As products like Botox and Restylane rise in popularity, the emergence of new treatments for further skin concerns is a logical next step. After all, if cosmetic injectables can reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, what else can they do?
In Oklahoma City, OK, the Revive Clinic offers the latest advancements to keep your skin looking and feeling its best. One of our newest services is QWO, a minimally invasive cellulite reduction injection that improves your skin’s overall appearance.
QWO is the first injectable approved by the FDA for cellulite reduction. Cellulite plagues millions of women of all shapes and sizes by making skin look lumpy and dimpled, especially in the hips, thighs, buttocks, and stomach areas. QWO serves as the first significant breakthrough for treating cellulite in years.
What Is Cellulite?
Cellulite refers to the collections of fat that push against the thin casing of connective tissue beneath your skin. As cellulite presses against the skin, it makes the skin’s surface look lumpy or puckered.
This condition affects both men and women, but women experience cellulite much more frequently than men. Between 80% and 90% of post-pubescent women have cellulite, but less than 10% of men.
What Causes Cellulite?
Cellulite forms by the irregular tightening of fibrous bands (or fibrous septae) connecting your skin to the underlying muscle. The tightening pulls the skin down and pushes fat up, resulting in a puckered or dimpled appearance to the skin.
Factors like genetics, sex, age, and fat percentage determine the visibility and amount of cellulite. Cellulite may also become more evident over time, as age causes the skin to lose elasticity.
While weight gain may make cellulite appear to be more prominent, many very lean people also have cellulite.
How Can You Tell If You Have Cellulite?
With up to 90% of adult women suffering from cellulite, the chances are that this is the cause of your dimpling skin. However, skin laxity may also be mistaken for cellulite. Over time, skin grows thinner, and elastin breaks down, causing the skin to sag. Sometimes sagging skin is mistaken for cellulite.
Thickening fibrous septae, not sagging skin, causes cellulite dimples. To determine whether your dimpling skin is cellulite, lift the skin above the indentation. If the dimple goes away, you may have skin laxity, not a true cellulite dimple. A consultation with Revive Clinic experts can determine whether your dimpling is treatable with QWO.
What Are the Most Common Cellulite Treatments?
Cellulite treatments of the past only offered very temporary solutions and worked best in combination with diet and exercise. These include:
- Deep massage to swell the skin
- Acoustic wave therapy
- Laser treatment to thicken skin
- Liposuction to remove fat
- Creams and lotions
- Spa treatments
- Radiofrequency, infrared light, or radial pulses to heat skin
Some of these options cause discomfort or are not as effective as QWO. This makes the emergence of QWO even more exciting.
What Is QWO?
QWO is a prescription medication for treating moderate to severe cellulite in the buttocks of adult women. This medication works by using collagenase clostridium histolyticum (CCH). CCH is an enzyme that experts believe targets cellulite’s structural causes under the skin.
There are three ways that QWO may work: releasing fibrous bands, redistributing fat cells, and stimulating new collagen growth. As the fibrous bands dissolve, there is nothing to cause dimpling.
QWO works differently from many more invasive procedures because the bands can reconnect over time, causing a recurrence of cellulite. Since QWO dissolves the bands, reconnection isn’t a concern.
How Is QWO Administered?
Before your QWO treatments, one of the experts at Revive Clinic will meet with you to discuss your areas of concern, treatment plan, and expectations for your procedure and recovery.
Since QWO treatments are non-invasive and last only a few minutes, you can easily schedule them during your lunch hour or in between appointments.
We’ll inject QWO directly into cellulite dimples on the buttocks during the procedure. A single treatment is 12 injections, while two treatments may consist of up to 24 injections. After your injections, you should rest on your stomach for about five minutes before leaving.
Is There Downtime After QWO Treatments?
You can resume your everyday activities after your QWO treatments. We recommend you return to exercise as soon as the very next day. The needles used in QWO injections are tiny, and no anesthesia is necessary during the procedure.
How Many Cellulite Treatments Will You Need?
If we determine that QWO is your best treatment option for cellulite reduction, we will work with you to decide on a treatment plan that includes the total number of treatments.
Each QWO appointment may include up to two treatment areas or 24 injections. We schedule each visit around 21 days apart, and most patients have three treatment visits in total.
When Can You Expect to See Results?
Although individual results vary, most patients see noticeable results 28 days after their third treatment. However, it’s common for patients to see an improvement in the appearance of cellulite even sooner, with some patients seeing results after only one treatment.
Can You Maximize My Results?
Patients who complete QWO treatments want to get the most out of their results. Some ways to ensure your cellulite reduction results are as dramatic as possible include:
- A consistent exercise routine
- Staying hydrated
- A healthy diet that limits processed foods
While weight doesn’t cause cellulite, it can worsen its appearance, so implementing a healthy lifestyle optimizes results.
Who Is a Candidate for QWO?
Any adult woman with cellulite in the buttocks area may be a good candidate for QWO treatments, including women with all skin types and shades. However, women whose cellulite is considered moderate or severe may be better candidates for QWO.
We can best determine your eligibility when you meet with our experts at Revive Clinic in Oklahoma City, OK. Call or schedule an appointment online today to learn more about QWO and the results you can expect from these treatments.