What Is Thermage FLX? What to Know About Skin Tightening Treatment

Welcome to your skin check-in with Life & Style’s resident health and beauty expert, Dr. Will Kirby, a celebrity dermatologist and Chief Medical Officer of LaserAway. Every week, he’ll be spilling his candid thoughts and professional advice on all things skin, beauty and wellness as it relates to you — and your favorite stars.

Skin tightening is one of the top requests from cosmetic patients but finding a treatment that can give you meaningful results can be tricky. I reached out to aesthetic experts to find out everything you need to know about the newest skin tightening technology, Thermage FLX!

Who: “Thermage FLX is for anyone seeking a non-surgical treatment to address loose skin,” notes aesthetic nurse practitioner Dr. Morgan Wolf. “The ideal patient is 30 to 65 years old, has mild to moderate skin laxity, and has realistic expectations. Patients love this treatment because it takes less than two hours and other than a little swelling, there is no real downtime!”

What: “Patients seeking this treatment always want to know what it will do for them,” aesthetic rock god Megan Driscoll says. “It takes a few weeks for results to emerge and sometimes a second treatment is needed a year or two later (after all, gravity and aging never sleep) but Thermage FLX tightens loose skin, contours aging skin, and improves skin laxity!”

When: “Patients often ask when they should get Thermage FLX. Well, the best time to bend a tree is when it is small, so start early!” says aesthetic nurse Megan Martinez. I remind patients that of course Thermage FLX will help create new collagen but it will also help maintain the collagen that you already have. So many patients use it to jump start tightening while others use it to maintain already great skin!”

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Where: The best part about this treatment is that it’s not just limited to the face,” says dermatologist Dr. Deanne Mraz Robinson. “Thermage FLX can tighten loose skin on the arms, the abdomen, the thighs, and even the derrière!”

Why: “Why do patients get this treatment? In a word, ‘tightening’! Most patients seek Thermage FLX treatments to gain new collagen and or maintain their existing collagen and what does this do? It results in tightening of loose and/or aging skin! Best of all, the results continue to improve for up to six months after getting the treatment!” says aesthetic nurse practitioner Blossom Hashemi.

How: “The underlying technology in Thermage FLX is monopolar radio frequency,” explains aesthetic nurse Jessica Graybill. “By implementing this radio frequency treatment, energy creates an electrical current that generates heat and this heat denatures the collagen. This purposeful damage, in the short term, causes the individual collage strands to shorten and thicken and in the long term it causes the fibroblasts to make new, healthy collagen!”