I Have Read That Ulthera Hurts but What About Preventive Measures?

In October 2012, Ulthera announced a new protocol that is vastly more comfortable than the previous protocol.  Previously, ultherapy was extremely difficult to get through without pain management.  Now, most patients do not need pain medications.  However, for those that do, a combination of anti-anxiety medication and ibuprofen may be all that is needed.

Numbing cream does not penetrate to the dermal layer and connective tissues that are affected by Ultherapy so it's not used.  Pain killers and pills to reduce anxiety such as Ativan or Valium, help make the Ultheapy a much more comfortable procedure. Our practice in NYC is accredited as an office based surgical facility.  We ask our patients to consider thispain reduction regimen, and then if they agree, they schedule the treatment having had arranged someone to go home with them as they are not permitted to leave alone.

Most patients tolerate the treatment well, but there are patients who know themselves so well and they tell us they have a very low pain threshold and would not be able to tolerate the treatment despite medication by mouth. In that event, we have a board-certified anesthesiologist that can perform sedation in our accredited office-based surgical facility. This is extremely rare for Ultherapy.

The discomfort that patients experience with Ultherapy is variable but the pulses of micro-focused ultrasound are very brief. Some discomfort is unavoidable though because Ultherapy stimulates collagen remodeling through heat, and if the peak temperature is not high enough then there won't be much of a response. Most of our patients do well without numbing medication or drugs but we are happy to offer it if desired.