Mesotherapy involves a series of chemical injections with short, fine needles that target the middle layer (or mesoderm) of skin. It was first developed in France in 1952 by Dr. Michel Pistor, as a treatment for sports injuries and a way to improve circulation.
Doctors who administer mesotherapy use a variety of substances in their injections, including plant extracts, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, hyaluronic acid, hormones, enzymes, and prescription medications.
Depending on the formulations, these bespoke cocktails aim to do everything from treating hair loss and minimizing fine lines to tightening loose skin and reducing the appearance of cellulite and excess fat—particularly the double chin.
Mesotherapy for fat reduction is not a weight-loss treatment. Instead, it’s “really geared toward small pockets of fat—one to two inches of pinchable fat,” says Dr. John Tang, a physician in Saratoga, California. “If you’re 30 pounds overweight or have too much excess skin, you’re not a good candidate for mesotherapy for fat reduction.”
When used for fat reduction, the noninvasive procedure is often positioned as an alternative to Kybella or Aqualyx (their active ingredient, deoxycholic acid, has long been used in mesotherapy cocktails).
However, mesotherapy is not FDA-approved, and there’s no standard of treatment—meaning that practitioners can mix whatever they’d like into their injectable cocktails.
Related: Everything You Need to Know About Mesotherapy
