Facial Devices and Injectables, Ask Your Injector First
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, PT, DPT
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) | Licensed Physical Therapist (PT) | CEO and Founder, Xtreem Pulse LLC
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Dr. Andrew Conrad Barile is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the CEO and Founder of Xtreem Pulse LLC, the engineering company behind PureLift. He earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Daemen College and is a licensed physical therapist.
He brings over two decades of clinical and entrepreneurial experience across physical therapy, craniosacral therapy and medical device innovation, built on a working knowledge of human anatomy and muscle physiology.
For PureLift LAB he reviews how current is delivered across all ten levels, from sub-sensory nanocurrent and skin-level microcurrent to motor-level EMS, and how the Infuse pass fits into the same ten-minute routine.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Board-Certified Physician, Dartmouth Medical School | Medical Director, Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic
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Dr. Bertica M. Rubio is a board-certified physician and Medical Director of the Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic in Redlands, California. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and completed her pediatrics residency at UC Irvine Medical Center.
With decades of clinical experience, she specialises in age management medicine, regenerative medicine, wound healing and growth factor therapies, and her practice integrates evidence-based medical science with advanced aesthetic treatment.
For PureLift LAB she reviews articles for medical accuracy across the whole dial, from the gentle nanocurrent and microcurrent settings through to muscle-level EMS and the Infuse pass.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Board-Certified Otolaryngologist | Head and Neck Surgeon | Fellow, American College of Surgeons | Mount Sinai
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Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS is a board-certified otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at ENT and Allergy Associates in West Nyack, New York. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He completed his otolaryngology residency at New York University Medical Center, serves as Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
For PureLift LAB he brings a wider clinical lens, connecting at-home facial stimulation from microcurrent to EMS to the anatomy underneath, with the same rigour we apply to every device specification.
Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann
Chair of Angiology, Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg | Clinic Director, University Clinic for Angiology
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Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann is Chair of Angiology at the Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane and Clinic Director of the University Clinic for Angiology at the Brandenburg University Hospital.
He trained at the University of Hamburg, was a Max Planck Society Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, and held senior consultant posts at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin before his appointment as Chair in 2016.
One of Europe's leading authorities on arteriogenesis, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications and US and EU patents, he reviews for PureLift LAB how the evidence on electrical stimulation is read and where its limits lie.
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A neuromodulator relaxes a muscle and EMS contracts one, which is a real reason to think carefully about combining them.
This article sets out what to check before you start, such as:
- Why the question is a real one
- What is actually known
- Why your injector is the right person to ask
- Treated areas and untreated areas
- If you cannot reach them
and many more!
The person who performed your treatment knows what was injected, where, and how much, and that is who decides.
Key Points:
Ask your injector before your next appointment rather than afterwards, so the answer arrives before the question is urgent.
Injectors routinely give aftercare instructions about pressure and massage; those instructions govern.
The treated area and the untreated areas are separate questions.
Nothing here is medical advice and none of it overrides what your clinician tells you.
If you cannot reach your injector, waiting is the conservative choice and costs you very little.
Why the question is a real one
A neuromodulator works by preventing a muscle from contracting. EMS works by making a muscle contract. Those are opposing actions on the same tissue, which is enough to make anyone pause before doing both in the same week.
Fillers raise a different question again, since they are placed volume that sits in tissue and settles over days, and pressure applied over a fresh placement is something injectors already have views about.
Both questions are legitimate, and neither has a published answer for facial devices specifically.
What is actually known
The facial stimulation research, Kavanagh and colleagues over 12 weeks (10.1111/jocd.12007) and Chang and colleagues in a sham-controlled design (10.3390/ijerph17113783), studied stimulation on its own. None of it involved injectables.
So there is no interval anyone can quote from evidence, and a page that gives you a confident number of weeks has invented it.
What does exist is the aftercare guidance injectors give routinely, which typically covers pressure, massage, heat and exercise for a period after treatment. That guidance is the relevant instruction, and it is written for what you specifically had done.
Why your injector is the right person to ask
They know the product, the dose, the exact placement and the depth, and those four determine how much any of this matters.
They also know how your treatment has behaved previously, which is information no general article has.
Ask before your next appointment rather than after it, since a question asked in the chair is answered calmly and a question asked at eleven at night with a device in your hand is not.
Bring the specifics: which device, what output, which areas you work, and how often. "A facial EMS device at up to 9 mA, ten minutes, four times a week, jaw and cheek" is a question they can answer; "a beauty gadget" is not.
Treated areas and untreated areas
These are separate questions and worth asking separately.
Your injector may be comfortable with you working an untreated area while asking you to leave a treated one alone, or may prefer you pause entirely for a period. Either answer is reasonable and neither is one we can give you.
If you are told to avoid an area, avoid it rather than working around the edge of it.
If you cannot reach them
Waiting is the conservative option, and the cost of waiting a week or two is close to nothing. Kavanagh's protocol ran twelve weeks, so this is not a routine where a fortnight's pause undoes anything.
Do not split the difference by using the device at a lower level as a compromise, since that is a guess dressed as caution.
Resume once you have an answer, at your usual level, rather than doing extra to make up for the pause. Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model whatever else is going on.
What we are not going to tell you
We are not going to publish a number of days, because we do not know it and neither does anyone else selling a facial device.
We are not going to suggest that a device enhances, extends or complements an injectable treatment, since no study supports any of those three.
And we are not going to imply that a device is an alternative to an injectable; a neuromodulator relaxes a specific muscle and a filler replaces volume, and no current does either.
For what a device does reach, see the six layers of the face.
This is general information and not medical advice. Questions about your own treatment belong with the clinician who performed it.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: the timing around botox and fillers, and the full safety picture, including who should not use one.