Radiofrequency for Eye Bags

Although non-surgical approaches to rejuvenation sound enticing in that they appear cheaper and quicker with less recuperative time they are not always effective and can be associated with their own set of complications. With respect to eye bags I strongly recommend against radiofrequency to kill the fat in the bag without doing a incision. The standard surgical approaches with removal of fat or repositioning of fat are in reality a much more controlled way to treat the problem. I saw a patient who had the radiofrequency destruction of the fat in the bag without a skin incision at a local medical center. After awhile there was a very noticeable difference in the amount of fat killed on each side. This significant right left asymmetry is hard if not impossible to fix. I was not even willing to attempt it.

My response to your question/post does not represent formal medical advice or constitute a doctor patient relationship. You need to consult with i.e. personally see a board certified plastic surgeon in order to receive a formal evaluation and develop a doctor patient relationship.

If I understand your question I believe you mean removing eye bags (fat) with radiofrequency heat..  The theory is that the heat will melt the fat through insertion of a probe into the bag.  I do not feel this is a successful means of treating bags with unreliable results.

Best

 

Dr. Massry

The concept behind radiofrequency treatment for skin tightening is the thermal heating of collagen underneath the skin.  This approach is used both for mild facial tightening and for mild lower eyelid tightening.  They do produce minimal down time tightening of these areas but the results are very mild.  So mild that many people wonder if the got good value for the cost of the procedure.  So for mild lines in the lower eyelids, this approach may be worthwhile.  However, if you actually have an "eye bag," most likely you will be disappointed with treatment results.  A better approach for the right candidate is chemical peeling.  On the website below are examples of what can be accomplished with chemical peeling.

Every treatment that is performed has to be evaluated by its risks and benefits.  Minimally invasive procedures will, in general, have a lower risk profile but also a lesser degree of efficacy.  Thus, they will generally have fewer risks and shorter down-times, they may not yield the results that you hope to achieve.  The gold standard in the treatment of eye bags, is surgery to remove or reposition the fat and to tighten the skin.  This can be achieved by several different methods depending on which best suits your anatomy and your downtime.  More minimally invasive procedures to address this area include tightening of the skin or both a tightening of the skin and the fat below the skin. Laser skin resurfacing and peels will only tighten the skin, but will not treat the underlying tissue.  You may have enough tightening of the skin to improve the appearance of your eye bags to a certain degree, but perhaps not enough.  Treatments that can tighten both the skin and the underlying tissue include radio-frequency ablation (Thermage) or highly focused ultrasound (Ulthera).  Again, these are non-surgical therapies that are used for facial tightening.  In the past, Thermage has not yielded consistent results and Ulthera is a new, but quite promising technology.  If you are interested in a non-invasive treatment without the downtime of a caustic peel, you may benefit from a combination therapy of Ulthera with a fractionated CO2 resurfacing.  Again, the only way to truly assess what you a candidate for is to examine you personally.