If you’re looking for the best thing to tighten skin, the first thing you need to decide is whether you’d like a surgical or non-invasive (i.e. non-surgical) treatment.
It is not uncommon to have loose skin after losing weight, especially on the arms, abdomen, chest, buttocks and thighs. This can be physically uncomfortable, such as when you are thrown or rubbed against another skin, but it can also affect you psychologically and change the way you interact with the world.
If you’re looking for ways to tighten loose skin, you might wonder if you should have surgery or if it would be better to go with one less option invasive and non-surgical. Answering this question is complex because it depends on your situation and your expectations.
Which option is the best thing to tighten skin?
Non-surgical skinlift usually uses treatments designed to make the skin firmer, in the way our radiofrequency machine does. In our case, we achieved this by promoting the production of collagen or elastin naturally in the derma layers of your skin.
Collagen makes the skin firm and elastin helps to hold it together.
Other treatments make the skin look smoother by removing the fibrous connective tissue that causes severe cellulite. The operation, on the other hand, comprises cutting and removing excess skin due to weight loss. There are several options for surgical removal of the skin. For example, a paniculectomy is a removal of the skin “apron” that hangs under the navel, or you can lift the upper or lower body.
To decide whether to remove loose skin with surgery or whether a non-surgical tightening option would be better, requires a comparison so you understand better what to expect from everyone. Consider factors such as recovery times, long-term affects, and more. This chart should help.
Non-Surgical Skin Tightening with RF therapy
- Effective with minimal recovery time
- No permanent scars or marks which is great for instant beauty. You’re literally just a little red for a few hours following your session
- No safety risks, we’re literally just stimulating your body to produce more collagen on its own
- Suitable for all skin types whether you’re combination or otherwise, but not for excema
- No pre-procedure weight maintenance requirements
- Gradual weight loss and skin tone tightening, so unlikely to be as noticeable as your body produces collagen and burns fat over the weeks following your procedure
- Each procedure is fast, typically less than thirty minutes, but should be repeated several times depending on your desired cosmetic outcomes
Surgical Skin Tightening
- Takes several weeks to recover to months
- Scarring that may be visible, but this will fade over time
- Surgery isn’t safe for everyone
- Rapid weight loss, so if you’re wanting to keep this a secret from friends or colleagues, this could be an issue
- Longer treatment, but once it’s done, you only need to return for regular check ups
Dr. Bruce Katz, clinical professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, director of the Laser Clinic and Cosmetic Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center and director of the Juva Skin & Laser Center in New York, adds that there are other considerations. “In general, good candidates for non-surgical methods are patients with skin that does not hang or is superfluous,” says Dr. Katz, who refers to loose skin that folds on itself. If your skin is healthy and not damaged by the sun, Dr. Katz says it “responds better to treatment.”
Talk to your doctor
Regardless of what you choose, it’s important that you talk to your doctor first with your decision. Make sure that the treatment you want is safe for you given your current health and fitness.
Some people who have successfully lost weight decide that surgery is the best option, but not all patients are suitable candidates for these procedures. For example, if skin surgery occurs after bariatric surgery, there is a 60 percent risk of developing complications.
Non-surgical methods
If loose skin can be treated without surgery, there are several non-invasive or minimally invasive options to choose from. At Essential Feeling, Essex, we use a progressive radio frequency machine that is so good even the NHS use it. They use it to break down kidney stones, but we use the same technology to reduce the effects of aging by tightening sagging skin whether this be on your neck, your knees, forehead, eyes or jowels, or of course your stomach to decrease flab and wrinkles. The list is endless, or it seems that way at least!
Where many machines will use one level of radiofrequency, our machine adapts the types depending on the area we are using it. For instance, the skin on your face is thinner, more delicate than your elbow. So we use a small handpiece which uses bipolar sound waves. Then on larger areas, the device is larger and uses either tripolar or multipolar frequency.
Our machine also has the option to use ultrasound cavitation.. This uses scientifically proven non-invasive technology to breakdown unwanted fat, while radiofrequency is a non-invasive energy treatment that helps tighten, contour and refine deeper skin lines on your face and body.
Book your treatment now for the skincare benefits you’re looking for.
What is radiofrequency?
Dermatologists have worked with physicists who run the company to create remedies so you don’t require supplements, daily creams and vitamins. We use a groundbreaking machine which administers just the right level of warmth to reach the deeper layers of your skin.
When the heat is applied to the surface of your skin, the exposure trickles down until the body thinks that it is under attack. As it attempts to fight off the invader, it sends collagen to the area to help with the healing process. Except there is no healing to be done because you’re not actually under attack. And so, this growth of collagen and elastin is then just left in situ in the skin. And it’s this method that is one secret to you enjoying more youthful skin.
Even though we’re talking about the best thing to tighten skin in this article, we should mention here about shaving off the fat. Because radiofrequency therapy is amazing for this. The same process of conning our body with heat also has the effect of breaking down the cell wall of fat so that it’s easier for our body to transfer it to our lymphatic system. This is like the rubbish skip for our body and once ‘stuff’ goes in there, essentially it’s pretty much moved out of our system which is how we lose fat from RF therapy.
Doesn’t this damage the skin?
There’s confusion about this by many patient’s because we’re told not to expose our skin to heat for fear of cancer. Here’s the thing. That is talking about UV rays, no one has ever said don’t stand next to a radiator, it’s a different heat. Hopefully, this explains why RF therapy is safe.
Surgical methods
We’re not knocking surgical methods and trying to push you into the therapy we offer. We work with Harley Body Clinic, a reputable plastic surgeon who is a complete expert in improving your appearance. They do the surgery and we are one of their aftercare clinics. While there are some horror stories out there with vaser liposuction, we have to say, Dr Horn is hands down the best we have seen in the ten years or so we have been caring for clients post surgery.
If your weight loss goals are more extreme, or you have a huge overhang on your stomach you’ll be better off with surgery. We will always manage your expectations. If you’re unhappy with the potential results from RF therapy, we can provide you (as there is a limit to how much tighter we can make your skin with a nonsurgical process), then we will happily tell you and then you can decide whether you would like to visit one of our surgeons that we work with, or another of your choice. We don’t get a kickback from you going there. We’ve just seen a lot of nasty jobs.
Once you’ve had surgery there, you can come back to us for your aftercare, which usually involves some MLD massage sessions and perhaps some firming radiotherapy massaging too to tighten the remaining skin. Your consultant will advise you on what is best based on your body, lifestyle and result goals.
You have other options as well as or instead of radiofrequency that we can also discuss with you so that you end up with your best possible outcomes.
For instance, you could layer on microneedling and electroporation
And then on top of this you may also want to consider iPRF therapy which is also wonderfully effective and something we provide at a massive discount to what you’d pay elsewhere if you have this at the same time as your other therapies.
What is the cost of radio frequency?
You can check out the prices of radiofrequency online easy. Essentially, each area that we work takes a different amount of time, so we charge on that basis. Sometimes we may use a mixture of RF therapy and vacuum cavitation. Others, depending on whether you’re looking to shave off some fat with no downtime, or smooth and improve the signs of age by improving the natural elasticity of your saggy skin, and this all makes a difference to the price.
So read the consultation form on the booking page before you go ahead and book your session. Because this allows us to manage your expectations about what is achievable for your particular circumstances, whilst also giving us an idea of the time it will take to target the cells to make the difference you want.
Please note that radiofrequency isn’t suitable if you’re pregnant because it tightens your skin and obviously you want as much flex in this as possible.
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