“TL;DR: A high-quality radiofrequency (RF) or ultrasound cavitation treatment for cellulite and skin tightening should last between 15 and 40 minutes per side, per area. Treatment duration depends on the size of the body area, the individual’s physique, tissue structure, and the strength and focus of the equipment used. Short sessions of 10 minutes are ineffective, even with powerful machines, and are considered a waste of time and money. Small areas like knees still require at least 15 minutes each, while larger areas such as thighs and buttocks can take up to 80 minutes in total. Low-power machines may need double or triple the time to achieve similar results. Attempts to reduce treatment time using extremely high intensities pose serious risks, including burns, and often prioritise profit over patient safety. For effective and safe results, a responsible approach involves 6–12 properly delivered sessions over several weeks, with honesty and client care taking precedence over financial gain.”
How long should a radiofrequency / cavitation session last to be effective for cellulite and/or skin tightening?
What is the ideal duration of a cavitation / radiofrequency session?
Radiofrequency/cavitation treatment duration depends on:
Each square centimetre of tissue needs a minimum of 15 minutes of strong treatment for good results
10 minutes per area simply won’t cut it
Trying to reduce treatment time with extremely high intensity RF or ultrasound
Radiofrequency / cavitation treatment duration: frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What is cavitation treatment
Does cavitation work?
How long to do cavitation on stomach?
How often can you do cavitation at home
Does cavitation work on belly fat?
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What is the ideal duration of a cavitation / radiofrequency session?
Deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency is the strongest SAFE treatment for cellulite reduction and skin tightening, if provided by an experienced, well-trained and knowledgable therapist (unfortunately most RF treatment operators only receive one day's training - and zero training in the science of cellulite).
Ultrasound cavitation treatment is a close second for cellulite (but not that effective for skin tightening).
However, even with the best treatment in the world, a protracted amount of time is needed to provide sufficient stimulation and effect change in the tissues.
So treatment duration for a high quality, strong RF/cavitation treatment is 15-40 minutes per side, per area.
(With cheap, low-power radiofrequency/ultrasound cavitation machines, treatment time may have to be double, triple or be even longer.)
Cavitation / radiofrequency treatment duration depends on:
The area itself: For example, treatment of the stomach for 15-40 minutes is enough, while treatment of the back of thighs or front of thighs may take a total of 30-80 minutes for both legs (2x15 minutes up to 2x40 minutes in total). With low power equipment we may have to spend hours on large areas, which does not make sense.
Body size: Obviously very petite people need shorter treatment for a specific area (a minimum of 15 minutes per side, per area), while more taller/curvy people may need longer treatment (up to 40 minutes per side, per area). Again, with less strong equipment treatment time may have to last hours, otherwise it will be ineffective.
How strong and/or targeted the treatment is: Even slightly lower power equipment, or a treatment that focuses too deeply or too superficially, will necessitate much more time to provide the same targeted tissue heating, and thereby the same results, on the dermis/hypodermis. With less focused and powerful equipment we are talking about either hours per area (which does not make sense) or just ineffective treatment.
Individual variability: Depending on the tissue structure of each individual, treatment duration and intensity has to be adjusted, again from 15 to 40 minutes per side, per area.
Each square centimetre of tissue needs a minimum of 15 minutes of strong RF / cavitation treatment for good results
I mentioned above that treatment should be 15-40 minutes per side, per area with the best equipment possible.
This is because for radiofrequency and ultrasound to work well, those treatments need to saturate every inch of skin for a minimum of about 15-40 minutes.
This means that even the smallest area, e.g. the top of the knees, which can be heated very quickly, will still need to be treated for 15 minutes - each.
A weak cavitation/radiofrequency machine will just about manage the knees in 15-40 minutes but it may not be able to manage larger areas, such as the back of the thighs and buttocks, even in 80 minutes.
10 minutes of ultrasound or radiofrequency per area simply won’t cut it
15 minutes per area is the absolute minimum treatment required for some good results, with a good RF/cavitation machine and an optimised protocol.
You cannot treat an area for 10 minutes because you put the machine on max or because the area is small. Treatment time is as essential as treatment intensity and 15+ minutes must be spent even on small areas.
Sometimes clients ask whether each area can be treated for ten minutes, so that the entire thighs and buttocks (back and front) are covered in 40 minutes.
Even worse, from time to time clients report that at other clinics they have the entire body (back and front of thighs, butt, arms, stomach, waist) treated in 90 minutes, which if it wasn’t a total rip-off it would be a practical joke.
And at those places they are usually told that “4 sessions is all you need” (we honestly recommend 6-12 sessions per area, even with the best equipment and protocols in the world). Unsurprisingly, these clients report no results with 4x 10 minutes per side per area.
My reply to these comments is that I wished this could be done, but it doesn’t work that way. Treating each area for just 10 minutes, even with the best equipment in the world, will be a waste of money.
Lying to clients that you can treat their entire body in 90 minutes just to get their business, is unethical, to say the least.
Money shouldn’t be the first priority of ANY business. Providing an excellent treatment, honest consultation and caring customer service should be the first priorities, and then money would automatically come afterwards, as a result of the honesty, high quality treatment and customer care.
Trying to reduce treatment time with extremely high intensity radiofrequency or ultrasonic cavitation
This approach of profit maximisation, i.e. treating an area at extremely high intensities, in order to minimise treatment time, will just lead to a burn and not much else.
Still some doctors/aesthetic therapists do this with the aid of anaesthetic creams or injections, as it sounds very impressive, “medical” and “instant”.
But most importantly, short, extreme-intensity, painful treatments allow these practitioners to charge 5-10x more money per hour - regardless of the dangers, side effects and ineffectiveness.
This is a huge difference in profitability, unfortunately at the expense of safety and effectiveness.
The body needs both time and regular, repeated treatment to change.
Biology doesn’t care if someone is busy or rich or if the owner of clinic wants to get rich quick: the human body has limits in general. Plus each individual body has its own limits. Surpassing them, for an (imagined) quick result or for a quick buck, is very unwise.
Having a course of 6-12 strong RF or cavitation treatments for 15-40 minutes per side per area, offered skilfully and responsibly over a period of several weeks is what is best for both client and clinic.
Radiofrequency / cavitation treatment duration: frequently asked questions (FAQs)
We hope all is now clear regarding how long should a radiofrequency or cavitation treatment be.
Below are some straight, quick answers to the most common questions related to this subject, to clarify finer points and add more detail.
What is cavitation treatment
Cavitation treatment refers to high frequency sound (ultrasound of 30-80kHz frequency) which aims to stimulate lipolysis (fat release), adipocyte apoptosis (early fat cell death) and fibrosis reduction.
Cavitation is great for cellulite reduction and some small deeper fat reduction but not that efficient for more substantial deeper fat reduction (nothing really is, except from liposuction).
Does cavitation work?
If cavitation is deep acting, of high enough power and when provided by a well-trained, experienced and knowledgable therapist, yes cavitation is very effective.
Low-power, superficially-acting or poorly applied cavitation is ineffective or even unsafe.
How long to do cavitation on stomach?
With a high end machine 15-30 minutes are more than enough. With lower power machines much longer times may be needed. Home use machines don’t work.
How often can you do cavitation at home
Don’t bother. Home use machines are of very low power to protect consumers from injuring themselves. Go to a qualified person with a good machine and have a few sessions there.
Does cavitation work on belly fat?
As mentioned above, cavitation works well on cellulite and a little bit on deeper fat but not for substantial deeper fat volumes.
Have a treatment in London with the cellulite experts
At LipoTherapeia we have specialised 100% in skin tightening and cellulite reduction for more than two decades and 20,000+ sessions.
This is all we study and practise every day and have researched and tried hands-on all the important skin tightening equipment and their manufacturers.
As strong, deep acting radiofrequency and deep-acting, high-power ultrasound cavitation are the technologies of choice for skin tightening and cellulite reduction, we have invested in the best RF/ultrasound technologies in the world.
(Of course, we keep looking for new technologies every day and if/when a better technology materialises we will be the first to provide it. However, we will never follow the latest ineffective gimmick, just because it’s good marketing to offer the latest hyped up - yet ineffective and/or unsafe treatment.)
Furthermore, over the last two decades we have developed advanced RF and cavitation treatment protocols in order to make the most of our technologies, for maximum results, naturally and safely.
And for even better, faster results, we now combine our RF/ultrasound treatments with high-power red/infrared light LED treatment.
Our radiofrequency/ultrasound/LED treatments are comfortable, pain-free, downtime-free, injection-free, 99.5%+ safe and always non-invasive.
(No unsafe and ineffective RF microneedling or HIFU and no safe but ineffective acoustic wave therapy, superficial RF (bipolar/tripolar/multipolar etc), low power RF/cavitation, electrical muscle stimulation, lymphatic massage, cupping, dry brushing and no ridiculous bum bum creams.)
Our focus is on honest, realistic, science-based treatment, combined with caring, professional service, with a smile.
We will be pleased to see you, assess your cellulite, skin laxity or fibrosis, listen to your story, discuss your case and offer you the best possible treatment.
The Cellulite School™: Get advanced training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening
Why train with The Cellulite School™?
We all know that training in cellulite reduction and skin tightening is as basic as it gets. It is typically a 4-6 hour training, involving only basic instruction from the manufacturer on how operators can use the machine; lots of myths, erroneous information and misconceptions; and some basic health and safety on how to use the machine.
There is no proper, real training in the science or cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency, ultrasound and all related technologies is non-existent - worldwide.
Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, LED phototherapy, cellulite and skin tightening?
Get proper training based on 25-year theory and practical application of cellulite reduction and valuable insights from 24,000+ sessions and 4,200+ clients.
Attend a half-day, 1-day, 2-day or 3-day one-to-one masterclass and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible.
Get properly trained in the science of cellulite, skin tightening, radiofrequency, ultrasound, phototherapy and all related technologies, at LipoTherapeia.
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