Some things people bring to a med spa need a doctor rather than a treatment room. Some things people bring to a med spa are not aesthetic problems and need a doctor rather than a treatment room. See a physician or a dermatologist, not us, if you have a mole or a mark that has changed shape, colour or size, or that bleeds, itches or will not heal; a sore anywhere that has been there more than three weeks; a rash you cannot explain; a patch of skin that is newly numb, hard or ulcerated; sudden hair loss in patches, or hair loss alongside fatigue or weight change; or swelling, heat and spreading redness that could be an infection. And if you have had filler treatment anywhere and the area becomes white or mottled, severely painful, or your vision changes, that is an emergency — telephone us immediately if we treated you, and go to an emergency room if you cannot reach somebody within minutes. We would far rather you rang a doctor and never rang us at all.
The dimpling has a mechanical explanation. Beneath the skin, fibrous bands run from the deeper layers up to the surface, dividing the fat into compartments. In most women those bands run vertically, so as the fat compartments fill they bulge between the tethers and the tethers pull the surface down — producing the familiar puckering. In most men the bands run diagonally in a crosshatch, which distributes the pressure and is the main reason men rarely have it.
That explains why so much of what is sold for cellulite cannot work. Creams do not reach a fibrous band three millimetres down. Massage moves fluid, which reduces the appearance for a few hours. Losing weight reduces the volume in the compartments and helps somewhat, but very slim women have cellulite too, because the tethering is structural. Anything that genuinely improves the appearance for longer has to either release the tethers or thicken and tighten the skin above them.
What we offer is honest about being modest: radiofrequency and vacuum-assisted treatment across a course of four to six sessions, which warms and remodels the tissue, thickens the skin somewhat and improves the surface appearance for several months. It needs maintenance. It will not make the dimpling disappear. We say all of this before anybody books, and a fair number of people decide not to — which is a reasonable response to being told the truth about a treatment.
What does and does not work
Four honest verdicts on things you will have been offered somewhere.
Radiofrequency with vacuum
What we use. Heat plus mechanical manipulation improves circulation, remodels the tissue somewhat and thickens the overlying skin across a course. The improvement is modest, real, and needs maintenance every few months. This is the honest middle of the field.
Creams and supplements
No. Nothing applied to the surface reaches a fibrous band beneath the skin, and there is no oral supplement with credible evidence. Some creams contain ingredients that temporarily tighten the surface for a few hours, which is a cosmetic effect rather than a treatment. We sell neither.
Massage and lymphatic drainage
Pleasant, temporarily helpful because moving fluid out of the tissue reduces the appearance for several hours, and not a treatment. Presented as a cellulite cure it is dishonest; presented as a nice hour that briefly improves how a leg looks, it is fine.
Mechanical release of the bands
The only approach that addresses the actual cause, by cutting or releasing the fibrous tethers. It is a minor surgical procedure, it produces the most durable results, and we do not perform it. If your cellulite genuinely troubles you and you want the treatment with the best evidence, we will tell you that is the category and refer you rather than sell you six of ours.
The course, if you decide to have it
Comfortable, undramatic and honestly described.
The session
Thirty to forty-five minutes per area. A handpiece combining heat and gentle suction is moved over the skin. It feels like a warm, firm massage. There is no downtime, and the area may be pink for an hour.
Four to six sessions
One to two weeks apart. Improvement accumulates gradually and is assessed at the end of the course rather than session by session, because week-to-week variation in fluid makes any single day misleading.
What you should expect
A softening of the surface, skin that feels firmer, and dimpling that is less pronounced in ordinary light. What you should not expect is smooth skin. We describe this as an improvement of one grade rather than as a result, and we would rather under-promise it.
Maintenance
Every three to four months to hold it. Stop, and it returns to baseline across six to twelve months. That is a genuine ongoing cost and it is worth deciding whether you want it before starting rather than after four sessions.
The part most clinics leave out
Three things that are true, and one boundary.
It is not a medical problem
Cellulite causes no symptoms, indicates nothing about your health and requires no treatment. The vast majority of adult women have it, at every size and every level of fitness. An industry exists because of how it looks, not because of what it does.
Weight loss helps, up to a point
Reducing the volume in the fat compartments reduces the bulging between the tethers, so weight loss usually improves the appearance somewhat. It does not remove it, because the tethering is structural, and very slim women have cellulite for exactly that reason.
Strength training helps too
Building the muscle beneath changes the surface contour and is free. It is a genuinely useful recommendation that no clinic makes money from, which is presumably why it is rarely made.
We will decline
If you describe a result you want that this treatment cannot produce, we will say so and not book it. That happens frequently on this treatment, more than on any other in the building, and it is the right outcome.
Cellulite Treatment in western Queens
Cellulite is a structural feature of normal skin, not a disease and not a sign of anything. It can be improved somewhat. It cannot be cured, and this page is more sceptical than most about what is on offer.
Every treatment here starts the same way: a full hour at a table in a room with no treatment couch in it, a proper medical history, your skin looked at in daylight, and then a plain statement of what we think would achieve what you described. You are told what it costs, how many sessions it usually takes, how long it lasts, what the recovery looks like and what can go wrong — on paper, to take home and read somewhere other than a treatment room. If the honest answer is a different treatment, or nothing, or a dermatologist, that is what you get instead, and it costs exactly the same.
Aesthetic treatment is elective medicine, and this page is not medical advice for you. Aesthetic treatment is elective, it is medicine wherever it breaks the skin, and nothing on this website is medical advice for you in particular. We do not diagnose disease. Every treatment here begins with a consultation and a medical history, because your health, your medication, your skin type and what you have had done before all change what is safe and what is sensible. Some people are told no. Being told no is a normal outcome of a consultation here rather than a failure of one, and it costs exactly the same as being told yes.
No before-and-after photographs, and no promised outcome. There are no before-and-after photographs on this website and there never will be. Every set you have seen somewhere else was chosen from a much larger pile, and the second picture is usually taken in different light, at a different angle, at a different time of day, often with makeup and frequently after retouching. Even an entirely honest pair shows you what happened to somebody else's face. What we publish instead is what a treatment typically changes, by roughly how much, how long it lasts, how many sessions it usually takes and how often people are disappointed. We do not guarantee an outcome, we cannot, and anybody who does is either guessing or selling.
The risks, plainly. Every treatment on this site has side effects and some carry real risks. The common ones are minor and short-lived — redness, swelling, tenderness, bruising, a day or two of looking like you have had something done. The uncommon ones matter more: burns, blistering and long-lasting pigment change from light-based treatment, which is a greater risk on deeper skin tones and on recently tanned skin; infection anywhere the skin is broken; and lumps, asymmetry and, very rarely, a blocked blood vessel from injectable filler, which is the one true emergency in this field. We screen for what makes each of these more likely, we tell you your own risk rather than the average one, and we decline to treat when the answer should be no.
What a med spa does not treat. We treat the appearance of healthy skin, hair and body. We do not diagnose or treat disease. If you bring us a mole, a changing mark, an unexplained rash, a sore that will not heal, skin that has become hard or numb, psoriasis, eczema, an autoimmune skin condition, or hair loss that came on suddenly or in patches, what you will get is the name of a doctor rather than a treatment plan. Aesthetic treatment applied on top of an undiagnosed skin problem can mask it, delay the diagnosis and occasionally make it worse. We would rather lose the booking.
Questions
Cellulite Treatment — the questions we are asked most
Can cellulite be cured?
No. Nothing available anywhere removes it permanently, and any clinic saying otherwise is not being straight with you. It is caused by fibrous bands tethering the skin to deeper tissue, which is structural. Treatment improves the appearance modestly and needs maintaining.
Do the creams work?
No. Nothing applied to the surface of skin reaches a fibrous band several millimetres beneath it. Some creams contain ingredients that temporarily tighten or plump the surface for a few hours, which is makeup rather than treatment. We do not sell any and we would suggest you do not buy any.
Why do I have cellulite when I am slim?
Because the cause is structural rather than about how much fat you carry. The fibrous bands beneath the skin run vertically in most women, so the fat compartments bulge between them at any size. Athletes and very slim women have cellulite for the same reason everyone else does.
How much improvement should I expect?
A softening of the appearance — roughly one grade on the scales clinicians use — with skin that feels firmer and dimpling that is less pronounced in ordinary light. Not smooth skin. We describe it this way deliberately, and some people decide it is not worth the money, which is a perfectly reasonable conclusion.
Will it come back if I stop?
Yes, across six to twelve months, back to where you started. Holding a result means a maintenance session every three to four months, indefinitely. That ongoing cost is worth thinking about before the first session rather than after the fourth.
Is there anything that works better?
Mechanical release of the fibrous bands — a minor surgical procedure — has the best evidence for a durable result. We do not perform it. If cellulite genuinely troubles you and you want the treatment with the strongest evidence, that is the category to look at, and we will tell you so rather than sell you a course of ours.
Related
Often seen alongside this
Body, Hair & Wellness
Body Contouring
Controlled cooling destroys fat cells in a defined pocket and the body clears them across three months. It treats a shape, not a weight, and it is the most oversold category in aesthetics.
Read more
Body, Hair & Wellness
Hair Restoration
Your own blood is spun to concentrate the platelets, and the concentrate is injected into the scalp to stimulate thinning follicles. It works on hair that is thinning, not on scalp where hair has gone.
Read more
Body, Hair & Wellness
IV Hydration Therapy
Fluid and, where appropriate, vitamins delivered into a vein across forty minutes. Genuinely useful when somebody is dehydrated. Not a detox, not an immune treatment, and not better than drinking water.
Read moreA written plan and a written price before anything is booked
Book a consultation
Pick a clinician and an hour from the calendar — it shows only the times each of them genuinely has free. A consultation is a full hour at a table with no treatment couch in the room, and it costs $85, or $120 with the medical director. If you go ahead, that comes off your first treatment. If we tell you the answer is nothing, or a dermatologist, it costs exactly the same.