The skin on our face is elastic in nature. It’s kind of like a rubber band. When the skin is stretched beyond a certain limit, it becomes very difficult to return to its youthful appearance. Hence we need to maintain the elasticity of the skin on our face. To understand why our face loses elasticity as we age, we need to look at the collagen fibres in the skin. As we age, the collagen fibres lose their strength and there is less collagen in the dermis of the skin. This loss of collagen causes the skin to sag and it can no longer hold up the face any more.
Treatment of sagging skin on the face is one of the hardest problems that we as doctors face. The most effective treatment is a surgical face lift, which had the problems of scarring, pain, swelling and bruising, and several weeks of down time. Conventional non-invasive treatments utilizing superficial RF and focused ultrasound treatments were also tried in the past, with varying results.
There are many treatments to increase the amount of collagen in the skin and improve the tightness of the skin. One of these is Radio Frequency (RF). Using RF energy that is emitted on the surface of the skin, it is possible to get a small degree of tightening of the skin. However, this was usually not lasting and the effects tended to last only a short period of time, perhaps one to two weeks on average. In order to get around this problem, a new technology was employed. This made use of RF energy emitted using a special tip which broke the energy up into small and focused fractions. Hence the name Fractional RF. Using Fractional RF, we are able to get around the problems of traditional RF treatments, while delivering higher and more effective doses of RF to achieve the skin tightening effects we desired.
We use the Infini Fractional RF treatment to Stimulate deep collagen production. With Infini, we are able to produce lifting with a certain degree of confidence. Why we chose to invest in the Infini system was because of the maximum depth of the treatment. During our comparison of the various machines on the market, we found a number of fractional RF and ultrasound systems which could produce lifting. However, after extensive testing, we decided on the Infini system because it produced the best and most consistent results.
As the old adage goes, “no pain, no gain”. The treatment is slightly painful and there is at usually one or two days of redness. We will use local anesthetic cream to numb the face before the treatment. Patients with thinner skin that bruises easily should be prepared for multiple tiny bruises on the face which may stay for up to a week.
Sagging of the face can be due to loss of fat volume, sagging skin and sagging muscles. Because sagging of the face is multifactorial, not everyone will see the same extent of lifting. With a professional consultation, we can explain to you your likelihood of success with Infini.