Endolift® Aftercare
Recovery after Endolift® is usually simple, and it follows a pattern you can plan around. This page walks you through it from the evening of your treatment to your review, for the face and for the body, so you always know what to expect next and how to reach us.
Healing, stage by stage
Most of what you notice in the first weeks is the treated tissue settling, and it eases on a fairly steady course. Find the stage you are at below; where your written aftercare says something different, follow that, because it was written for you.
Stage
After Endolift® Face
After Endolift® Body
Treatment day
After Endolift® Face
As the local anaesthetic wears off over the next few hours, the treated areas feel warm, snug and a little puffy. The pinpoint entry marks are barely visible.
After Endolift® Body
You go home with light dressings over the entry points. Once the numbness fades, the area feels tender and warm, a little like a well-used muscle.
Days 1 to 3
After Endolift® Face
Swelling peaks now, chiefly on the jawline and under the chin, and a light bruise may show. It is a sign the tissue is responding, and it begins to ease after the third day or so.
After Endolift® Body
Swelling and any bruising sit mostly under your clothes. Most people are back at a desk after a day or two, moving a little carefully.
Days 4 to 14
After Endolift® Face
The swelling shrinks a little more each morning, and by the end of the second week most of it has gone. Bruising turns yellow, then clears.
After Endolift® Body
Bruising fades and tenderness eases, usually within the fortnight. The dressings are long off and the entry points have closed.
Weeks 2 to 6
After Endolift® Face
A trace of swelling can linger along the jawline. The treated skin may feel firmer than the rest, slightly uneven under the fingertips, or numb in small patches; all of these soften as healing completes.
After Endolift® Body
The area can feel firm, or less sensitive than usual, for a few weeks. This is part of healing and settles by itself.
Months 1 to 6
After Endolift® Face
New collagen goes on forming, so the jaw and neck keep firming well after the swelling has gone. Your doctor sees you to judge it three to six months on.
After Endolift® Body
The skin continues to tighten as collagen rebuilds. We review the area with you at around three months.
The first two days
Nothing here is complicated. A quiet day or two, a few simple habits, and the tissue does the rest.
For everyone
Take it easy. A walk around the house or the block is fine; save anything demanding for later.
Hold a cold pack wrapped in a clean cloth against the area for ten minutes at a time, a few times a day.
Paracetamol is usually enough for any tenderness. Check with us before taking anything else for pain.
Drink plenty of water, and leave alcohol until the third day.
Keep the entry points clean and dry, and let them close by themselves.
After Endolift® Face
Sleep with your head raised on an extra pillow for the first few nights; the swelling drains more easily that way.
If we fit a supportive chin strap, keep it on for as long as your aftercare sheet says.
Leave make-up off the treated skin for the first day, and wash it with a mild cleanser and your fingertips only.
After Endolift® Body
Leave the dressings in place for the first day, then shower as normal and pat the area dry.
If we have fitted a compression garment, wear it day and night for the first week, then in the daytime for a further week.
Loose, soft clothing over the area makes the first days more comfortable.
Picking up your routine again
Everyday life comes back within days. A handful of things that raise blood flow, heat or pressure in the treated tissue are worth holding back a little longer, so the swelling settles on schedule.
Activity
When it can resume
Work and seeing people
After Endolift® Face, many people take three to seven days away from meetings while the swelling is visible. After Endolift® Body, usually a day or two, since the area is covered.
Walking
From the day after treatment. Gentle movement helps swelling go down.
Running, the gym, cycling
After about two weeks, easing back in over a few sessions.
Sauna, steam room, hot baths
After about two weeks. Heat draws blood to the area and can bring the swelling back for a while.
Sun
Straight away with protection: SPF 50 on treated facial skin, and clothing over treated body skin. Leave sunbathing and tanning until any bruising has gone.
Swimming
Once the entry points have closed, usually after a week.
Massage of the treated area
After about four weeks, and leave other treatments to that area until your doctor has seen how it is healing.
Retinoids and other active skincare
On the face, after about a week, once the skin feels calm again.
Flying
If you are travelling home, we plan the date with you at your consultation.
When to call us
Almost everything people ask us about after Endolift® turns out to be healing going exactly as it should. Asking costs you nothing, and a quick look at a photograph often puts your mind at rest the same day.
Get in touch soon, rather than waiting for your review, if you notice any of these:
swelling, pain or tenderness that is getting worse after the third day instead of easing
redness, heat or weeping around an entry point, or a raised temperature
a lump that grows, or becomes painful
one side swelling far more than the other
after Endolift® Face, any change in how your smile or lower lip moves
Ways to reach the clinic
Clinic telephone, during opening hours:
020 3355 2030Patient line, outside opening hours:
020 3355 2155WhatsApp, for messages and photographs:
07768 641274Email, for anything that can wait a day:
info@art-clinic.co.ukFor anything sudden and serious, such as difficulty breathing, dial 999 straight away; we will pick up the care from there.
Opening hours and how to find usYour reviews
Endolift® does its main work in the months after the appointment, so we stay involved for all of them. Your follow-up is part of your treatment fee.
A check-in
When
Around the first week
Where
By phone, video or photographs
What happens
How the swelling is settling, and any questions since treatment day.
Your result review, Face
When
Around three to six months
Where
At the clinic, or by video if you live abroad
What happens
Your doctor compares the jaw and neck with your photographs from before, area by area.
Your result review, Body
When
Around three months
Where
At the clinic
What happens
The treated area is photographed again and set beside the first images.
Each review ends with a conversation about what comes next, whether that is simply enjoying the result, looking after it, or planning another area.
Aftercare from a distance
Many of our Endolift® patients recover at home, some of them in another country. Distance changes the logistics of aftercare, not its standard, and this is how we keep in touch with you through it.
Photographs at set points.
We ask for a few photographs from the front and each side at agreed stages, for example on day three, at two weeks and at six weeks, taken in daylight against a plain wall.
A named contact.
You leave knowing who to message with a question, and in which hours.
Your review by video.
Where travelling back is impractical, your result review can take place on a video call.
A summary for your own doctor.
On request, a short letter setting out what was treated, and when, for your GP or family doctor at home.
Endolift® Aftercare: your questions answered
i
One side looks more swollen than the other. Is that normal?
i
One side looks more swollen than the other. Is that normal?
Usually, yes. The two sides rarely heal at quite the same speed, and the side you sleep on, or the one treated first, can stay fuller for a few days longer. If the difference is growing rather than shrinking after the first week, send us a photograph.
ii
The treated area feels lumpy under the skin. Should I worry?
ii
The treated area feels lumpy under the skin. Should I worry?
No. Small firm areas are part of how the tissue heals after the fibre has passed through, and they soften over the following weeks. Leave them alone rather than massaging them, and mention them at your check-in.
iii
Part of my skin feels numb. Will the feeling come back?
iii
Part of my skin feels numb. Will the feeling come back?
Yes, in the usual course of healing. Patches of reduced feeling are common for a few weeks while the small nerves in the skin recover.
iv
I can't see a difference yet. Has it worked?
iv
I can't see a difference yet. Has it worked?
Early on, swelling hides the change, and the firming comes from collagen that takes months to form. The difference is usually clearest by the time of your result review, which is why we set it where we do.
v
Can I take my usual medicines and supplements?
v
Can I take my usual medicines and supplements?
Carry on with anything prescribed for you. If in doubt, message us before taking something new.
vi
When can I have my next treatment in the same area?
vi
When can I have my next treatment in the same area?
Other treatments on the treated area wait until your doctor has seen how it has healed, often at your review. Treatments elsewhere on the face or body can often go ahead sooner.
Aftercare begins with the plan
Reading this before your treatment? Everything on this page is part of Endolift® at ART Clinic, and your consultation is where it is fitted to you: the date, the time you can set aside, any travel, and the review. You won't be sold to, and you won't be pushed.