Across cosmetic and dermatology clinics, a new patient profile is becoming increasingly familiar.
Someone who has lost a significant amount of weight on a GLP 1 medication and is thrilled with the overall result but is now booking a consultation for something the scale never showed them... loose, deflated looking skin.
This shift is creating a new clinical conversation around how practitioners can support skin quality, firmness and contour in patients who have lost weight rapidly, often across large areas of the body.
Non invasive ultrasound technology, including Sofwave, is emerging as one potential part of the answer as the focus on skin tightening increasingly extends beyond the face.
The Rise of GLP-1 Medications in Practice
GLP-1 based medicines, including widely recognised brands such as Ozempic and Wegovy, have moved into mainstream weight management at extraordinary speed. In Australia, research published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology found that sales of GLP-1 medicines indicated for type 2 diabetes increased almost tenfold in five years.¹
By May 2024 to April 2025, researchers estimated that around 483,000 to 502,000 Australians were accessing these medicines each month, with much of the growth driven by semaglutide and the rapid uptake of tirzepatide.¹ Nearly 48% were accessed privately, with researchers suggesting that a large proportion of this private use was likely for weight loss.¹
Separate consumer research commissioned by EY found that one in ten Australian adults surveyed reported currently using GLP-1 medicines, while EY modelling projected that adoption could reach 17-30% within a decade.² Whatever the precise trajectory, the direction is unmistakable and clinics are already feeling it.
Patients are presenting with concerns practitioners describe informally as “Ozempic face”, referring to excess skin, reduced facial volume and an overall aged appearance that can accompany rapid or significant weight loss.³ These changes extend beyond the face, with loss of volume and skin laxity across the arms, abdomen and thighs creating an emerging treatment need.
Why Skin Laxity Occurs After Rapid Weight Loss
While significant weight loss can deliver substantial health benefits for people living with obesity and related metabolic disease, the accompanying loss of volume can also reveal changes in skin laxity.
Subcutaneous fat provides underlying volume and support to the skin. When a significant amount of weight is lost, as can occur with GLP-1 therapy, the skin is left adapting to a smaller volume beneath it. How effectively it retracts depends on several factors, including age, genetics and the rate and extent of weight loss.³ Where the loss is rapid or significant, the reduction in underlying volume can leave the skin unable to fully conform to the body’s new contours, resulting in visible laxity, folds and changes in skin texture.³
These changes are often particularly noticeable across the face, jawline and neck, as well as the upper arms, abdomen, thighs and above the knees. In the face, volume loss and laxity can contribute to changes such as cheek drooping, more prominent nasolabial folds and neck laxity, while across the body, excess skin can become both an aesthetic and, in more significant cases, a functional concern.³
With post weight loss laxity spanning both the face and body, practitioners limited to facial energy based devices may only be able to address part of a patient’s overall treatment needs.
A New Aesthetic Patient
GLP-1 driven weight loss appears to be reshaping the aesthetics customer base. McKinsey research found that 63% of GLP-1 patients seeking facial aesthetic treatments were not previously active medical aesthetics consumers, with roughly half of this group having never considered aesthetic treatment before losing weight.⁴
For many patients who are motivated to have their appearance reflect the results of significant weight loss, concerns such as skin laxity, skin quality and facial volume loss are creating a new reason to enter the clinic.⁴
McKinsey’s research suggests that around 56% of GLP-1 patients seeking aesthetic treatment are looking for a more natural result, closer to their pre weight loss baseline.⁴ Research highlights technologies including radiofrequency, ultrasound and fractional lasers as options for stimulating collagen remodelling and improving skin firmness without invasive surgery.³
For clinics, this combination of new to aesthetics patients and growing interest in non-surgical treatment creates an opportunity to address an emerging post weight loss need, particularly where technology can treat laxity across both the face and body without the scarring and prolonged recovery associated with surgery.
Where Sofwave Fits: Supporting the Structural Framework of the Dermis
This is where Sofwave enters the conversation. Using proprietary SUPERB™ (Synchronous Ultrasound Parallel Beam) technology, Sofwave delivers controlled thermal energy to the mid dermis at a depth of approximately 1.5 mm.⁵
The thermal effect triggers a temporary wound healing response, stimulating the production of new collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid.⁵˒⁶ Together, these changes support the structural framework of the dermis, contributing to firmer, more elastic looking skin.⁶
It’s an effect Lisa Sullivan-Smith, RN at The Clinic Bondi, also sees in practice, noting that the device “helps remodel collagen and elastin to improve appearance and provide a tightening effect.”
Integrated SofCool™ technology protects the epidermis while real time skin temperature monitoring is used throughout treatment.⁵ Sessions typically take 30 to 45 minutes and are associated with minimal downtime, a treatment profile particularly relevant to patients seeking non-surgical options following significant weight loss.⁵
Tightening and Lifting: From Face to Body
Importantly, Sofwave’s regulatory indications extend beyond skin tightening alone. The technology is FDA cleared for lifting the eyebrow, submental and neck tissue, with indications also extending to the body, including improving the appearance of skin laxity on the upper arms and the short term appearance of cellulite.⁷
Upper-arm laxity is one area where Sullivan-Smith has seen particularly positive results in practice.
“Two treatments with Sofwave at six-weekly intervals firms and improves this area and clients have been really happy with the results,” she says.
Sofwave’s Lift™ and liftHD™ Body Applicator extend SUPERB™ ultrasound technology to larger treatment areas and emerging clinical evidence supports this body focused application.
In a 2025 prospective study of 60 women, treatment of the thighs and buttocks resulted in improvement in 91% of treated areas, alongside a 69% improvement in cellulite severity scores and a 53% improvement in skin laxity scores.⁷
While the study was not specific to GLP 1 related weight loss, the findings provide clinical support for the technology’s application to body areas where laxity is a concern.
For Sullivan-Smith, this has particular relevance in the context of weight loss, describing Sofwave as the “gold standard for post-weight-loss skin tightening.” She also points to the potential importance of timing, noting that “results at The Clinic Bondi have been extremely positive, particularly when the client shares that they are taking GLP-1 medication at an early stage.”
The Future of Post Weight-Loss Aesthetics
As GLP-1 use continues to rise across Australia, post weight loss aesthetics is becoming a face and body conversation.
With tightening and lifting indications spanning the face and body, Sofwave offers practitioners a non-invasive way to respond to this evolving patient need. For clinics, that means looking beyond a single treatment area and helping patients feel as confident in their skin as they do in the results they have achieved.
Discover Sofwave
Sofwave uses proprietary SUPERB™ technology to support non-invasive skin tightening across the face and body, helping clinics address evolving patient concerns including skin laxity following significant weight loss.
References
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Falster MO, de Oliveira Costa J, Milder TY, Carson J, Shadbolt C, Neuen BL, Arnott C, Wilson A, Jun M, Pratt N, Pearson SA. Trends in publicly subsidized and private access to GLP-1 medicines indicated for type 2 diabetes in Australia, 2020-2025. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2026 Jul 27. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42515931/
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EY. Rising GLP-1 use could reshape how millions of Australians eat, shop and spend. Published July 15, 2026. https://www.ey.com/en_au/newsroom/2026/07/rising-glp-1-use-could-reshape-how-millions-of-australians-eat-shop-and-spend
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Haykal D, Hersant B, Cartier H, Meningaud JP. The Role of GLP-1 Agonists in Esthetic Medicine: Exploring the Impact of Semaglutide on Body Contouring and Skin Health. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2025 Feb;24(2):e16716. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11845967/
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McKinsey & Company. GLP-1s are boosting demand for medical aesthetics. In: McKinsey on Life Sciences: Perspectives and Research for the Industry. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/glp-1s-are-boosting-demand-for-medical-aesthetics#/
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Sofwave Medical Ltd. The Future is SUPERB with Sofwave [health care provider brochure]. Yokneam, Israel: Sofwave Medical Ltd; 2023. Publication MK00009-8US. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:ef58476b-51c6-417d-a54a-fe624a079f28
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Suh DH, Lee SJ, Song KY, Ahn HJ, Shin MK. High-Intensity, Parallel Ultrasound Tightening of Facial Skin: Clinical and Pathologic Results. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2025 Feb;24(2):e16670. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11845918/
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Gold MH, Bernstein EF, Chapas AM, Kilmer SL, Bedich O, Amir R, Goldberg DJ. The Efficacy and Safety of Synchronous Parallel Ultrasound for the Clinical Improvement of Cellulite Using High-Density Handpiece. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2025 Dec;24(12):e70597. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41397931/