Looking to contour specific areas of your body for a more youthful appearance? New in-office treatments, like Cynosure’s FlexSure, are high-tech options worth considering. FlexSure’s tissue-heating technology works by applying targeted radio-frequency (RF) energy to heat up deep layers of the skin and elevate tissue temperature. Below, we asked Huntersville, NC dermatologist Raminder Saluja, MD to explain what to expect when heading to the office for a tissue-heating treatment.
What are the benefits of nonsurgical deep tissue–technology treatments?
The perks of nonsurgical tissue-heating treatments are endless, according to Dr. Saluja. “This technology really serves a huge population of people who don’t want to go the surgical route—maybe they don’t have the downtime, or they want to get back to work quickly,” she explains. “Sometimes they want to get back to exercising ASAP, and other times they want to avoid any surgical scars.”
What are the recent advancements in in-office tissue-heating treatments?
Unlike other body-contouring devices that require a doctor to hold the applicator on the area while the patient is being treated, FlexSure is a new, wrappable, disposable applicator that works to target specific areas more thoroughly. “What’s so cool about FlexSure is that you can adhere the adhesive onto the area being treated,” says Dr. Saluja. “For example, when we’re treating the flank area, sometimes when we’re using manual manipulation of radio frequency, we’re kind of bouncing off bones. But with FlexSure, you can just wrap [the adhesive] onto the flanks, pick the temperature setting you want (we get to 44 degrees Celsius in our office), push the ‘GO’ button, and then you don’t have to do anything else—it’s totally hands-free.”
Another differentiator between FlexSure and other applicators is how incredibly precise it is in treating different areas. “When you place FlexSure on the area being treated, the pad has six zones where the heat goes around in a circular pattern and stays at each zone for two seconds,” says Dr. Saluja. “You are getting a confluent temperature, and because it’s distributed and gets to 44 degrees consistently, FlexSure is not so user-dependent and takes all the guesswork out of it.”
Lastly, Dr. Saluja loves the hands-free aspect of FlexSure because it allows her to perform two treatments simultaneously—meaning less time for you in the office. “Because of the hands-free aspect of FlexSure, I’m able to do other treatments on my private patients at the same time, such as Botox,” she explains.
How many sessions of FlexSure do you need to see results?
Although Dr. Saluja says you can start to see results after three sessions, she recommends all her patients do five full sessions, about one to three weeks apart, for maximum results. Each session takes approximately 15 minutes, making FlexSure an ideal lunchtime treatment.
What are the risks, if any, involved in tissue-heating treatments?
“Dealing specifically with radio frequency, the risks are minimal in the sense that you can use it on any skin type because it’s electrical energy,” says Dr. Saluja. “The contraindication, however, is that if you have any type of device in your body, anything with an on-off switch such as a pacemaker or insulin pump, then those are patients that are not indicated for RF technology.”
Does a FlexSure treatment hurt?
According to one of Dr. Saluja’s patients, you might feel a warming sensation during your treatment in the area being treated: “During the first treatment, Dr. Saluja set the [device] to the level I could tolerate and I was able to go as high as the machine would allow. Because the [FlexSure] applicator that is attached to the treatment area has six zones, the sensation would only last a few seconds before the machine cycled to the next zone. Dr. Saluja would keep checking to see if I was OK or if it needed to be adjusted.”
Right after a treatment, Dr. Saluja says patients may see some superficial redness in the area being treated, but 75 percent of it will be gone within the hour, and 100 percent within 12 hours. “So, there might be a little bit of redness that’s present for half a day, but there’s absolutely no soreness afterward,” she explains. “They’ll feel warm in that area for maybe 20 minutes as well.”
Dr. Saluja is a paid consultant of Cynosure, LLC. The FlexSure applicators provide heating for the purpose of elevating tissue temperature for selected medical conditions such as temporary relief of pain, muscle spasms, and increase in local circulation. Like all medical procedures, not all patients are suitable for the treatment. Talk to your medical provider about the risks and benefits of this procedure. A qualified practitioner is solely responsible for evaluating each subject’s suitability to undergo treatment and for informing those being treated about any risks associated with the treatment, pre-and postoperative care, and any other relevant information. Individual results may vary and are not guaranteed.
