Ageless Beauty Week! How to get rid of turkey neck? Update on Ultherapy non-surgical skin tightening with Dr. Paul Frank

Ultherapy- Before & After

 This week’s Summer Spotlight are some of my favorite ageless beauty tips. We covered how beauty is how you see yourself, a better than botox drugstore creme, how what you eat affects your skin, and now for those who want to consider an extra boost, some non-surgical Ultherapy to combat turkey neck. 

Want to find out how to get rid of turkey neck?

Let’s look into Ultherapy non-surgical skin tightening with New York City dermatologist Dr. Paul Frank who specializes in the Ultherea non invasive skin tightening procedure to tighten and tone skin.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about non-invasive, non-surgical ways to tighten, lift, and tone skin, as well as an update to my Thermage non-surgical facelift article of several years ago from those just not quite wanting to entertain the idea of a possible facelift and who want something different than what Botox and fillers could offer.

Say hello to Ultherapy! 

The Ultherapy ultrasound treatment is the only non-invasive procedure FDA-approved to lift skin on the neck and help you say bye-bye to turkey neck.

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I spoke with New York Cosmetic Dermatologist Dr. Paul Frank who specializes in Ulthera’s Ultherapy procedure which allows patients to tighten their skin with absolutely no downtime, scalpel or needle yet take off about five years from their appearance.

Sharon Haver:  How do you see Ultherapy as being part of  regular beauty maintenance to keep your skin tight and your collagen level up?

Dr. Paul Frank:  Well, Ulthera is a great skin tightening technology that really fits in the middle for that patient who has enough to want to do something, but not so much that they need a facelift.

Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank
Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank of the 5th Avenue Dermatology Surgery and Laser Center

Although a technology like this is very effective and cutting-edge, it is not a facelift. What it does is use very intense heat to build collagen and contract tissue from all layers of skin down to the muscle. I very commonly will use it on other patients who do other things for maintenance like Botox and fillers, but really feel they need that icing on the cake to straighten out the jawlines, lift the brow, and do things that other non- or minimally-invasive treatments cannot do.

It’s all about choosing the right candidate. That’s really what it is. I very commonly will use it on people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, depending on how they look. Someone who’s never done anything before and comes in in their 60s with significant sagging is really is not going to get a great result from this.

Another category of patient this fits in very well with are those patients who really shy away from putting anything foreign in their body, whether it’s Botox or fillers. As naturopathic as some of the fillers are today, they just shy away from things like injectables. So, Ulthera is really kind of one of the more naturopathic ways where you getting kind of permanent response in getting your body to do what it doesn’t do as well as we get older, which is build collagen.

Ultherapy Before & After for Neck and Chin
Ultherapy Before & After for Neck and Chin

SH:  Okay, I’d like you to go further on it. I kind of say it’s like a kick start for your collagen as your collagen sort of goes on snooze as you get older .

Dr. PF:      Right.

SH:  – It sort of takes it back. So, you won’t end up getting results where you look any different from how people usually…

Dr. PF:  No. Because you’re basically tricking your body to stimulate its own production of collagen, there’s really zero risk of altering the form of your face, like a facelift or sometimes Botox or fillers can do. So, again, it’s for those patients who are really looking for the most natural thing to do.

The other nice thing is that unlike injectables, there really is not as much maintenance as with Ulthera. For most patients, I tell them they’re going to get a couple of years out of it. Now, depending on the severity, there are people who maybe need to do two treatments as opposed to one. I do believe as the technology’s around more and more, the average patient may do this every couple of years. Unlike Botox and fillers, and even some lasers, you’re not in the office twice a year having to get an expensive treatment.

>>DISCOVER: Instant Beauty Tips w/o a Trip to the Doctor…

SH:  So, it’s actually cheaper in the long run?

Dr. PF:   Yes – but again, like I say, it doesn’t do what a facelift does. It also doesn’t do what Botox and fillers do. This is not really going to get rid of wrinkles like frown wrinkles or smile line wrinkles. My average patient does Ulthera along with some level of maintenance treatments like injectables and I really think that’s where the best result is. You get a synergistic response, like one plus one equals three by doing injectibles and Ulthera.

SH:  So, basically, to sum it up, it’s the best way to make your skin tighter as if it was five years before?

Dr. PF:   I think that’s a realistic goal. If you can get five years more of elasticity back to your skin, it’s great. Like with most things in minimally invasive cosmetic dermatology today, it’s easy to clean up your room when it’s not too dirty. So, starting early before there’s a significant problem makes it easier, safer, and quicker to get the best result.

SH:   So, when you start getting nervous about turkey neck rather than getting turkey neck?

Dr. PF:  Yeah. That’s really exactly it – when you start getting nervous about getting turkey neck.

Ultherapy- Before & After for neck and chin treatment
Ultherapy- Before & After for neck and chin treatment

SH: In your opinion, please explain the difference in various types of skin tightening therapies that have been around for several years.

Dr. PF: We’re talking about the difference and advantages of Ulthera as opposed to older technologies, like Thermage or Titan. The older technologies were really based on radio frequency waves which, that similar to Ultherapy, produced heat that would stimulate collagen.

The advantage of using ultrasound as opposed the older technologies is that using ultrasound like when you have a baby growing inside of you, you can visualize on the screen the other layers of the skin. So, the ability to visualize where you’re putting the energy allows us to be more aggressive. Whereas the older technologies just dispersed energy in the skin, we’re able to focus specifically.

The other advantage is that, given this technology, ultrasound can penetrate deeper. So, we’re not really just focusing the energy on the superficial layers of skin, like Thermage, but we’re penetrating all layers of skin down to and including the muscle tissue.

Now, the main concern, that is also different from the older technologies that a lot of people have when researching Ultherapy, is, “Is it a lot more painful?” The Ultherapy device has taken on a few different generations of advancements and I will say that the most recent advancement, which was, I think, in September of 2012, really changed the way energy was delivered and the way that we do the treatment. So, it is much less painful.

In the past, maybe a year or two ago, where I had to give opiate-like pain relievers, like Percocet, we now just get away with a prescription-strength Advil 80 or 90 percent of the time. Aside from the few ouches along the way, most patients find it extremely tolerable. For those patients who can’t tolerate it, something as simple as a Percocet or a Valium usually does the job.

So, we have a better safety protocol compared to the old technologies, we have a better efficacy due to power and penetration, and we also have tolerability. Those are the three key things that make Ultherapy better.

>> WIN ULTHERAPY: LIKE the FocusOnStyle Facebook page & enter to win a FREE Neck Ultherapy from Ulthera… get rid of turkey neck and an old scarf too!

LIKE the FocusOnStyle Facebook page & enter to win neck Ultherapy from Ulthera (terms apply)
LIKE the FocusOnStyle Facebook page & enter to win neck Ultherapy from Ulthera (terms apply)

For more information on Ultherapy, the non-surgical way to lift and tighten skin, visit:

Ulthera, Inc.
ultherapy.com

Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank
5th Avenue Dermatology Surgery and Laser Center
telephone- 212.327.2919
pfrankmd.com

Before & After Photos: Ulthera

Originally Published on July 11, 2013

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