One of the big issues that is often disregarded is Patient Selection. Because many treatments are "over hyped", it can be easy to assume any procedure will work for everybody. That's simply not so.Age causes multiple challenges, one of them being the loss of the nice, springy collagen that keeps skin firm and tight. Thermage, and other heat-creating procedures, are designed to tighten up "old" collagen and produce new collagen that is smoother, tighter and more closely fitting to tissue layers underneath.Here's the problem: Not everyone's skin will respond. Why not? Because your body must still possess the ability to actually create an abundance of new collagen that will outpace the natural collagen breakdown that occurs more and more rapidly as you get older.You can think of it as a race of sorts. The older you are, the faster your collagen breaks down, resulting in wrinkles and sags. At the same time, new collagen, which is what keeps you looking younger, develops at a slower pace. In time, the collagen breakdown is happening faster than the collagen development. (This happens everywhere, not just your face!)This is where heat-based tightening comes into play. For a person who has consistent new collagen developing all along, results from treatments such Thermage can be relatively quick and sometimes profound. The new collagen then outpaces the older collagen loss. BUT, on the flip side, for someone who is deep into age-related collagen loss cycles, the result can be disappointing. Which takes us back to Patient Selection.As to new and old Thermage, the companies behind these technologies are always investing in improvements. The Thermage FLX is faster and more comfortable, and yes, better. For the right person, it's a great way to firm up skin and improve crepey skin, especially on the body.Go with proper expectations; realize this is not a facelift; know if you are a good candidate.
