Thermage: Facelift without any cut

At 40, a woman has skin that produces 140 times less collagen than it did when she was a child. Like every part of our body, our skin gets lazy, too. Collagen being the building block that provides structure to the skin, the results of this laziness produce two types of women as far as aging skin is concerned: Sinkers and saggers. According to Dr. Joey Muñoz of the Belo Medical Group, "Sinking is more common in Western women, sagging is more common with Filipinos who have a tendency to develop melomental folds or jowls." And then there are women who get a combination of both sinking and sagging.

Years ago, it would have taken surgery to lift the skin. Today, there’s a new technology available in Manila courtesy of the Belo Group which is the first to import the machine that Oprah Winfrey is raving about on her show. The procedure is called Thermage, touted as the biggest breakthrough in skin technology since lasers.

"It’s the only non-invasive treatment that delivers tighter skin, renewed facial contours and healthier collagen," says Dr. Vicki Belo. "It’s not laser and you don’t get cut up as in a face-lift. There’s no downtime and the procedure takes only an hour or an hour and a half. With some patients, minimal redness and very slight swelling appear right after treatment and disappear after a few hours."

Vicki explains that Thermage uses radio frequency or, in layman’s terms, electricity. "What Thermage does is stimulate the fibroblasts, the cells that make collagen in our skin which are very active in children. But it’s not an alternative to a face-lift either, which is needed for more severe cases of sagging."

The Thermage procedure uses a patented radio-frequency (RF) technology called ThermaCool to tighten and gently lift skin to smooth out wrinkles and renew facial contours. The incision-free procedure is fast and easy, and patients can go back to their normal activities right after. The system uses a treatment tip called ThermaTip to deliver a controlled amount of RF energy. When the tip touches the skin, it heats a large volume of collagen in the deeper layers and underlying tissues but at the same time, it protects the outer layers with cooling by continuously applying a controlled cryogen cooling spray.

Vicki explains that the uniform heating action causes the deep structures to immediately tighten and encourage new collagen production. "Dermal remodeling begins with the wound-healing response and produces additional skin-tightening over time. This reaction to heat tightens tissue and results in renewed facial contours. Other treatments like laser usually work on the first two layers of the skin, Thermage works on the third. Though there’s visible tightening right after the procedure, the production of collagen takes months so the full results can be seen in two to six months; after the procedure, it only keeps getting better because remodeled collagen means healthier, smoother skin and a more youthful appearance."

The depth and degree of heating from the tip depends on what the patient needs. A fair warning, though: The procedure can be very uncomfortable since the ThermaTip is passed over areas of your face several times. Many patients opt to be sedated so the doctors can maximize the amount of energy to get maximum results. Treating the forehead can lift the eyebrows and make the eyes appear less tired, more open. Treating the cheeks reduces the sagginess that produces deep folds with aging and it can also contour the jaw line.

"More often than not, I buy a machine in the US even if there’s no distributor here, bahala na if it breaks, we’ll just send it back to the US for repairs. But with this one, I had to beg them to distribute it here — normally they’re the ones trying to sell to me — but they said it was too costly. The company’s business model is different — they make the machine, but it’s the tips that are so expensive, around P80,000, and they’re disposable. After one use you can’t use it anymore. Each tip has a computer chip with a specific number of pulses, say 450, that get used up in one procedure alone."

Before the Belo Group began offering the procedure, Vicki trained with a German doctor who came to Manila. "The procedure is relatively new, a lot of countries in Europe don’t have it yet. It came from the US to Asia and they’re doing a gradual rollout all over the world now. This is the only training I’ve done where I had to do so many patients side by side with the German trainer. We did more than P350,000 worth of treatments for each doctor."

For the trials, she simply called up her friends, including Edu Manzano and Albert Martinez, who were more than willing to try the new procedure. "Albert called after the first month saying he was very happy with the results. This is just the initial results; it’s going to get better."

Former Miss Universe Margie Moran-Floirendo is another satisfied client. Vicki says the best candidates for Thermage are people between the ages of 35 and 55 when skin is still able to react to the stimulation. "Those with really sagging skin need a face-lift."

At 51, Margie is the best candidate for Thermage because, according to Vicki, "she takes care of her skin and her body, and needs just a little tightening on the face."

During the procedure, Margie was under twilight sedation and a grid was put on her face to guide Vicki where to apply the tip. An area that needs more tightening may get six passes with the tip, hence the different levels of discomfort — areas close to the bone will be more painful.

The patient first feels a cool sensation, followed by a hot sensation, which indicates that the collagen is reaching effective temperatures for tightening, and then followed by another cool sensation to protect the skin and make the treatment more comfortable.

After less than half an hour, one side of Margie’s face was done. Vicki showed us the tightened areas. Indeed, there was a perceptible lift, but it was four weeks after the procedure that the results became even more evident. Margie’s face, very beautiful as it is, looks even younger and tighter.

You can imagine how excited Vicki is about having Thermage. "I’ve been following its development. Five years ago, there was already a prototype and they were testing it on pigs. I was so excited because it’s such a breakthrough. Non-invasive tightening of tissue has become the mainstream in cosmetic procedures. We can do Thermage on the face, the neck, arms, breasts — like if you fail the pencil test, but you still don’t need a lot of lifting of the breasts. Thermage is good for older women who have sagging skin even if they are not fat. The procedure is versatile in that sense."

The best news, maybe, is that unlike laser procedures that require multiple sessions, a single Thermage treatment is all that’s needed with many patients. They just have to be patient since measurable improvements appear gradually over two to six months, though many patients have reported seeing an earlier response.

The only people who cannot have Thermage are those with pacemakers since it uses a radio frequency which may interfere with their heart device. Thermage may also be done in conjunction with other skin treatments like Obagi, Botox, or IPL for treatment of sun-damaged skin.

From what we’ve seen, Oprah did have reason to rave.

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For inquiries, call the Belo Medical Group hotline at 844-2939.