Welcome to Plastic Surgery Talk with Dr. Stephen Mulholland, brought to you by SpaMedica.
Hello, Dr. Mulholland here in Toronto, Canada. Thanks for joining us on Plastic Surgery Talk, and our weekly podcast series. Today is on a very new technology, a quite revolutionary technology. A non-surgical, non-incisional, tightening procedure called the Morpheus 8. If you find these podcasts entertaining, educational, please subscribe, share, and comment.
So what is the Morpheus 8, or we’ll call it the Morpheus. The Morpheus, or the Morpheus 8, as the company calls, is from a very innovative company called InMode. InMode is the company that makes the body tight, the face tight, the neck tight, the cellulite. Devices that work under the skin without cutting away any tissue to get significant contraction. We can use the body tight applicator to get up to 30% area contraction, however it does require local anesthesia, going under the skin, doing a minimally invasive procedure. So what the company did, is they’ve come out with an application, an applicator that works from outside the skin, penetrates and gets a body tight like tightening effect.
So what is the Morpheus 8? A non-incisional, outside the skin device, that tightens, lifts, and firms loose skin anywhere. So it’s the kind of technology now that’s gonna replace our current standards like Ulthera, and like Profound, and other non-surgical tighteners. They’re just gonna become the non-incisional face lift, body, and skin tightening device, without the need for putting anything under the skin.
How does the Morpheus 8 work? The Morpheus 8 works by releasing 24 little tiny electrodes or probes. They are variable in length so the doctor can set how many millimeters they’re gonna protrude from the applicator. These little needles go down, the little probes, go down through the skin, into the subcutaneous fat. The probe, the needle, the little device, the 24 little pins are coated. So there’s no trauma other than the mechanical penetration of the skin. Now once these little needles are in the fat they release a very strong positive charge. That positive charge coagulates and tightens the fat immediately under the skin.
Within that fat are little septae, called the fibroseptal network that connects the fat and the skin to the underlying tissue. That causes a three-dimensional strong, a three-dimensional contraction, so it causes the deep tightening you see with more invasive applicators, like the body tight with a through the skin approach, using 24 little micro electrodes. The RFM flows up the electrode to the external handpiece where it provides a gentle heating, a non-ablative tightening of the skin, like you might see with Thermage, or the Forma, or Venus Freeze, or Ulthera. So you get the external tightening from the inside-out flow, and you get the internal tightening from the penetrating depth of these little electrodes.
The beautiful thing about it can all be done under a local anesthesia and topical anesthetic, without the need for anything invasive. The results of this new technology are really the best in class tightening you’re gonna see without surgery. One.
So who’s a candidate for this new Morpheus 8? Best candidates for a Morpheus 8 treatment are those patients that have some falling soft tissue. Like a gel, or falling cheek, or a little bit drooping of the tail of the brow. Or laxity and an early turkey neck. Or loose skin above the knee, or loose skin of the upper abdomen, or the upper arm. And they’re not willing to do an incisal procedure, like a face lift, arm lift, thigh lift, but they still want a significant result. Those are the best candidates for the Morpheus 8. Of course you need to be medically well, you need to not be pregnant, you cannot have a pacemaker, either heart or bladder. So there’s certain standard contraindications to radiofrequency energy treatments, but basically, reasonable expectations, some falling tissue, and you want a non-surgical, non-incisal lift, the Morpheus 8 is for you.
So how is the Morpheus 8 performed? Well, we select out the area on the day of your visit of the loose and saggy elements. Say jawline, your neck, your face, arm, above the knee, brow line. Anywhere where there’s loose skin. It’s even good for stretch marks, and some cellulite. And so we mark out the areas where the soft tissue needs to be optimized, it’s marked out with a felt pen, you look in the mirror, confirm all the areas are covered. Then we infiltrate with some local anesthesia, like if you’re going to the dentist, we freeze the area with local anesthesia. Here at SpaMedica, we use nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to make that a pleasant experience. Once it’s frozen, then we can use the Morpheus to start doing the little electrode penetrations and creating that coagulation and tightening.
Most [inaudible 00:05:07] take about an half an hour to treat, so it’s quite fast and efficient. There’s no need for drains, or fancy compression garments after, so you can go right back to your normal activities. And internally, there’s very few risks. The biggest risk, your expectations exceed what the procedure can do. So if you truly want the results of a face lift, the Morpheus can’t replace that. It’ll give you the best possible lift you can get, just less than a face lift without having to undergo a knife, or surgical incision.
Can I combine my Morpheus 8 with other standard procedures? Absolutely. Often, when we see patients, particularly for the Morpheus 8 non-surgical face lift, we’ll talk about the adjunct and simultaneous use of Botox. Of soft tissue fillers to create volume and shape. Of color correction and laser devices like the photofacial. So remember, [inaudible 00:05:55] are growing old, don’t change just ’cause we’re not doing a face lift. You have deflation, descent, and deterioration. And we’re gonna offer you a treatment for each of those D’s. The Morpheus is for the lift, for the descent, the Morpheus gives the lift. It gives the wrinkle reduction, texture improvement, but we still need to do color correction, we still need to add volume in the T-zone, if you’ve had a [inaudible 00:06:15] if you [inaudible 00:06:16] the soft tissue fillers, we still need to correct over-animation of the brow and animated areas of your face.
So we do the following order: We do the Morpheus first, we follow with soft tissue fillers, then we do color correction laser treatments and texturizing laser treatments, and finish with Botox. So the whole treatment for a complete non-surgical facial program, might take one hour. One.
Are there other areas of the face or body you can use the Morpheus on, other than non-surgical face lifting? Absolutely. The Morpheus 8 has quickly become the treatment of choice for mild to moderate cellulite. For loose skin above the knee. For laxity of the inner thigh, the abdomen, the upper abdomen. For stretch marks, post baby stretch marks. Post growth spurt stretch marks, loose skin of the upper arm. All these things can be significantly improved with the Morpheus 8. So it’s not just about a non-surgical face lift, it’s non-surgical, non-incisal body tightening and texurizing softening and smoothening as well.
What are the risks and side effects of the Morpheus 8? Well, you will have some side effects that are not complications. Little swelling, little bruising, little tenderness, for between 7 and 10 days. You can get back to normal activities including exercise right away, that’s not a problem. And there are rare complications such as a thermal injury, a small blister or burn that would heal quite uneventfully like you might get sometimes with laser hair removal. There can be some bruising and discoloration that’s easily camouflageable. And it takes some time for the contraction to occur. So if you have a big event, you’re going away, you want to look great in a bikini, or you’ve got a wedding, you want your face to resolve and improve, give yourself a good six weeks before the event, after Morpheus, to allow remodeling contraction, and the kind of end result you’re looking for.
What kind of recovery time can you expect with the Morpheus 8? The Morpheus 8 generally is a non-incisal, non-surgical lifting procedure of the face and the body. There’s gonna be some bruising and swelling, a little bit of sensitivity, so there’s a short term recovery you need to account for, which is in the nature of five to seven days. After five to seven days you need to wait a full six weeks for remodeling to occur and you start to see the end result. You start to like your results at six weeks, you kind of end up with your sort of finer result at 12 weeks. And then you might drop into basic maintenance. Botox twice a year, soft tissue fillers once a year, some non-invasive heating devices like the Forma, Ulthera, the Venus Freeze, to maintain and protect your Morpheus 8 improvement. One.
What is the embrace? ‘Cause you hear a lot about the embrace online too. The embrace is the power box, it’s what powers the Morpheus, it also powers the [inaudible 00:08:59] and the FaceTite. So the engine for the treatment is the embrace. The little applicator that the embrace powers, that’s the Morpheus. So one’s a handpiece, one’s a power box supply, stands about four feet high, and gives you all the software and energy to make the Morpheus 8 work.
What are the specific and relative contraindications? The relative contraindications to Morpheus 8 treatment are patient expectations. You have to have reasonable expectations. If your expectations are up here, and the outcome’s gonna be there, no matter how good we are with the Morpheus 8, you’re gonna be disappointed. So if you’re thinking real surgical type results, do surgery. If you’re wanting the best non-surgical, non-scalpel based, non-incisal tightening of the areas we mentioned, or cellulite, or stretch mark reduction, Morpheus 8 is your best option. So, expectation management, contraindication would be unrealistic expectations. Then of course contraindications would be medically unwell, a serious medical condition, pacemaker, cardiac or bladder, a pregnancy. There are the absolute contraindications to doing any treatment like the Morpheus 8. The presence of a wound in the area of the treatment, or skin cancer in the area of the treatment would be other strong contraindications to a Morpheus 8 treatment.
What is the cost of a Morpheus 8, non-surgical lift? Well in general, depends on the areas you’re treating. Is it the brow, the brow, the cheek, the under eyes, the neck? Is it the entire abdomen, just the under thighs? So it depends on the size of the zone. In general, a non-surgical, Morpheus 8 treatment, is gonna cost between three and five thousand dollars. Or one-third the price of a standard face lift price in most US and Canadian markets. When you add on Botox, soft tissue fillers, some other treatments there may be some marginal increase over and above that, but generally, very good value for the kind of lift and long term improvement you get.
How to select your Morpheus 8 practice? Well, you should look for a practice that has a physician associated with it. You want to make sure the technician … ’cause there may not be a doctor doing the treatment that’s had a lot of experience. They should be able to show you a photo gallery of their own before and afters, what they’ve been able to achieve. The Morpheus 8 is relatively new, so its innovation is new, no one’s gonna have more than one year experience, but make sure they’ve got a lot of experience under the belt. Make sure you’re not their first patient. Make sure that the clinic itself is good standing on social media sites. Make sure there’s good testimonials patients, make sure that the center hasn’t been sued or have a number of outstanding lawsuits, wanna make sure that the physician medical director hasn’t been reported to the state medical board for unprofessional conduct. You want to do a lot of research, which most of you are gonna do anyway. And when you check off enough of those boxes, that is gonna be your best Morpheus 8 center.
So thank you for joining us again, Dr. Mulholland here in Toronto, Canada with our weekly Plastic Surgery Talk podcast series. Again, if you found this educational, or interesting, by all means please share it on all your social media channels. Subscribe yourself, and comment. Look forward to seeing you in the next podcast.
Welcome to Plastic Surgery Talk with Dr. Stephen Mulholland, brought to you by SpaMedica.