How much is Thermage in Korea?
At SKINLIFT SEOUL (Dr. Designer Clinic, Yeongdeungpo, Seoul), Thermage FLX comes in 300, 600 and 900 shots for the face and 225 and 450 shots for the eye area. Listed prices exclude VAT, so 10% is added when you pay. The “VAT included” column in the table below is the total you actually pay. Every amount includes numbing cream (topical anesthesia). Payment is in ₩.
| Area | Shots | Listed price (excl. VAT) | VAT included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face | 300 shots | ₩1,490,000 | ₩1,639,000 |
| Face | 600 shots | ₩2,100,000 | ₩2,310,000 |
| Face | 900 shots | ₩3,050,000 | ₩3,355,000 |
| Eye area | 225 shots | ₩1,100,000 | ₩1,210,000 |
| Eye area | 450 shots | ₩1,800,000 | ₩1,980,000 |
There is a reason the price of Thermage follows the shot count. A Thermage tip is made to fire only a set number of shots, and once those shots are used it is single-use and cannot be used again. The eye-area 450-shot tip is also registered as a single-use 450-shot tip. So the shot count is the size of the tip opened that day, and the price is set in that unit.
What Thermage is and how we do it is covered in About Thermage.
How many shots of Thermage are right for me?
300 shots of Thermage are fine when one specific area bothers you, such as deep cheeks or nasolabial folds, and you want to focus only on that. For treating the whole face, I recommend 600 shots or more. If you are treating the whole face, also have areas to focus on and want a bigger result, you can go up to 900 shots.
It is possible to cover the whole face with 300 shots. But I don’t recommend it. If the whole face is your concern, plan on 600 shots or more.
The eye area has its own 225-shot and 450-shot options, separate from the face. Eye-area 450 shots don’t overlap with the full face, so doing both on the same day is not much of a strain. If the skin is very thin, though, we sometimes split them depending on the situation.
Even with the same 600 shots, the plan differs from face to face. I first diagnose what is causing the sagging or loss of firmness, and then adjust the energy to the skin thickness of each area. I wrote about this difference separately in Do Thermage results depend on the doctor?.
Who is Thermage right for, and from what age?
Thermage suits best someone whose face still has some firmness and whose contour is only starting to sag. If the sagging has already come down far enough to form an angle, tightening the dermis alone is hard to reverse, so we also look at working on other layers. You can follow that choice in Ultherapy vs. Thermage. There is no official age threshold, so we decide by looking at the face, not the age, and if Thermage does not suit the face, some people may feel it had no effect (Thermage effects and results).
How do I check that the Thermage I get in Korea is genuine?
You can check that you are getting genuine Thermage FLX in Korea by the Solta Medical Korea authentication sticker on the tip box and by whether a new tip is opened in front of you. From May 2024, Solta Medical Korea changed the sticker on the outside of the tip box to a silver hologram sticker that you can verify directly with a QR code. The authentication number also went from 6 letters and digits to 12, and the old 6-character numbers still verify the same way.
We always show you the tip being opened before treatment. The tip is single-use and cannot be used again once its set shot count is used, so seeing a new tip opened also confirms the number of shots you get that day. Our clinic is an officially certified Thermage clinic.
What some overseas readers call “Korean Thermage” usually means a Korean-made monopolar radiofrequency (RF) device; we use Solta Medical’s Thermage FLX. The device itself is explained in Thermage overview.
Thermage prices in Korea vs. at home: is it worth the trip?
To compare Thermage prices in Korea and at home, put the totals side by side for the same shot count, with tax included. When you get a quote from a clinic at home, ask for the shot count and whether tax is included, and set that amount next to the VAT-included total at SKINLIFT SEOUL (Dr. Designer Clinic, Yeongdeungpo, Seoul). Ours is ₩2,310,000 for 600 shots and ₩3,355,000 for 900 shots. Add your round-trip airfare and accommodation for your own schedule, and the real difference becomes clear. After Thermage, you can fly home the same day or the next day.
Clinics at home also run promotions and can be cheaper at times. But for a high-cost treatment like Thermage 900 shots, or when you combine several treatments, having it done in Korea can work out better. An example of actually calculating the total is in VAT refund on medical treatment in Korea.
What cost conditions should I check outside the Thermage price list?
Outside the listed Thermage price, there are two conditions to check: the anesthesia method and laughing gas sedation. Our Thermage prices include numbing cream (topical anesthesia), and we do not use injected local anesthesia for Thermage. So no extra charge is added for anesthesia.
If you worry about pain and want stronger sedation, you can add laughing gas sedation, where you breathe in oxygen and nitrous oxide, and this is separate from the listed price. Thermage pain is greatest on areas close to the bone, such as the cheekbones, the back of the jaw and the jaw angle, and we spread the energy on those areas so you don’t have to force yourself to endure it. I wrote about pain in detail in Thermage pain.