Morpheus8 in Uberlândia, Brazil

Needle-free radiofrequency is applied from the surface: energy enters through the epidermis, which is cooled to spare it, and heats the dermis diffusely. It is usually well tolerated, generally leaves no visible mark and rarely calls for downtime — though the risk of burns exists in any radiofrequency procedure, including this one. The depth reached depends on what the skin allows the energy to cross. In the microneedling version, needles carry the energy straight to the chosen depth, which allows deeper layers to be treated with less heating of the surface — in exchange for breaking the skin, with visible dots for a few days and a risk of burns, of hyperpigmentation and of fat loss in the treated area. The two are more complementary than competing, and each indication is set by assessing the skin, not by the technology in itself.

No — it is indicated for mild to moderate laxity. Significant laxity usually requires a surgical approach.

The mechanisms differ. Ultrasound devices pass through the skin without breaking it and deposit heat at a depth set by the transducer itself, with no free adjustment. The family is not homogeneous: some focused transducers reach deep layers such as the fascia; other devices, using parallel, non-focused beams, work in the mid-dermis, at around one to two millimeters. In either case there is virtually no visible recovery, and the main target of these devices is firmness rather than surface texture. Radiofrequency microneedling has to cross the skin: the needles deliver heat into the dermis at an adjustable depth, which also acts on texture and scarring, at the cost of redness for a few days and a risk of pigment change and of fat loss in the treated area. The indications overlap in part, and neither resolves marked laxity. The choice depends on skin thickness and elasticity, skin phototype and where the laxity sits.

They belong to the same family: radiofrequency microneedling, from different manufacturers. What varies between systems is the number of needles on the tip, the depth range they reach, the needle coating, the way energy is emitted — continuous or pulsed — and the protocols each system has been studied for. Some systems have been studied in protocols that fall outside the scope of this page, aimed at other skin conditions; what is assessed here is skin quality, texture, scarring and mild to moderate laxity. In practice, the clinically relevant difference usually lies less in the device and more in the correct indication, the depth chosen for each area and the energy applied. None of them replaces surgery where there is excess skin.

It varies according to individual assessment and the patient's goals, defined at the consultation.

In some cases, it may be combined with other techniques, based on individual evaluation at the consultation. The recommendation depends on each patient's goals and characteristics.

Yes, it may also be indicated for body areas with mild to moderate skin laxity, based on individual evaluation. The areas treated depend on each patient's goals.

A topical anesthetic is generally applied to reduce discomfort during treatment. Sensation varies from person to person, but the procedure tends to be well tolerated.

A numbing cream is usually applied thirty to sixty minutes beforehand. With the skin numbed, what patients most often describe is heat and small taps or pinpricks — more noticeable where skin is thin and sits over bone, such as the forehead, jawline and chin, and less so over the cheek. For deeper or more extensive body areas a local anesthetic injection may be added and, depending on the area treated and the comfort required, the session may be carried out in an operating room under sedation, with the anesthesiology team in attendance. Pinpoint bleeding during treatment is expected. For the next few hours the skin feels hot, similar to sunburn, and that usually settles the same day. Tolerance differs a great deal from person to person, and intensity is adjusted during the session itself.

It is a minimally invasive procedure, with a generally quick return to activities, as medically advised.

Yes, redness and mild swelling are expected reactions in the first hours or days. They tend to subside gradually, though timing varies from person to person.

Yes, strict sun protection is recommended in the following days, since the skin is temporarily more sensitive. This guidance will be detailed at the consultation.

On the face, the most intense redness usually covers the first day and fades over two to three days; in areas treated at greater depth, or on the body, it can stretch to about a week. A pattern of tiny dots — the imprint of the microneedles — is also common, with small crusts that tend to shed within two to five days, along with mild swelling in the first 48 hours and skin that feels rough to the touch. The procedure usually requires no time off work — the routine is resumed following the guidance on sun protection and skin hydration — though patients whose work puts them in direct contact with the public tend to prefer waiting until the most intense redness has passed. Makeup is usually allowed after around 24 to 48 hours, once the microchannels have closed, and strict sun protection applies throughout. Important social commitments deserve a few days of margin.

It is a studied indication, with partial results that are more modest than those of ablative lasers. In head-to-head comparisons between technologies for atrophic acne scarring — still based on a limited number of studies — radiofrequency microneedling tends to rank behind fractional CO2 laser on physician assessment and patient satisfaction, and ahead of it on the hyperpigmentation risk profile: that is what makes it a reasonable option in brown and black skin. Atrophic scars with soft edges — so-called rolling scars, with undulating depressions, and shallower boxcar scars, with more defined edges — tend to respond better, because collagen stimulation fills the depression from underneath. Icepick scars, narrow and deep, respond poorly and usually call for additional approaches such as punch excision. Enlarged pores tend to improve in appearance rather than in anatomical size. Around three sessions, four to six weeks apart, are usually planned, and the result is assessed months after the last one. The improvement is partial: acne scarring does not disappear, it becomes less obvious under light.

Yes, as with any radiofrequency-based procedure, there is a risk of burns or hyperpigmentation, particularly in more sensitive or tanned skin. This risk is discussed individually before treatment.

Improvement in skin firmness tends to be gradual, as collagen is stimulated over the following weeks. The final outcome is assessed over the course of the sessions.

Abdominal skin is thicker than facial skin and the fat to be treated sits deeper — which is why the body calls for greater depths than those used on the face. The number of sessions is of the same order: around three are usually planned, four to six weeks apart, and the count depends more on the size of the area and on individual response than on the region itself. What is aimed at is improvement in skin quality and firmness — texture, mild crepiness, some degree of tightening — generally subtle and progressive over months, with no way of assuring in advance how much improvement there will be. What cannot be expected: the procedure does not remove fat — it acts on fat with heat, which is also why volume loss is a risk to weigh — does not correct separation of the abdominal muscles, does not excise excess skin and does not lift a cesarean scar. Where there is localized fat with mild to moderate laxity, the usual approach is liposuction combined with skin-retraction technologies applied during the same operation, such as Renuvion or Ignite. An abdomen with genuine skin excess usually points to abdominoplasty; rectus diastasis with good-quality skin may point to minimally invasive lipoabdominoplasty. Telling mild laxity apart from true skin excess is precisely the central question at the assessment.

It tends to deliver most when the complaint is skin quality: uneven texture, enlarged pores, mild crepiness, acne scarring, stretch marks, cellulite and mild to moderate laxity in skin with good elasticity. It tends to disappoint in three situations. When a lift is expected: marked laxity, deep folds and excess skin tend to respond little to collagen stimulation. When one session is expected to settle everything: improvement builds over a series and over months. And when the basics are not kept up afterward — sun protection, stable weight, skin care. No result is guaranteed, and some patients respond more modestly than they would like. That conversation happens beforehand, at the consultation.

Under the chin, the needles reach the skin and the superficial fat just beneath it, which can improve contour when the laxity is mild to moderate. Where there is a real volume of fat, the indication tends to be submental liposuction. Where there is loose skin, or platysmal bands showing on contraction, neither radiofrequency nor fat removal resolves it: a band is a problem of the muscle and is treated by addressing the muscle, and excess skin requires excision — in both cases, a deep plane facelift, which also addresses the neck. Removing fat without treating the band tends to make the band more visible. Around the eyes, the skin is the thinnest on the body: reduced depths are used, the eyelid itself is not treated, and the eye is shielded during application. For fat pads and excess eyelid skin, the indicated procedure is blepharoplasty. This is sorted out area by area at the consultation.

Pregnant patients, those with active skin infections, or certain medical conditions may not be candidates. Suitability is always confirmed at the consultation, after individual evaluation.

The effect is not permanent, since the skin's aging process continues. Maintenance sessions may be recommended periodically, based on individual evaluation.

When a series of sessions does lay down new collagen, that collagen does not vanish overnight: remodeling usually continues for roughly three to six months after the last treatment, and whatever improvement is achieved tends to hold for a period that differs from patient to patient. What carries on is aging itself — the progressive loss of collagen and elastin, bone resorption, shifting fat distribution — along with the effect of weight changes and sun exposure. Without maintenance, skin usually returns gradually to its own natural course rather than falling back abruptly. That is why maintenance is usually discussed at intervals of about a year, adjusted to how each patient has responded.

Care is private — Dr. Lorena does not work through health insurance. In addition, procedures performed for aesthetic purposes fall outside the mandatory coverage of Brazilian health plans by law.

No — the SUS does not cover procedures performed for purely aesthetic purposes. Dr. Lorena is a plastic surgeon appointed by public examination to the Hospital de Clínicas of the Federal University of Uberlândia (HC-UFU) and preceptor of its plastic surgery residency, and she operates on SUS patients there, for reconstructive and functional indications. For those, the route is for the patient to register at the primary care unit (Unidade Básica de Saúde) nearest to her home, be assessed by a doctor there and, if there is an indication, be placed in the regulation queue of her municipality. The surgeon cannot choose who is operated on through the SUS — the order follows the queue and the rules of the system strictly.

We do not publish isolated before-and-after pairs. Resolution 2,336/2023 of the Brazilian Federal Council of Medicine allows results to be demonstrated, but only within a set that also includes unsatisfactory outcomes and the complications described in the literature, across different body types, age ranges and stages of healing, and with no editing of the images (art. 14, II). An isolated pair of photos does not meet those requirements and also implies a guaranteed result, which the same resolution prohibits (art. 11, XII). At the consultation the expected outcome is discussed from your own anatomy — what is reasonable to expect, what is not possible, and what the risks are.

The tip carries coated microneedles that pass through the epidermis to a programmed depth — on the face, treatment usually works from a fraction of a millimeter up to around 4 mm; on the body, the depth required is greater and the tip indicated for each area is decided at the assessment. Once the needles are in position, radiofrequency energy is emitted between them and heats the dermis and the fat just beneath it. That heat contracts existing collagen fibers and triggers a repair process that lays down new collagen over the following weeks. Because the energy is delivered at depth, the skin surface is relatively spared, which reduces — without eliminating — the risk of pigment change. The flip side is that acting on the deep dermis and on fat brings risks of its own: in post-market reports collected by the US health regulator, the events most often described with radiofrequency microneedling were textural change, pigment change and loss of fat in the treated area, with burns reported less often — and the face, neck and abdomen account for most of the reports. Volume loss from fat atrophy is uncommon, but it can be lasting and hard to correct, and it is one reason depth and energy are set area by area at the assessment, according to skin thickness and how much fat lies underneath. Because a radiofrequency current passes through the tissue, patients with a pacemaker, an implantable defibrillator or any other implanted electronic device are not candidates, and any metal implant in the area to be treated has to be disclosed at the consultation.

The CO2 laser is ablative: it removes microcolumns of epidermis and superficial dermis, which tends to act more directly on fine lines, surface texture and photoaging spots. For atrophic acne scarring specifically, the ablative fractional laser tends to deliver more improvement. The trade-off is a longer recovery — crusting and redness that can last weeks — and a higher risk of hyperpigmentation in brown or black skin. The chromophore of the CO2 laser is tissue water, not melanin: what raises the risk is the removal of the epidermis, which triggers an inflammatory response capable of stimulating melanocytes, a response that runs stronger in skin with more melanin. Radiofrequency does not rely on a chromophore in the skin to generate heat and spares the surface more, which usually allows more margin in darker skin phototypes, though the risk of hyperpigmentation is not zero. In return, it does less for the surface. In some cases both approaches are considered at different times rather than one instead of the other — which of them is indicated is decided by assessing the skin.