One and Done?

By Kate Dee, MD

One and Done? Will I see results after just 1 treatment?

I get this question every day. “Will I see results after just one treatment?” Very few treatments in aesthetics have immediate results and almost none offer a “One and Done” answer. (OK maybe fillers. But those are temporary, and you’ll eventually need more!)

Think of maintaining your skin as like maintaining your body. The skin care products you use every day are like eating a nutritious diet. The procedures that improve your skin are like getting regular exercise. Will you have a six-pack after one rigorous work-out? No. Will you slim down after one virtuous day of salad and grilled salmon? No. Will you look like you’re 10 years younger after one skin tightening treatment? No.

Is doing one vigorous workout great for your body– yes. It is a great first step, but you have to work for a while to get into shape, and then you have to maintain your results with continuing effort. It is the same for your skin.

I have written a lot in this blog about collagen and the treatments that increase it. Let’s use skin tightening as an example. We need to build collagen in the skin to keep it thick and springy, to prevent wrinkles and sagginess. Each time we do a treatment like Infini for skin tightening, the skin cells that make collagen go to work for 4-6 months, then go back to sleep. In order to get your skin back in shape, we have to do a series of treatments, building on each one to get a slow improvement. We recommend a total number of treatments equal to the number of decades you have lived. So, at 50, we recommend 5 treatments (on average). We do this 4-6 weeks apart until we get the results we want. Give us a year and we can change what your skin looks like. Then after that, you must do something to keep those fibroblasts awake every 4 months for maintenance. This is a long term project. If you want instant results, this is not your procedure. But if you want long term results that don’t just dissolve away, then Infini is a great way to go. You will slowly age backwards while your friends and colleagues age forward. It is kind of amazing.

This is true of pretty much everything we do. Some procedures can show demonstrable results soon after the treatment, like laser hair removal. But will all the hairs be gone after 1 treatment? No. It takes 6-10 treatments for most people to clear the hair. The same is true when you treat sun spots with IPL or LaseMD. You can see some improvement after one, but you will need a series of 3 or more to make a significant difference.

If this resonates with you, come talk with me! Anyone can take your money and promise you one and done, if they have no intention of seeing you again. At Glow, we commit to our patients for the long haul. We will work on a treatment plan that works to keep your skin beautiful and healthy long term.