Don't Wait to Rejuvenate - Newport Beach

I came here for the cryo facelift which tightened my face and neck. Less wrinkles! After seeing the office and the range of treatments they offered I decided to come back for the butterfly facelift. This went deeper into treating my acne scars and hyper-pigmentation with PRP and micro needling. The office was beautiful and Jim Hooper the technician was amazing. I will be back for more treatments.

First off, Ultherapy Med Spa aka Don’t Wait 2 Rejuvenate uses the name of a board-certified dermatologist as ‘face’ but she is not in office to oversee procedures or assist with any complications. 

If you google Anh-Dao Vu Le, MD you will see a history of questionable Yelp reviews at previous businesses. Jim Hooper, the owner, and his fiancé, Qin, are techs only with little to no medical background but are the ones performing the work. On 8/20/20 I was treated with Ultherapy on my face & neck at their Newport office. I strongly believe I was treated too deep and inappropriately by Jim & Quin which caused a significant fat loss in my face that is not repairable without surgery. My cheeks & eyes are now fully sunken in due to the volume loss in my face and now skin hangs down under my chin which caused a turkey neck – WHICH I HAD NO SIGNS OF BEFORE THIS TREATMENT!

I went back soon after the initial work and was told not to worry as there is supposed to be a ‘tightening up’ after. A tightening up? This made me very concerned as that was not mentioned to me at the consultation and leads me to believe these techs did not execute the treatment properly. In their attempt to ‘rectify’, they then used an Apollo TriPollar machine to ‘fix it’. As the weeks went on, my skin continued to worsen and look like I aged 10 years with skin hanging lower off my face down onto my neck. I spoke to Jim again and he had me come back again and use the Apollo machine again – THEY MAY SAY THIS WAS TO MAKE ME A ‘HAPPY CLIENT’ BUT I BELIEVE THIS WAS DONE TO CORRECT THEIR POOR INITIAL WORK. 

After this 2nd corrective attempt, my skin showed no signs of improvements and was worsening still and their ‘solutions’ were not effective. I called Jim and sent him detailed pictures of the deterioration of my face and neck. He kept saying to come back and we’ll try to fix it. I finally refused to let them ‘try again’ after being evaluated by a doctor, he advised me never to let them touch my face again. 

I understand the risks with this type of work and know nothing is perfect, but I am more upset at how this transpired. #1 – the lack of involvement by the board-certified doctor throughout the process. If you are going to use them – insist on the ‘doctor’ and not the ‘tech’. #2 - After I refused to be treated again by Jim and expressed how emotionally draining and stressful this experience has been, he went right into blaming me and stating I may have dysmorphia and stopped communicating with me directly. #3 – THIS IS MOST CONCERNING PART – Be sure to get copies of your ‘mark-up’ initialed version of face with signatures before the treatment and require them to take pictures at all angles BEFORE the treatment and TAKE A COPY – DO NOT TRUST. They cannot produce the appropriate side and bottom up pictures of my face (of course right?).

I also fully believe that they subsequently edited my face mark up to state I had some of these skin issues already before I walked in which is absolutely false as the ink and initials don’t align. GET COPIES! These places do not offer refunds and you practically sign away all liabilities when engaged with them to do the work - if you don’t sign it, then they don’t do the work. I understand the reasons behind that overall but it provides a customer no recourse when they do not perform the work as they should and also when one believes they acted inappropriately with the lack of documentation available and ‘allegedly’ changing the information afterwards to fit their narrative. It is now a ‘he said-she said’ with no real options for me as no evidence. 

As this process went on, he refused to address anything directly with me and deferred all communications to their brand new (2 days on the job) office admin to be the point of contact. She said she agreed with the damage but nothing she could do due to ‘their policies’ and waivers. The best they could do was offer more services – which I don’t know anyone who would sign up for more work from someone who hasn’t done good thus far. I really hope this review saves others from making the same mistakes I did and trusting this company.

I wish someone had warned me what to be aware of and what due diligence to do on my own to protect myself as I now have a $15k surgery I have to get to get me ‘back to normal’. Please only go to board-certified doctors and insist they the ones treating you! Do your research and review these unregulated med spas and the associated risks as no real recourse afterwards even if believe not done correctly and inappropriate actions taken. Get and maintain your own copies of everything in advance. I encourage you all to think twice about going here specifically due to some of their practices and do your homework and be prepared so this doesn’t happen to anyone else.