literally with fire for beauty? It is just not worth it.
The body has its limits and cannot change overnight, no matter how much money you throw at a dangerous treatment
Any cellulite / skin tightening treatment provided with anaesthesia is a red flag
Everyone is different. Each person’s skin has its own limits.
Congratulations, you have just paid £3,500 for a treatment that still needs to be repeated 6-12 times - not just once as they promised you
Radiofrequency and ultrasound treatments provided with anaesthesia
Anxious, desperate and distressed
Nothing is 100% safe but 99%+ safety rate would be nice, thanks
Natural skin tightening / cellulite removal treatment
Have a skin tightening/cellulite treatment in London with the experts
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Playing literally with fire for beauty? It is just not worth it.
The body, including the skin, needs regular strong-but-safe stimulation to change. Plus it needs time between sessions of stimulation to recover and built stronger tissue.
This is how building muscle at the gym works and this is how skin tightening / cellulite reduction treatments work: by providing regular, strong-but-safe stimulation to tissues, muscles or skin, respectively.
However, the body has its own limits, which precludes too intensive stimulation:
If you suddenly use 150kg weights for your squats you will not build a more toned butt faster, you will end up in hospital with a knee, quad muscle or back injury
Likewise, if you use an aesthetic treatment which is three times stronger than what your body can take, you will not get firmer/smoother skin, you will get skin injury
The body has its limits and cannot change overnight, no matter how much money you throw at an expensive, dangerous, hyped-up treatment
So there is a limit to how fast you can tighten your skin or reduce cellulite safely. Hence the need for 5, 10, even 15 sessions, even with the best technology available today.
Trying to cram the effect of 10 safe sessions into 1 or 2 unsafe, invasive, painful, very expensive ones is really, really stupid.
It quite often ends up in tears, with:
Scar tissue lumps that don't go away
Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH)
More skin looseness/cellulite than before
And all sorts of other complications and adverse reactions
We have seen countless clients who thought they knew better and that instant results in 1-4 sessions are not only possible but safe, only to complain that “this treatment destroyed my legs” later.
By going against nature you are not smart. You have not just discovered the amazing beauty secret which has eluded everyone else, an ingenious shortcut. You are just taking chances with your health.
Yes, 95% of people do not have any severe complications with these treatments. But, believe me, you do NOT want to belong to the other 5% who do. And there is no good way to know if you will end up being in the 5% or the 95%.
Neither Russian roulette nor permanent damage are good ideas, especially if you belong that 5%.
Any cellulite / skin tightening treatment provided with anaesthesia is a red flag
The pain threshold is a very accurate way to determine the limits of a safe and effective skin tightening / cellulite treatment: if it is so painful that it requires anaesthesia, it is just not safe.
This is because with an anaesthetic cream or injection you miss the pain signal to determine what is safe and the whole treatment becomes a shot in the dark, with adverse reactions determined by luck.
Everyone is different. Each person’s skin has its own limits.
Adhering to the pain threshold is necessary because everyone’s skin is different and has:
its own limits
its own reactivity mechanisms
and its own reactivity threshold
For example, at our clinic when we apply 200 Watts of deep tissue radiofrequency treatment on a client’s right thigh (just under the pain threshold and of course without anaesthesia), another client of exactly the same body type may need 250W and yet another one may need 150W of power.
Even the same client may easily fluctuate between 175-225W between visits. Even the left thigh of the same client may need 225W or 175W.
Providing 250W on a client who needs 150W will almost definitely lead to some sort of skin injury.
How can you tell what is appropriate for each person, without the pain threshold principle?
A thermometer? No matter how useful temperature measurement is, it is just a guide. Some clients can easily tolerate epidermal temperatures of 42.5º C, while others flinch at 38.5º C. Attempting to bring the latter clients to 42.5º C would be an absolute disaster.
Electrical impedance measurement? Same. Skin electrical impedance varies wildly from person to person, from day to day from area to area and also naturally changes during treatment. It’s useful as a guide but that’s all.
A machine algorithm? Give me a break…
No AI machine algorithm, temperature measurement or skin electrical impedance measurement can determine your own skin’s limits and reactivity.
So without the pain threshold principle it all comes down to “let’s hope it works and nothing bad happens”. Literally.
Simply put, anaesthesia-based treatments deprives us of the most valuable feedback of all, pain, and are the equivalent of shooting in the dark.
In contrast, the pain threshold principle has been tried and tested for decades in physiotherapy with energy devices and it works.
The pain threshold feedback protects us from such reactions and ensures 99.5%+ safety at our clinic, with the remaining 0.5% being minor and temporary irritation.
Congratulations, you have just paid £3,500 for a treatment that still needs to be repeated 6-12 times - not just once as they promised you
Even when an anaesthesia-based treatment is at the exact right intensity not to burn the skin and to be effective, it is never the one-off miracle promised to you.
So you have just paid £3,500 for something that still needs to be repeated several times for good, long-term results - not just “once or perhaps twice with a six month gap inbetween” as they have misled you.
With skin tightening and cellulite reduction, you NEVER, EVER, EVER need just one treatment. EVER. Such a claim is a pure lie.
Apart from fillers, botox and surgery (all of which are provided with anaesthesia but in a very predictable, structured way - and still things go horribly wrong with them), there are no shortcuts in beauty.
And, of course, fillers and botox also need to be repeated every 6 months. And sometimes even cosmetic surgery needs to be repeated twice or three times on the same body area.
Radiofrequency and ultrasound treatments provided with anaesthesia
The discussion here is for non-surgical skin tightening / cellulite treatments that claim to “get rid off” your cellulite or lift your skin in 1-4 sessions.
These treatments aim to burn the inside of your skin with an energy device and are provided:
Beyond the pain threshold with the aid of anaesthetic cream or an anaesthetic injection
And in a STAMP-LIKE action (as opposed to CONTINUOUS MOVING action)
Such technologies currently comprise:
HIFU, set at extremely high intensity (At low intensity HIFU treatment is safe but nothing happens with one session. You need 6-12 anyway, even though you paid 5-10x times more per each miraculous, very painful, “shortcut” treatment on a small area.)
Radiofrequency, set at extremely high intensity. (At low intensity treatment is safe but nothing happens with one session. You need 6-12 anyway, even though you paid 5-10x times more per each miraculous, very painful, “shortcut” treatment on a small area.)
Microneedling radiofrequency, set at extremely high intensity. (At low intensity, treatment is still not safe due to the deep needle punctures. Also nothing happens with one session. You need 6-12 sessions anyway, even though you paid 5-10x times more per each miraculous, very painful, “shortcut” treatment on a small area.)
Ultrasound-assisted liposuction (AAL), laser-assisted liposuction (LAL) and radiofrequency assisted-liposuction (RAL). (This technology aims to tighten the skin by literally burning it from the inside during liposuction with an ultrasound / laser / radiofrequency tip, respectively. At low intensity AAL/LAL/RAL are safe (as safe as liposuction can be) but you don’t get much skin tightening. At high intensity the chance of scar tissue lumps / fibrosis / adhesions is very high. At just the right intensity you get some uniform skin hardening (basically uniform scar tissue), which is baptised as “skin tightening” and which lasts 12 months max. If that skin hardening (so-called tightening) does not dissolve in 12 months it’s because it is a lump / fibrosis / adhesion, which may indeed take years to break down. We have seen clients who still have fibrosis 10 years after vaser.
Anxious, desperate and distressed
At the clinic we regularly see clients asking us whether we can repair scar tissue, crepey skin, damaged skin, more visible cellulite and all sorts of other damage caused by such procedures.
People are distraught, desperate and anxious and by the time they come to us they have already done the rounds at Harley Street, multiple times: consultant dermatologists, MRI scans, ultrasound scans, more consultants, plastic surgeons, more invasive and dangerous treatments to repair the initial damage (which sometimes cause further damage) and so on…
And after all that distress and £,£££ spent (sometimes ££,£££), there is the demand, the pressure and the anxiety on a therapist to SAFELY reverse with £100 treatments something that had been broken with an unsafe, “one-off” £3,000 treatment or a £10,000 surgery.
Doesn’t make sense…
Nothing is 100% safe but 99%+ safety rate would be nice, thanks
Sure, all treatments have some danger inherent in them.
The human body is unpredictable and nothing biological can be guaranteed, either in terms of safety or effectiveness - even something as simple as a massage. People from time to time can have some rare, minor or temporary reaction to any treatment of any kind.
But reactions to aesthetic treatments should be just that, minor, temporary, rare or all of the above, not major scar tissue that lasts for years, permanent skin laxity or worse cellulite than before, and definitely it should not happen more often than 1%.
Inserting hot needles into the skin with zero feedback possible from the client due to anaesthesia, is like looking for trouble. And the same applies to literally any anaesthesia-based / very painful skin tightening / cellulite removal procedure, current or future.
And that is why we don’t do those procedures, even though they could make us 5-10x times more money than the safe and natural ones that we offer.
Yet, this 5-10x times more profit is why so many practitioners do them. Good for them but we will pass. Because with any anaesthesia-based treatment, you play with fire. And we like to sleep well at night.
Natural skin tightening / cellulite removal treatment
As explained above, the best way to improve skin tone and reduce cellulite SAFELY is with regular, high intensity but always under the pain threshold stimulation.
Currently, the strongest such technologies are deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and deep acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation - if provided by a knowledgable practitioner.
Yes, with treatments just below the pain threshold you typically need repeated treatment (6-12 sessions for best results in most cases), just like you need repeated training sessions at the gym let’s say 12-24 sessions for good results).
But despite not being instant miracles, they have been proven very safe, effective and predictable.
And sustainable too, meaning that you can safely repeat them, for both improvement or maintenance, now or in the future 5, 10, 20, 50 times, without the downtime, pain and chance of adverse reaction.
I mention “In the future”, because life changes: people put on weight, they get pregnant, they can’t exercise due to work, they indulge too much in food/alcohol etc. These life changes lead to body changes, which means you may have to redo a skin tightening / cellulite reduction treatment several times in your life.
How many times do you think you can puncture the same piece of skin with 3mm, 5mm or even 8mm long hot needles without getting a bad reaction?
Exactly. It is just not sustainable.
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.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound 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.
Learn more or check prices and book an expert treatment at our London clinic (49 Marylebone High Street, W1)
Discover our professional training in cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency and ultrasound
Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening?
Attend a half-day, 1-day or 2-day or 3-day professional consultancy / one-to-one masterclass and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible.
Service available via Zoom or at our central London practice.
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