Laser Skin Tightening in Miami
Dr. Maercks uses a unique approach to treating loose skin, the appearance of cellulite and focal fat collections in a noninvasive manner. The procedure is called Maercks Multimodal Therapy, or MMT. Dr. Maercks carefully selects between two and six different noninvasive technologies and techniques based on the individual patient's physical findings and devises a plan that delivers significant results immediately and continued improvement over the next 6-8 weeks as the tightened collagen continues to contract and remodel. By creating contraction and collagen deposition in multiple different layers, Dr. Maercks is able to deliver a concerted powerful change in body appearance quickly and safely. Call now to chedule your MMT consultation!!!
Skin Firming / SkinTyte™
Firmer, More Youthful Looking Skin
What is SkinTyte?
The SkinTyte treatment is based on the principle of selective thermolysis and utilizes pulsed light technology to deeply heat your skin while cooling and protecting the
entire treated surface. SkinTyte can be provided quickly and comfortably with no downtime. The end result is a more youthful appearance. SkinTyte treatments are safe for all skin colors and can be performed on any area of the body where an improvement in your skin firmness is desired. Popular areas include the face, neck, abdomen and arms.
How it works
The SkinTyte procedure utilizes infrared energy to deeply heat dermal collagen. This process promotes partial denaturation and contraction of collagen. The heat also initiates the body’s natural healing process, which creates a renewed collagen foundation leading to increased skin firmness. Powerful cooling maintains the outer surface of your skin at a cool temperature before, during, and after each pulse providing you a comfortable and safe procedure.
During treatment
The SkinTyte light energy is delivered in a sequence of rapid, gentle pulses. There is no need for a topical anesthetic, however, the physician may choose to use one on more sensitive areas. A series of pulses will be repeated over the treatment area to ensure best results. While the face and neck can typically be treated within 30 minutes, the actual time will depend on the area treated.
The number of treatments needed will vary from patient to patient and the physician can personalize a treatment plan based on the level of improvement you desire. The physician may also combine SkinTyte with other popular aesthetic procedures to further personalize your treatment.
After treatment
You may experience some mild redness in the treated area immediately after treatment and this should return to normal within minutes. Since the SkinTyte procedure is noninvasive, there is no downtime so you can resume regular activities immediately following treatment. You can also apply makeup and sunscreen after each session.
No special skin care regimen is required following treatment. However, you should always protect your skin from direct sun exposure and use a good sunscreen. The physician can also recommend an at home skin care regimen if desired.
SkinTyte procedure results may vary from patient to patient. The SkinTyte procedure is recommended for patients who desire moderate, noticeable skin improvement without having to undergo surgery. Full results often take up to four months as the collagen foundation of your skin is rebuilt and strengthened.
WATCH PATIENT TESTIMONIAL VIDEO ( CLICK HERE )
New devices such as TITAN, ReFirme, Thermage and Ultherapy have been developed for non-surgical laser skin tightening in Miami, allowing busy patients to achieve firmer, tighter skin with no downtime involved. Through gentle heating of the tissue, these procedures cause the collagen fibers to contract and the skin to become firmer.
Although commonly grouped into the category of aesthetic laser devices, these procedures use a variety of different technologies to get results. Potential Patients must be wary of the differences and the type of results that they can expect.
Devices that use Radiofrequency and Ultrasound energy ( Thermage, Refirme and Ultherapy), seem to appear and disappear with an incredible frequency. Dr. Maercks does not recommend using these techniques on or near the face and recommends extreme caution elsewhere in the body. Unfortunately deep heating of the face reduces facial fat (required for a youthful appearance) and produces abnormal deep scarring, what industry leaders want you to believe is ‘healthy collagen production). The biggest problem with deep heating of facial tissues is that it causes a relatively uncontrolled concentric contraction of the deep facial tissues. From a plastic surgeons perspective, this is a recipe for disastrous aesthetic consequences. These modalities are commonly used by practitioners outside the field of plastic surgery who focus largely on the cheek area. What results is irregular scar build up(called ‘collagen production by manufacturers), and because of the concentric contraction, problems can occur with eyelid distortion and malfunction, irregular and unnatural mouth appearance and ablation of the natural concavities and convexities that make the human face attractive. The lines of tension in a natural beautiful face are different throughout the face and are the focal point of a beautiful facelift. Even more unfortunate is the fact that most of these results occur months to a year after the procedure. The time lag and severity of problems leads patients to seek a different practioner for correction and the well-meaning original practitioners never learn of these consequences they have produced. Dr. Maercks has seen many of these consequences and has tackled the difficult correction with fat transfer, facelift and other procedures. For these reasons Dr. Maercks focuses on controllable modalities with limited complication profiles.
Use of infrared light(TITAN, High fiter BBL, Skintyte) can be used safely to gently tighten the dermis(deep layer of the skin) delivering modest improvements in skin laxity. The trouble starts when practitioners use these modalities in patients with significant skin laxity to ‘avoid surgery.’ Simply put, there are limitations to the amount of skin tightening that can be safely achieved. Unfortunately what this means is that the patients who do best with these modalities are the patients who need it the least. Dr. Maercks believes that Infrared light can be used to gently improve skin tone and appearance in patients with minimal laxity. However, using these modalities to replace a facelift will only result in the need for a complicated ‘reconstructive facelift’ in the future.
The best noninvasive results are achieved by precisely controlling treatment to the superficial skin, the superficial dermis (mid-skin) and the deep dermis/subdermal border (deep skin). In this manner a treatment can be completely customized for each patient and significant improvements in superficial appearance/radiance, deep thickness or apparent fullness, and skin tightening.
Dr. Maercks bases the treatment decisions on the amount of ‘down time’ the patient can tolerate, the qualities of the patient’s skin and the superficial appearance of the patient’s skin. For a zero down time treatment, Dr. Maercks prefers Intense Pulsed light or Broad Band Light which can be tailored for multiple conditions including acne, rosacea vascular lesions and pigment problems. With these technologies a quick true ‘lunch-break’ treatment can be delivered with excellent results.
When redness can be tolerated for at least 2 days, Dr. Maercks prefers using Erbium laser delivered deep through the skin with a fractionated beam allowing only 6-15% of the skin to be treated. Because the Erbium laser can be precisely controlled, a much deeper and significant treatment can be delivered with minimal downtime compared with the relatively difficult to control CO2 laser that became so popular in the past. CO2 lasers cause extensive coagulation, leaving behind less healthy tissue to heal and causing significantly prolonged redness at comparably energy. Once treatment goals are determined the Profractional Erbium laser beam is tailored to the patient and is usually combined with either BBL/IPL modalities or with a second complete facial Erbium non-fractional treatment tuned to only affect the most superficial layers of the skin. In this way a completely customizable superficial, deep and skin tightening treatment is delivered.
Thermage®
Thermage can be applied to the face, body and eye areas for targeted collagen tightening. The aging process causes collagen in your skin to break down, resulting in wrinkles and sagging skin. With, Thermage uses patented radiofrequency (RF) technology to heat the deeper layers of your skin, stimulating existing collagen and promoting new collagen growth.
ReFirme®
ReFirme uses special elōs technology, a combination of bi-polar radiofrequency and light energy that heats the dermal tissue within the targeted treatment area. By stimulating collagen production, ReFirme produces a skin tightening effect in lax skin.
TITAN®
TITAN can be used to heat the dermis deep beneath your skin's surface, thereby tightening the skin of the face, abdomen, arms and more. The doctor evenly applies infrared light to the dermis, while protecting the skin surface with a special cooling hand-piece. Patients of any skin type or age can be treated.
The doctor evenly applies infrared light to the dermis, while protecting the skin surface with a special cooling hand-piece. Patients of any skin type or age can be treated.
Ultherapy®
Ultherapy is a new procedure that uses micro focused ultrasound energy to penetrate deeply into the tissue layers.
Profractional Erbium laser
Another option for skin tightening is the popular carbon dioxide laser. In this treatment, your plastic surgeon directs a grid pattern of tiny light pulses at your skin. Each pulse delivers a column of energy that reaches the dermal layer, stimulating a natural renewal process of collagen. Unfortunately CO2 lasers create a large amount of heat and the region of coagulation spreads beyond the laser channels which still cause a prolonged recovery of weeks of redness.
Fractional CO2 Laser
The Erbium laser provides the best possible combination of ablative resurfacing and deep dermal contraction resulting in skin tightening with minimal downtime. Although patients should expect 2-10 days of redness depending on depth of treatment the profound results to minimal recovery ratio makes this modality the preferred technique of resurfacing and skin tightening. Using Sciton’s joule and Profile platforms, Dr. Maercks is able to precisely control the treatment intensity, depth, percentage of treated area and even the amount of coagulation so undesirable side effects are minimized and the treatment is custom tailored to each patient. These platforms also allow the combination of Broad Band Light (IPL) Infrared Light as well as superficial Erbium laser delivery giving patients the best of all worlds for incredible results.
Life After Laser Skin Tightening in Miami
Most non-surgical skin tightening procedures require no downtime. The most common side effect is redness that usually lasts no longer than a few hours. Results will vary depending on the device, as well as factors such as age, number of treatments, severity of conditions and so on.
To learn more about the options in ultrasound, radiofrequency and laser skin tightening in Miami, contact the office of Miami Beach plastic surgeon Rian A. Maercks M.D.
In addition to skin tightening, Dr. Maercks offers a suite of other cosmetic solutions such as Botox and breast implants. Peruse this site to learn more about what is offered and how the procedures can positively influence your life.