Microcurrent Before and After Photos, How to Read Them
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, Fisioterapeuta, Doctor en Terapia Física
Doctorado en Terapia Física (DPT), Fisioterapeuta Licenciado (PT)
Read bio
El Dr. Andrew Conrad Barile es Doctor en Terapia Física y CEO y Fundador de Xtreem Pulse LLC. Obtuvo su Doctorado en Terapia Física en Daemen College y aporta más de dos décadas de experiencia clínica y empresarial en terapia física pediátrica, terapia craneosacral e innovación en dispositivos médicos. Su profundo conocimiento de la anatomía humana, la fisiología muscular y la tecnología terapéutica ofrece un enfoque invaluable respaldado por la ciencia para la rejuvenecimiento facial y soluciones antienvejecimiento.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Director Médico, Clínica de Medicina Regenerativa y Antienvejecimiento | Médico Certificado por la Junta | Escuela de Medicina de Dartmouth
Read bio
La Dra. Bertica M. Rubio es una médica certificada y Directora Médica de la Clínica de Medicina Regenerativa y Antienvejecimiento en Redlands, California. Obtuvo su licenciatura en Ciencias en la Universidad Loyola Marymount y su título de Doctora en Medicina en la Escuela de Medicina de Dartmouth (Geisel School of Medicine). Completó su residencia en pediatría en el Centro Médico UC Irvine.
Con décadas de experiencia clínica, la Dra. Rubio se especializa en medicina para el manejo de la edad, medicina regenerativa, cicatrización de heridas y terapias con factores de crecimiento. Su práctica integra la ciencia médica basada en evidencia con tratamientos estéticos y regenerativos avanzados, ayudando a los pacientes a alcanzar una salud óptima y vitalidad juvenil.
La Dra. Rubio siente pasión por educar a los pacientes sobre la ciencia detrás del cuidado de la piel, el rejuvenecimiento facial y las tecnologías no invasivas como EMS (Estimulación Eléctrica Muscular) para el tonificado facial. Sus artículos para PureLift LAB combinan un conocimiento médico riguroso con orientación práctica para lograr resultados reales y duraderos.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Otorrinolaringólogo y cirujano de cabeza y cuello certificado | Miembro, Colegio Americano de Cirujanos | Profesor clínico asistente, Escuela de Medicina Mount Sinai
Read bio
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS, es un otorrinolaringólogo certificado por la junta y cirujano de cabeza y cuello en ENT and Allergy Associates en West Nyack, NY. Obtuvo su título de médico en la Facultad de Médicos y Cirujanos de la Universidad de Columbia, completó su residencia en Otorrinolaringología en el Centro Médico de la Universidad de Nueva York y es profesor clínico asistente en la Escuela de Medicina Mount Sinai. Es miembro de la American College of Surgeons y de la American Academy of Otolaryngology.
La perspectiva quirúrgica de cabeza y cuello del Dr. Grinberg ofrece a los lectores de PureLift LAB una visión clínica más amplia, conectando la práctica de EMS en casa con la anatomía médica subyacente con el mismo rigor científico que aplicamos a cada especificación del dispositivo.
Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann
Cátedra de Angiología, Hochschule Médica de Brandeburgo | Director de Clínica, Clínica Universitaria de Angiología, Hospital Universitario de Brandeburgo | Ex Consultor Senior, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlín
Read bio
El Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann es Catedrático de Angiología en la Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane (MHB) y Director Clínico de la Clínica Universitaria de Angiología en el Hospital Universitario de Brandeburgo. Completó su formación médica en la Universidad de Hamburgo, fue becario de la Sociedad Max-Planck en el Instituto Max-Planck de Investigación Cardiaca y Pulmonar, y ocupó cargos de consultor senior en la Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Campus Virchow antes de ser nombrado Catedrático en la MHB en 2016.
El Prof. Buschmann es una de las principales autoridades europeas en arteriogénesis — el crecimiento y remodelación de los vasos sanguíneos impulsados por el flujo — con más de 150 publicaciones revisadas por pares y varias patentes en EE. UU. y la UE sobre dispositivos que estimulan el crecimiento de vasos colaterales mediante terapia controlada de tasa de cizalladura. Su investigación conecta la estimulación mecánica y eléctrica con la adaptación vascular, la microcirculación y la perfusión tisular.
Las contribuciones del Prof. Buschmann aportan a los lectores de PureLift LAB una perspectiva de biología vascular que complementa nuestra autoría clínica, de fisioterapia y de anatomía quirúrgica existente — explicando cómo la estimulación EMS activa no solo los músculos faciales sino también la microcirculación que los abastece, y por qué la administración inteligente es tan importante a nivel del flujo sanguíneo como en la contracción muscular.
Compartir
Most before and after photographs show a real effect that will be gone tomorrow, and the tell is almost always the time interval between the two shots.
This article covers what actually decides the answer, such as:
- why a minutes-apart photograph proves almost nothing
- the four variables that change a face more than any device
- what an honest twelve-week comparison looks like
- how researchers avoid the problem, and what they measure instead
- how to photograph your own progress properly
and many more!
None of this means the photographs are faked; it means they are answering a different question from the one you are asking.
Key Points:
A photograph taken minutes after a session shows fluid movement, which is real and lasts about a day.
Lighting direction, head angle, time of day, salt intake and how recently you slept all change a face more visibly than twelve weeks of device use.
An honest comparison uses the same light, the same angle, the same time of day and an interval of at least eight weeks.
Researchers avoid the problem entirely by measuring tissue rather than photographing it, using ultrasound or imaging.
Photograph yourself on day one, week four, week eight and week twelve, in the same spot at the same hour.
What a minutes-apart photograph actually shows
When a before and after is taken in the same session, the difference you are looking at is fluid. Current plus the movement of the probe shifts fluid that has pooled in the face, circulation increases, and the face looks tighter and more defined within minutes.
That effect is genuine and it is also temporary, redistributing over the following day as you eat, sleep and move about. Photographing it is not dishonest, but presenting it as evidence of what a device does over months is.
When you see a dramatic same-day image, the right question is not whether it is real; it is how the same face looked the next morning.
The four variables that beat any device
Lighting direction is the largest. A light source above and in front of a face flattens shadow under the jaw and sharpens the cheekbone; the same face under flat overhead light looks heavier. Nothing a device does in twelve weeks competes with moving a lamp.
Head angle is second. Tilting the chin down by a few degrees creates a jawline; tilting it up erases one. Compare the ear position between two photographs and you will often find the angle changed.
Time of day is third, because faces are puffiest within an hour or two of waking and settle through the day. A morning before and an evening after is not a comparison.
Fourth is everything ordinary: salt the night before, alcohol, sleep, where you are in a menstrual cycle, and recent weight change. Any one of those moves a face more than a fortnight of sessions.
What an honest comparison looks like
Same light, same angle, same distance, same time of day, no makeup in either shot, and an interval of at least eight weeks.
A neutral expression in both, because a barely-smiling after photograph lifts the mid-face by itself.
Ideally a third photograph in the middle, since two points can be chosen and three start to show a trend.
When a brand publishes photographs that meet those conditions, it is worth paying attention. Very few do, ours included, which is why we have built our evidence case on published figures rather than on our own photographs.
How researchers sidestep the problem
Serious work in this field does not rely on photographs at all, because photographs cannot separate fluid from tissue.
Kavanagh and colleagues in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology used ultrasound to measure cheek muscle thickness directly across 108 women over twelve weeks, reporting an 18.6 percent increase, and ultrasound does not care about your lighting.
Chang and colleagues in 2020 went further on method by running a double-blind sham-controlled design, where neither the participant nor the assessor knew who had received the real treatment, which removes the expectation effect that photographs are wide open to.
Okuda and colleagues used CT imaging to measure change in the orbital muscle, which is the kind of evidence this category very rarely produces.
Reading a photograph in thirty seconds
Check the interval first. If it is not stated, assume it is short.
Check the ears and the hairline for a change in head angle, since those move when the angle does and the jaw does not.
Check the shadow under the jaw and the highlight on the cheekbone for a change in lighting.
Check whether the expression is identical, and whether makeup has appeared.
If all four survive scrutiny and the interval is months rather than minutes, you are looking at something real.
Photographing your own progress
Pick a spot by a window, note the time of day, and use it every time.
Take four angles on day one: straight on, both three-quarter views and one from slightly below the chin, which is the least flattering and therefore the most useful.
Repeat at week four, week eight and week twelve. Do not photograph immediately after a session, or you will record the fluid effect rather than the change you are building.
Expect your own judgement to be unreliable, which is exactly why the photographs are worth taking. The week by week timeline sets out what should be visible at each of those points.
This article sits inside our full map of the category, where we set out all 33 devices we track, what each one carries and what each brand publishes: Nine Technologies on One Dial, What the Rest of the Market Actually Carries.