HOW DOES ‘DESTRUCTIVE’ RF TREATMENT WORKS

However, there is another way to use RF: by damaging (= burning, coagulating) skin tissue with extreme (up to 62ºC), VERY PAINFUL high heat and then hoping that the skin will try to repair the damage and regenerate itself, by depositing unhealthy scar tissue collagen to heal the burn/coagulation.

This is how the first ever aesthetic radiofrequency treatment worked and it still is how a couple of similar RF treatments work today.

The problem with this approach is that instead of stimulating the synthesis of natural, healthy, properly linked, high-quality collagen and elastin that normal radiofrequency does, it stimulates the creation of badly linked, unhealthy scar tissue collagen - and no elastin. This means that you do not get skin tightening, you get skin hardening - or what I call “scar-tissuing”. Not the kind of tissue you pay a fortune for to have in your skin (I use the word “fortune”, because destructive RF treatments are usually 5-10 more expensive than stimulative RF treatments because they are supposed to give “results” after one session).

The other problem with this approach is that some people’s skin does not react satisfactorily to heal the inflammation and damage caused by the ‘destructive’ RF approach, leaving the person with more skin looseness, paper-thin skin, a visible scar tissue lump, or a visible burn.

BTW this is exactly how high-power (destructive) high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) works and it causes exactly the same side effects. (Note: low power HIFU is largely ineffective compared to proper RF and that’s why we don’t do any HIFU at the clinic.)

Sometimes, the skin reacts just to repair the damage, resulting in neither paper-thin skin nor hard/tightened skin, i.e. no results, despite the extremely high cost of this approach.

The idea behind this type of RF is to offer the client an impressive skin tightening (well, skin hardening to be precise) after a few months (it doesn’t happen immediately, it takes 3-6 months to “work”) with just one very expensive session and make the maximum amount of money per hour at the clinic.

We find this type of RF (and HIFU and anything that works by burning/damaging tissue “therapeutically”) pathetic and we would never consider using it at the clinic.

 

THE EXACT MECHANISM: HOW RADIO FREQUENCY WORKS

With radiofrequency treatment, an electrical current enters the skin from one pole, which is charged positively, and then exits the skin from another, which is charged negatively. A split of a second later, the polarity changes, and what used to be a plus pole becomes minus and vice versa. This happens hundreds of thousands or millions of times a second.

Now if the frequency of the current was much lower, for example, 100Hz (one hundred such polarity alternations per second) then we would have a muscular contraction. Indeed such low frequencies are used in TENS machines for pain relief and in other physiotherapy machines for muscle rehabilitation etc.

As I mentioned earlier, at higher frequencies we do not have muscular contractions, we just have heat. This is because the frequency is so high that the so-called "motor nerves" are not fast enough to sense the polarity alternation, so no muscular contraction occurs.

 

MOLECULAR MOVEMENT = HEAT

Now the question is: how is heat being produced with radiofrequency?

The answer is simple. if you remember from high school physics, heat is a random molecular movement. With RF currents, the alternation of the current is so fast that no electrons, atoms, or molecules ever really move towards one pole or the other.

As a result, molecules just vibrate around a central position or simply rotate. This random molecular movement (vibration or rotation) manifests macroscopically as heat.

In a nutshell, this is how radio frequency treatment works: it vibrates our molecules, producing heat.

 

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RADIOFREQUENCY TREATMENT

There are hundreds of RF machines in the market today and they all vary in power and a number of different specifications. There are also tens of thousands of RF operators around the world and they are all different in terms of their training and the technique they utilize. Therefore, not all radiofrequency treatments are the same.

The best RF treatment is the one applied with the highest specification equipment and skin products AND provided by the best-trained therapist. Radiofrequency treatment effectiveness depends on the following important factors:

• Monopolar vs bipolar vs unipolar technology

• Resistive vs capacitive function

• Electrical field vs electromagnetic field action

• Low power vs high power equipment

• Cooling vs no cooling function

• High frequency vs low -frequency equipment

• RF treatment cream vs gel vs oil used during treatment

• Adjustable settings for custom RF treatment vs all automatic function

• RF combined with other modalities, such as ultrasound or infrared vs stand-alone RF

• RF treatment protocols

• Operator experience and specialization.