Skin Quality Replaces Wrinkle-Chasing as the New Anti-Aging Standard

Monthly new patients at Artemis partner practices jumped from about 100 to about 3,000 within a year of the company launching consumer advertising, CEO Simon Mansell said at NewBeauty's first State of Aesthetics Roundtable in New York. The number anchored a broader shift the assembled physicians kept returning to: skin health, not individual wrinkles, is now the organizing principle of anti-aging medicine.

"We can't talk longevity until we restore healthy, radiant skin quality," said Jennifer Pearlman, MD, a Toronto-based physician focused on women's health and menopause medicine, who attended as a guest of Artemis. Pearlman also discussed the role of hormonal health and regenerative approaches in aging.

From Vanity to Longevity

The phrase "from vanity to longevity" came up more than once during the evening. New York dermatologist Marina Peredo, MD echoed it directly.

"The walls are coming down," said the roundtable's moderator, Chicago facial plastic surgeon Steve Dayan, MD. "Aesthetic medicine is no longer just aesthetic medicine; it's combining with longevity medicines."

San Diego dermatologist Tess Mauricio, MD, also an Artemis guest, said dermatologists now read the skin as a diagnostic window. "We're looking at the skin not just as an endpoint of what is happening in the body, but actually a sign of what is happening biologically," she said. That framing is driving interest in regenerative treatments, which aim to help skin repair and rebuild rather than cover up what has changed.

What does deep-dermal technology change?

Pearlman said the newest generation of energy-based treatments is "less about surface refinement" and more about technology that reaches deep into the tissue "to restore skin quality, like Neogen." Neogen, from Artemis, uses pure nitrogen plasma to deliver controlled heat into the deeper layers of the skin while preserving the surface, according to the company. It is FDA-cleared for concerns including wrinkles and acne scars and can treat the full face, including the eyelids. Results build over several months.

Prevention Is the New Playbook

Timing is the second big shift. Austin, TX plastic surgeon Johnny Franco, MD noted that patients embraced preventive toxin years ago. "But now we've even seen preventative energy devices," he said. "I've seen people being more proactive with their energy devices and not waiting."

The instinct tracks biology. Collagen loss accelerates with age and especially around menopause. Pearlman called women's health one of the biggest stories in medicine right now: "Female-centric medicine is having not a moment but a paradigm shift." Preventive skin tightening cannot stop the clock, but starting before laxity sets in gives skin a stronger foundation to work from.

Building, Not Subtracting

The same philosophy is reshaping the body. Asked whether his practice sees more demand for body skin tightening, Franco said: "Definitely more skin tightening." Across body procedures, patients want a fit look that suits "their active lifestyle" rather than dramatic change.

Vero Beach, FL plastic surgeon Alan Durkin, MD explained why energy-based treatments appeal to those patients. Many work by stimulating collagen, which makes them "more additive" than procedures that remove tissue. Starting noninvasive care early is also how doctors build lasting relationships, he said: "Starting that early on and maintaining that, that's part of how we earn trust before we convert to surgery."

Artemis's T-Shape 2 targets that body-tightening demand. The device combines multipolar radio frequency (energy that heats tissue through multiple electrodes), low-level laser, vacuum and mechanical massage in one noninvasive session to address laxity, texture and contour, with no downtime, according to the company. Mauricio called it "amazing." Mansell added: "The T-Shape 2 also just is an amazing device, gets amazing results."

The Combination Approach

Few physicians at the table rely on a single tool. Mauricio builds plans that layer several at once. "We definitely have seen patients where they've been doing regenerative combination therapies, multiple types of energies," she said. For the face, her Time Machine protocol pairs an energy treatment such as CO2 laser or RF microneedling with platelet-rich plasma and sometimes nanofat or exosomes (regenerative cells or cell-signaling particles derived from fat tissue).

What to Ask Before You Start

Patients pursuing skin quality should state that goal up front, according to the roundtable guidance. Ask what drives the visible changes — age, hormones, sun or weight shifts — and whether combining energy-based treatment with regenerative add-ons makes sense. Ask how many sessions are needed and when results will show, since collagen takes time to build.

Credentials matter, too. "Discovery doesn't equal trust," Mauricio said, noting patients increasingly seek experts with "real credentials," "real experience" and "real great technology to create incredible results."

As Beverly Hills, CA plastic surgeon Charles Galanis, MD put it, the goal itself has changed. People "are realizing that they're not coming here to look better; they want to feel better."