UPDATE: I have moved on from Refirme to Endymed. Refirme is older technology now. The Endymed treatment is virtually painless, and I go about once every 9-12 months.
UPDATE: It is now 6 weeks since my final treatment. An aesthetician of mine saw me for the first time in 6 mo.s and couldn't resist touching my face. She said I looked so much younger and wanted to immediately see how the skin felt -- much firmer. That is the result that you will get from this treatment -- firmer skin. Pre-treatment my skin was moving more around the jaw line when I spoke. Now it does not -- it is much firmer. Fine lines around my eyes have also been significantly reduced.
One thing I have been worried about, however, is the depth of tissue Refirme heats up. I don't believe, because of the results and because the company claims this device uses bi-polar energy, Refirme melted my fat pads -- so let me be clear on that. However, I do believe it is better for your physician to do more passes under a slightly less aggressive setting per treatment than less passes of the device on the skin under a higher setting. The physician does have to heat up the tissue enough to cause "damage" sufficient for the body to heal itself and remold/rebuild collagen, otherwise the treatment would have been in vain. But I believe that the physican needs to manage how aggressive he/she is with the treatment so as not to test the boundaries of safety with the bi-polar technology. As a patient, I would recommend you ask for the physician to do 4-5 passes on the same skin to heat up the tissue at a slightly lower setting to get the needed results -- this slightly lower setting will also be a little less painful.
In regard to the pain, I found that to be the toughest part of the treatment. It is very painful. I had topical numbing cream put on my skin, but it is still VERY painful. It is a shock to your system to receive this amount of pain, which I believe is unhealthy overall.
Since the treatment, I have been using retinol cream daily. Besides the pain and concern about treatment technique, I am VERY satisfied with the results and plan on going back in another year to do a maintenance treatment -- I will have to psych myself up to deal with the pain. Probably once a year I will do this.
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