Ultherapy Should Not Hurt, Right?

On a scale of 1-10, I have had patients rate the pain from 0 to 11. Everybody experiences the sensation of the treatment differently, but we offer a variety of pain management techniques to aid in patient comfort. These range from distractions, music, and breathing techniques to numbing cream, oral medications, and injectable anesthetics. We tailor pain management specifically to each patient to provide as much comfort as possible.

The minority of patients say that it didn't hurt too much but the average patient says it does hurt. Avoiding direct treatment of some nerves is possible, but the bony areas sometimes need to be treated but the depth of the ultrasonic energy is adjusted so as not to allow the energy to reach the bone.  Treatment over the cheeks, without treating bone or nerve hurts with ongoing lines of treatment. We are treating now with multiple transducers to allow  planes of different depths to absorb the energy. The cumulative energy delivered can increase the discomfort.  Multiple dental fillings or dental fractures might cause more pain.  The reality is this is the only device currently that is FDA cleared for facial lifting and I see good results in my practice. Certainly, it does not provide the same excellent amount of lifting that a facelift can create but without downtime and only requiring one to two hours of treatment, most patients are willing to put up with the pain.  I prescribe and provide different medications to my patients to make it a more pleasant experience. I am very explicit with my patients in consultation to let them know that there is pain during Ultherapy. Very rarely, a patient with a very low pain threshold may ask for sedation and this can be delivered in our accredited office-based surgical facility via a board-certified anesthesiologist.

I have trained with one of the founders of Ultherapy and watched as he delivered treatment to his patient that only took Ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) prior to the procedure. This was with the earlier protocols when far fewer lines of energy were delivered and with less transducers so fewer planes were treated.  I knew then, that those patients who managed with minimal medication were the minority, not the majority of those that would undergo Ultherapy and patients would need some prescriptions including pain killers and pills to relax them so that the treatment would be tolerated. My current protocol has allowed me to treat the overwhelming majority of patients with the maximum safe protocol to afford them the best chance of improvement while minimizing their discomfort. Greater than 95% of patients see improvement and would do it again knowing now what they learned by going through the procedure.

Ulthera is completely non-invasive and does not require anesthesia. Treatment times average thirty minutes. During treatment, the ultrasound applicator is slowly moved over the treatment area, delivering small, controlled amounts of energy to the skin and soft tissue. The ultrasound energy targets the deep layers of tissue, leaving the upper layers intact and unharmed.There is little to no recovery or downtime associated with Ultherapy and patients are able to immediately return to their normal routine. Some minor redness may occur at the treatment sites, but this generally fades within a few hours. Immediate tightening of the skin can be seen after treatment and this will be followed by continued improvement over the next several months as new collagen growth occurs. Ultherapy is a very safe procedure with few risks and complications.