Minimally invasive neck lifting

Dr. Gentile

Richard Gentile, M.D., a board-certified facial plastic surgeon in Boardman, Ohio, spoke this weekend at the Global Aesthetic Conference 2019, Miami Beach, about minimally invasive neck lifting.

“It's been an area that I've been intensely involved with in both the development of technologies and techniques to do more to get good results without extensive surgery because that's what our patients tend to be very interested in,” he says.

Dr. Gentile has been practicing in Northeast Ohio for 32 years.

While neck lifting techniques began with isolated surgery, and perhaps, some liposuction, he says, today’s approaches have evolved to include the use of energy devices for skin tightening results.

“In about 45 minutes we can transform a neck without substantial surgery,” notes Dr. Gentile.

The evolution from isolated surgical procedures to today’s energy-based techniques began about 12 years ago with the use of fiber lasers, according to Dr. Gentile.

“These are small lasers that are introduced through a stainless steel cannula. Through a number of small entrance incisions, we could… use these to heat the fat, melt the fat and tighten the skin. In addition to this, occasionally, we would do some muscle tightening and other things that we could do through small incisions.”

Notably, these techniques limited the need for larger incisions around the ears and neck that result from traditional neck lifting, he says.

“These devices included the original SmartLipo laser, which then became Thermi RF. Now, we're into devices such as FaceTite [inMode] and AccuTite."

Plasma device Renuvion is the latest one, he says. "And I'm very pleased to have been actively involved in designing some of the new hand pieces for Renuvion.”

He describes the plasma device technology as “a very hot stream of plasma that can melt fat and tighten skin. And we've had some truly remarkable results with Renuvion... We’ve had really outstanding results with FaceTite as well,” he says.

Two years ago at the Foundation for Facial Aesthetic Surgery (FFAS) meeting in New Orleans, Dr. Gentile says he saw the plasma technology on exhibit by Bovie Medical. 

“Bovie had the original cautery unit, and they're not known for new technology. So they had this new thing and I'm kind of laughing thinking, Oh, what is this going to be? And sure enough, it was novel technology, and now everybody's heard about it. And it’s really cut some traction, which is good for the company [because if they aren’t] commercially successful, then we lose this whole technology.”

References:

Gentile RD. Renuvion/J-Plasma for Subdermal Skin Tightening Facial Contouring and Skin Rejuvenation of the Face and Neck. Facial Plast Surg Clin North Am. 2019;27(3):273-290.