Why do you recommend Ultherapy and Thermage for a first treatment in Korea?
There are two reasons I recommend Ultherapy and Thermage to people having a treatment in Korea for the first time. One is that they are easy on you. You can go straight back to daily life without setting aside recovery time, so they fit well into a travel schedule. The other is satisfaction. Ultherapy and Thermage often improve firmness, skin texture and overall skin condition together, so satisfaction is high. How much it improves does differ from person to person, though, and studies have not confirmed improvement in everyone.
Ultherapy uses focused ultrasound and works better on sagging toward the subcutaneous fat layer, while Thermage uses radiofrequency to heat the dermis and is geared toward tightening the skin surface. For a first time, pick whichever of the two fits your concern, or have both together if both concerns are clear. I don’t think there is any need to have too many treatments at once from the start.
Will Ultherapy or Thermage show if I have it while traveling?
Ultherapy and Thermage don’t show much even if you have them while traveling. Both take about 60 to 90 minutes, including time for numbing cream, and you can go back to daily life right afterward. There can be some swelling right after the treatment, but neither is a treatment where you have to clear your schedule and stay out of sight.
The effect does not all appear on the day, though. With both treatments, collagen takes two to three months to grow back, so the change starts to show properly around then and settles in at about 6 months. Think of them as treatments that improve gradually after you return home. During this time, protect your skin from the sun well. It is the easiest way to protect the new collagen as it grows.
As for pain, Ultherapy feels closer to a dull ache and Thermage closer to heat. Thermage only works when the dermis is heated enough, so a certain amount of stinging heat is normal. We use only numbing cream for Thermage and do not use injected anesthesia. With Ultherapy, if you are worried about pain, you can choose laughing gas sedation in addition to numbing cream.
Who are Ultherapy and Thermage each right for?
Whether Ultherapy or Thermage suits you is decided by the concern in your face, not by your age. If there is a lot of fat in the jowls or a double chin, or the flesh above the nasolabial folds has sagged and the contour has dropped, we look at Ultherapy first. If the contour has not dropped much but pores, fine lines, skin texture or lost firmness are the concern, we look at Thermage first. Thermage also works on sagging, but if you choose only one of the two, it is a matter of priority: for sagging, I would choose Ultherapy.
There have been cases where someone came in asking for Thermage because they wanted a lift, but was actually the type whose jowls and nasolabial folds were drooping, and I recommended Ultherapy. So at first, rather than “should I have Thermage or not,” it is more important to check whether your concern is one that Thermage solves.
Some faces need a different treatment before Ultherapy or Thermage. If the whole face is full because there is a lot of fat, we first consider ONDA microwave, which heats the fat layer. If the cheeks or nasolabial folds are hollow because volume has been lost, what is needed is not lifting but restoring volume, and no amount of Ultherapy will fill volume that is gone. For nasolabial folds, if the fold smooths out when you pull the flesh above it upward with your hand, it leans toward sagging; if it stays hollow, it leans toward volume. In practice the two often come together, so it is hard to judge on your own, and it can be judged more accurately in person.
Should I have both Ultherapy and Thermage, or just one?
For a first time, one treatment that fits your one main concern is often enough. There is only a reason to have both treatments together when a contour that has dropped downward and fine lines, pores or lost firmness on the skin surface are both clear. There is no need to add one just because they can be done on the same day.
If you decide to have both, whether to have them on the same day and, if separately, how long the interval should be are covered in “How are Ultherapy and Thermage different, and which should come first?”.
Is it worth coming to Korea for Ultherapy or Thermage, compared with having it done at home?
Whether Ultherapy or Thermage is worth having in Korea comes down to how the same treatment is done and the price you actually pay. With Ultherapy, even at the same number of lines, the effect differs depending on whether they are placed for the cause of the sagging while checking the skin thickness and response in each area of the face, or whether the device is run quickly and evenly over the face and that’s it. Thermage, too, is a treatment some people say didn’t work, and satisfaction differs depending on whether the right technique is used. With us, the consultation, the treatment plan and the treatment itself are all done by the same doctor.
Prices at our clinic are as follows. We do not charge foreigners a different price; it is the same price as Korean patients pay, and since we do not go through a brokering agency, no middleman fee is added. The program in Korea that refunded VAT on cosmetic treatment fees for foreigners ended at the end of 2025, so you should not come expecting this refund now.
| Treatment | Option | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Ultherapy | 300 lines · usually jawline and double chin | ₩900,000 |
| Ultherapy | 600 lines · usually full face | ₩1,590,000 |
| Thermage FLX | Full face 300 shots | ₩1,490,000 |
| Thermage FLX | Full face 600 shots | ₩2,100,000 |
Numbing cream is included in all prices. There are more options, from Ultherapy single area 100 lines at ₩390,000 up to Thermage full face 900 shots at ₩3,050,000, and there is also a separate Ultherapy PRIME line that includes hydration care.
What should I ask at my first Ultherapy or Thermage consultation?
At your first consultation, ask first of all whether your concern is one that this treatment solves. Sagging is often a mix of fat that has slid down, connective tissue (SMAS) that has loosened and volume that has been lost, so sorting out what the problem is comes before choosing a treatment.
Next comes the area and the number of lines or shots. 300 Ultherapy lines usually cover only the lower face, such as the jawline and double chin, while the full face is usually 600 lines or more. With Thermage, the full face is set at 300, 600 or 900 shots, and the eye area is counted separately. The same 600 means a different area for Ultherapy and for Thermage, so ask as well which parts of your face get how much. With Thermage, we always open the tip in front of you.
Finally, it helps to know when the effect is judged. Whether it has not worked is judged after about 6 months. Even then, rather than concluding “it didn’t work,” sagging has several causes, so a cause that has not yet been treated may remain, and in many cases another treatment is added to make up for it. Side effects such as Thermage burns are very rare and do not usually happen with a standard treatment.