Alternatives to Thermage for Loose Skin?

There are no superior options merely alternatives such as Titan, Velasmooth, Accent. However, none of these will achieve the degree of improvement that a facelift can perform. Granted there are more risks to surgery. Non ablative interventions can achieve an improvement of 1-3 on a scale of 10 versus surgery which can achieve a 7-8.

The first thing to know is that none of the nonsurgical treatments such as Thermage produce the same results as surgery; in other words, there is no "nonsurgical facelift." We have learned a few things about optimizing results with Thermage however. One is that older patients, whose collagen in their skin is depleted, don't respond as well. The ideal patient is someone in their 40's to mid-fifties. The other thing is that Thermage applied immediately after liposuction enhances... more

There are surgical and nonsurgical alternatives. If the skin around your jowls is loosening noticeably, most likely the Thermage procedure alone will not suffice. Injecting fillers (Restylane, Juvederm, Sculptra,etc) followed by Thermage may be quite effective in many cases.In fact the fillers will also improve the appearance of your cheeks above the jowl lines. In many cases, injecting 2 or 3 syringes of a filler at the same session may be necessary. If the loose skin... more

Jowling can occur secondary to a loss of fascial support in the lower one third of the face. Thermage, unfortunately, cannot acheive a structural change in the underlying fascial support system and is thus less effective than a facelift. If you are considering a lesser procedure than a face lift, a mini lift may improve the appearance of jowling. In any case, results for jowling are typically seen only after a surgical procedure. Consult with your plastic surgeon.

In my experience, jowls are formed by skin in addition to deeper structurees (descending cheek fat pad). If skin tightening alone is done, and there are untreated deeper structures that are not treated, the result will be unsatisfactory. Usually, jowls are more effectively treated with a cheek lift, frequently in association with a neck lift, for best results. If you are set on skin treatments, you may want to look into CO2 laser, Coblation, deep chemical peels (phenol), are options you... more

Thermage is a very good procedure for tightening the facial skin in patients who only have relatively minor amounts of laxity. Such patients tend to be relatively young, generally 35-50 years old. When patients have a greater degree of laxity, Thermage should be combined with a dermal filler such as Juvederm or Restylane. The dermal filler provides additional lifting of the cheeks and softening of the folds on the face. The use of Thermage and a dermal filler together will give... more

If you are a candidate for surgery and are considering a face lift, then you should consider that over Thermage. If you do not want surgery or if you have medical conditions that prevent you from having surgery, then Thermage is a good choice.  The newer technology allows sufficient tightening in some patients to see a dramatic improvement, although it is not as excellent a result as surgery.