Does Smoking Make Ulthera Ineffective?

smoking has an inhibitory effect on skin healing from the lack of oxygen that new skin cells need to heal well but Ultherapy induces new collagen formation in the dermis by stimulating the inflammatory reaction via a stimulus of heat. The more sundamaged and smoking induced skin wrinkled appearance that exists, the less the improvement will appear because Ultherapy does not create a better exterior of the skin. This isn't to say that a smoker won't see a lifting result from Ultherapy!

While smoking certainly may hinder the formation of new collagen, my experience with ablative technologies like Ulthera have consistently shown that the patients do get a benefit in terms of improves skin tone and skin tightening. We have seen no complications performing Ulthera on patients who may smoke.  One side benefit of these technologies in smokers is that the skin improvement is often a great confidence booster for patients to see themselves having better skin, and thus feeling inspired to stop smoking altogether.

Smoking does hinder healing in general, but that does not mean that smokers are incapable of healing.  Ultherapy relies on your body's ability to form collagen in response to tissue injury (heat produced by highly focused ultrasound energy).  I have seen improvements in my patients who smoke, but I do not hesitate to encourage smoking cessation in general.  I also mention that smoking accelerates the aging process so the tightening results from Ultherapy may not last as long.  Good luck.