"Ultherapy does not work - in my case it caused evident skin laxity - save your money" - Los Angeles, CA

Ultherapy is a thermal process - it heats up deep layers under the skin to provoke the body's healing mechanism to produce collagen and tighten from below - or so I understand. My skin (very pale, very nice on the surface, but generally thin), has not reacted well to being overheated over the last few years, not just by Ultherapy 12 months ago, but also by at least 15 sessions of Venus Freeze and a few of Exilis in the years preceding, and an Active FX fractional laser ten years ago. If I could go back I would have avoided all of it, saved the money and gone for a mini face lift. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but I ignored the naysayers on Real Self and preferred to believe the positive reviews. I regret that.

Whatever difference I imagined I saw from the Ultherapy may have been positive thinking. Without a doubt, less than one year later - all symptoms are completely gone and there have been no benefits whatsoever. During the healing time of four to five months the subtle swelling created a subtle illusion of change - but now the tissue all around my lower face and neck is actually thinner making the appearance of laxity and the lack of definition worse. Save your money. Don't do it. It doesn't work.

Am almost 3 months post treatment and can say for certain that Ultherapy did what it promised to do - tighten up the skin on my face and neck. But, the effect is subtle, very subtle. No one else notices, but I can tell because I was working to hide the sag under my chin, and the loss of jawline that was creeping in (not much, but enough to make me feel older than I want to). Now I don;t have to so it seems like Ultherapy has turned the clock back on that by a couple of years - not five but maybe two or three - so, like I said, subtle.

The side effects are tolerable, but need to be forewarned against. The tenderness continues for about 10 to 12 weeks - which is good because it means the healing process is in action which is how the tightening occurs. The tingling continues even longer and is very weird. It's not a constant but every now and again I experience a really sharp jolt on my chin or cheek or neck and oddest of all, on the crown of my head. It's all quite disconcerting but, vain age-o-phobe that I am, I'd go again if money wasn't a constant concern. Actually money really sums up the essence of my review. If dropping 5-10k a year on your face is not a problem, then Ultherapy is well worth the spend. If money is a hardship, then I would say botox and filler gives more direct results for less money. For example, I could have had three years of a lot of well placed Botox for the $2,500 I spent on Ultherapy. Still, I am very glad I got the Ultherapy because I look like me, about three years ago, before my face started to collapse : )