Eye Ultherapy From the Patient's Chair: Dr. Jong Hoon Lee's Own Session

I'm Dr. Jong Hoon Lee, a doctor at Gangnam HERA in Seoul. I co-authored LIFTINGOLOGY, a textbook on lifting, and I spend most of my working day treating sagging and wrinkles. In this video the roles were reversed. The fine lines around my own eyes had started to bother me, so after clinic hours I lay down on the treatment bed and asked my colleague Dr. Jong Seon Kim to treat me — eye Ultherapy first, then an eye-specific needle RF device.

My short answer: eye Ultherapy is a quick, tolerable way to lift the skin around the eyes, but it works through collagen, so the result builds over months — and for fine crow's feet it works best paired with a treatment that renews the skin surface.

Why did Dr. Jong Hoon Lee book himself in?

Because the lines from under my eyes along my smile line had become hard to ignore — and because I wanted to feel what my patients feel. I had recommended these devices to many patients, but I had hardly ever had Ultherapy myself, and never several eye treatments in one sitting.

When Dr. Kim examined me, the lines ran diagonally from below the eye along the smile line. His plan was 200 shots of eye Ultherapy, then needle RF focused on the crow's feet, finishing with a small wrinkle-relaxing injection for the most dynamic lines.

What depths are used for eye Ultherapy, and why?

Ultherapy has transducers for different depths; 3.0 mm and 4.5 mm are mainly for lifting, while 1.5 mm is the shallow tip used close to the eyes and mouth. On the camera I asked Dr. Kim the same thing many patients ask: isn't 1.5 mm the "eye" depth? His answer is worth repeating.

3.0 mm around the eye first

Dr. Kim started with the 3.0 mm transducer, 50 shots per side, in more than one layer, on the area just beyond the eye. The skin is all connected, so lifting the surrounding frame helps the eye area itself. When the skin has lost elasticity, adding 3.0 mm to an eye treatment is a sound approach rather than relying on the shallow tip alone.

Then the narrow 1.5 mm tip

Next came the 1.5 mm depth. There are two types of 1.5 mm transducer, and he used the narrow one first. Because it is slim, it can get closer to the eye and reach the lower eyelid. This was the part I felt most.

Seeing the layers on screen

Ultherapy has its own ultrasound imaging, so the doctor can see the structures underneath and confirm the layer before each line of shots. That is one of the real advantages of the device. If you want to see how that looks in results, our eye Ultherapy before-and-after guide walks through realistic outcomes.

What does eye Ultherapy actually feel like?

A short sting as each shot goes in, followed by a dull, warm ache. Before my session I had heard patients describe that ache, and only on the bed did I understand exactly what they meant. Skin thickness and personal tolerance make a difference. For me the 3.0 mm lines were very bearable; the narrow tip near the lower eyelid stung more.

Why shouldn't you ice the redness?

Because the redness and slight swelling are signs that the energy went in — and the effect comes from heat. At the end of the session my eye area was a little pink. Dr. Kim's view is clear: you want to finish with some redness and swelling; if nothing has changed at all, the energy was probably not enough. Cooling the area hard to make it calm down works against what the heat is doing. You simply leave it. In my case it was fine by the next day, and washing my face was no problem, because Ultherapy does not puncture the skin.

When will it show? Ultherapy does not lift the moment it finishes. The heat triggers collagen to form, and that becomes visible from about one month, then keeps firming gradually — roughly to the three-month mark, and in some people up to five or six months. For the rarer side effects and how they are handled, see Ultherapy side effects: what is normal and what is not.

What does the eye-specific needle RF add?

It renews the skin itself: fine needles deliver radiofrequency heat at a set depth to smooth fine lines and regenerate the skin around the eye. Dr. Kim explained it as an eye-dedicated version of the needle RF that is well known for pores on the cheeks. The tip is designed for the eye and mouth area, and it uses suction. He usually passes over the area two or three times.

Why suction matters — from the patient's side

This was the most uncomfortable part for me, and I'll be honest about why. I had only put on numbing cream for about 10 minutes, and part of that time had already passed during the Ultherapy. With longer numbing it would have been easily tolerable.

The suction is what makes the device accurate. Eye skin is very thin; if you simply push needles in, the skin moves away. When the skin is drawn up by suction, the needles go in at exactly the intended depth. The trade-off is that in people with very thin or lax skin, the suction can leave small bruises, a bit like cupping marks. The doctor can lower the suction pressure, and numbing the other side while one side is being treated also helps. I barely bruised.

What did I learn by being the patient?

That knowing a treatment from the doctor's side and feeling it from the patient's side are different things. This was my first time having several treatments at once, and almost my first Ultherapy. I now understand exactly what patients mean when they describe the sting, the ache and the anxiety while lying there. I think more doctors should try the treatments they recommend; it makes it easier to explain honestly and to hold a patient's hand through it.

The honest limits

Eye Ultherapy lifts and firms; it does not remove excess eyelid skin, and it does not fill hollows. If the upper lid is heavily hooded, a surgical opinion may be more appropriate. If the under-eye area is sunken, volume — for example eye rejuvenation filler — does more than energy. Redness, swelling, temporary sensitivity and, with suction devices, small bruises are possible, and results vary from person to person.

For many people with early crepiness and crow's feet, though, combining a lifting device with a skin-renewing one is a sensible, low-downtime plan. If you are weighing radiofrequency instead, what eye Thermage can and cannot do covers the other option, and Dr. Kim explains how he combines them in his video on a non-surgical eye lift.