Thermage FLX
A non-surgical treatment to tighten your skin.
What is Thermage?
Almost all non-surgical methods of skin tightening – lasers such as fraxel, pixel, CO2, titan, etc. and portrait plasma – rely on heat. By heating the skin, to just the right temperature, the treatment initially causes the collagen to contract; later the collagen remodels. Over the following six months this remodeling results in a smoother more youthful appearance to the skin as the “newly remodeled” collagen is tighter and firmer. The new dermis has a new and improved blood supply.
Thermage differs from other non-surgical procedures in that is there is NO surface damage to the skin. Lasers and chemical peels work from the top down. This causes redness as well as peeling. Your skin can actually peel off. The recovery from lasers and peels can take days to weeks. Thermage, by contrast, works from the inside out. There is almost no damage to the outer layers of skin, so there is no down time.
The Thermage treatment is done in one or two hours in the office. It uses a small probe about the size of a cigar butt that is pressed down over the skin. The machine fires a pulse of radio frequency energy that takes about a second. The surface of your skin is instantaneously cooled with a patented thermoelectric coupling device. Voila. The tissue below is heated but the skin on top is undamaged. You should see some slight immediate effects, but the final results can take up to six months to gel.
The procedure is done at our office by Catherine, Sylvia, or Chelsi, our experienced physician assistants and registered nurse. They have had extensive advanced training in the procedure, and are Thermage instructors themselves. They are among the most experienced (and gentlest) in the Rocky Mountain Region. Since the treatment takes a couple of hours, we usually recommend some oral sedation, as it can be uncomfortable and boring lying there for so long. After the procedure there is really no recovery: your skin appears normal. There is NO down time. The next day there is minimal, if any, discomfort. This is the great advantage over surgery or peels which do require recovery and are more uncomfortable.
Thermage is NOT surgery. I use the blue jean analogy. If you consider your skin as a pair of beloved, if well worn, blue jeans, surgery is like having the seams cut out, re-fitted, and stitched back up. Thermage, by comparison, is like putting your blue jeans into the dryer and re-sizing them. They work by two different methods, and if money is no problem, you can even do both!
… to help you assess whether you are a candidate for Thermage!
Before and After Photos
CLICK AND DRAG SLIDER TO SEE RESULTS
Patient A
Over the past two plus decades we have had great success with Thermage devices on other parts of the body in addition to the face. This woman’s tummy is shown before and one month after treatment.
Patient B
This young lady is shown immediately before and after Thermage on her neck. It really helped tighten the skin and may even help melt fat underneath the chin.
Patient C
This young lady is shown immediately before and after Thermage on her lower face and jowels. She shows a nice improvement.
Patient D
I am so excited by this result! That stubborn arm fat can just be impossible to get rid of! For this patient I used an untrasonic assisted liposuctioning (UAL) method – then 6 weeks later she came in for a Thermage treatment to get the skin to really shrink back and tighten up. The last thing you want after arm liposuctioning is excess skin waving back at you!
Patient E
Everyone was thrilled with her results. And I do think this combination of modalities is wonderful. The liposuctioning deals with the excess of fatty tissue, while the Thermage deals with the potentially excess skin – resulting in thinner arms without a big scar to remove the extra skin.
Patient F
This 50 something year old had a few medical problems, and really wasn’t a candidate for any big surgical procedures, so she opted for something a little less surgical, but that fit her budget and recovery time schedule. A family reunion was coming up, and she just wanted to feel a little better about herself. I did a bit of liposuctioning under her chin, just under local anesthesia to remove any extra fat from right up underneath the chin. Then 4 weeks later she had a Thermage procedure in the office – a non-surgical method of skin tightening. No skin was removed! And the only incision she has is a .5″ scar under her chin. Wonderful and so fun for her!
Patient G
This patient is a really good example of what Thermage can do when paired with skin ready to get to work and a body already getting consistent care. Her after photo was taken about six months after her first treatment, alongside all the work she's been doing outside the office — eating well, working out, the whole bit. Together, the results addressed something diet and exercise alone couldn't quite touch: a little tummy laxity that lingers no matter how much time you put in at the gym.
Here's the thing to also remember about Thermage — unlike surgery, you don't wake up brand new. The treatment gently heats the deeper layers of your skin, which prompts your body to produce its own new collagen and elastin. The results build over the following months, and they're often subtle — but they're real, and they last. Like anything your body builds, it benefits from upkeep, so this patient is opting to continue her Thermage journey with a tune-up every six to twelve months.
Before
After
Frequently Asked Questions
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Thermage uses radio frequency waves that travel down under your skin to heat the collagen causing tissue contraction. Another analogy is like bacon cooking – as the temperature rises, you can see the collagen in the bacon contracting. EEH! YUCK! If you prefer the jello analogy, again, after you heat the jello, you activate the collagen, and it firms up. Like the jello or the bacon, your skin becomes tighter and firmer.
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Thermage effects may take up to six months to see, but the collagen once heated is never the same. It helps build up the collagen, and the dermal layers are thicker. Whether or not this results in a VISIBLE change depends on your skin.
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I usually recommend Thermage be done just once, and occasionally a second time six months later. However, for those people who are hard on themselves, there is probably no problem with doing it every year or so, just to keep those jowls at bay.
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I would suggest a personal consultation, but be realistic. This is to improve, not ablate, loose saggy skin.
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No changes in pigmentation are usually seen. Also your skin will not be red and peely after the procedure making it ideal for those with darker skin tones.
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Thermage can be done almost everywhere – face, eyes, neck, but also on upper arms, hands, stomach and thighs, around the knees.
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About one or two hours.
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For most patients, Thermage is genuinely well-tolerated. The device pairs radiofrequency energy with built-in cooling and vibration, so each pulse feels like a brief wave of warmth followed immediately by a cooling sensation. That said — it can get a little spicy, especially at higher energy levels (which is also where the best results live). Your provider adjusts with you in real time to find the sweet spot between comfort and results.
There's no downtime, and most patients head right back to their day. If you tend to be heat- or pain-sensitive or just want extra peace of mind, we can talk through pre-treatment comfort options at your consultation.
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There is no recovery time at all with Thermage! The very moment you leave, you will look normal and can go about normal activities—swimming, outdoor fun, etc. There are no precautions at all.
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Lasers are amazing, but most of the powerful lasers and peels can ONLY be done from the jaw line up on your face. You can’t use a CO2 laser below your neck. Thermage is really the only powerful non surgical treatment for areas below the neck.
Plus, they're doing different jobs! Powerful resurfacing lasers (like CO2) work on the surface of your skin — tone, texture, fine lines, sun damage, pigmentation — and the strongest of them are typically reserved for the face, since neck and body skin doesn't heal as reliably from aggressive resurfacing.
Thermage works underneath, using radiofrequency energy to tighten loose skin and stimulate new collagen and elastin from below.
So the right answer depends on what you're treating: surface concerns lean toward laser, laxity leans toward Thermage. We offer both, and some patients combine them for complementary results.