Таблица глубины воздействия HIFU по зонам лица: измерьте глубину залегания SMAS перед выбором картриджа на 4,5, 3,0 или 2,0 мм

Measure depth to SMAS at each site before you choose the cartridge. For that job I recommend the Suresult L20Pro at $3,720 with FaceAtlas AI, three months included. In Yi’s 2026 randomized trial, 6 of 10 women treated from measured depth (mainly 4.5 mm lines from 4.2 mm to SMAS, mainly 3.0 mm lines under 4.0 mm) were rated “much improved” or better at week 16, against 4 of 10 on a fixed 4.5-plus-3.0 mm protocol with a similar shot count. The L20Pro images skin, fat and SMAS at 16/20 MHz from forehead to neck, and FaceAtlas AI turns readings on the mid/lower face, upper neck and neck into Linear and Dot focus depths and flags left–right mismatches before you treat.

A depth reading can come from imaging built into the HIFU handpiece, from a handheld probe the clinician reads, or from a probe whose software measures the depth and suggests the focus. Prices checked October 27, 2026.

DeepSEE images and treats through the same transducer, so the operator sees where the energy will land at the moment of treatment. Merz’s instructions describe the green treat line as the depth at which treatment will be delivered, and the imaging as a check on coupling and on a treatment depth that avoids bone. The view reaches 8 mm, and the cartridges are Ultherapy’s own 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 mm transducers. Merz’s physician page states that layer depths “vary greatly” with age, smoking history, gender, body area, skin type and BMI.

Hironic’s Doublo pairs its HIFU cartridges, such as the M7 (7 MHz, 3.0 mm) and D4 (4 MHz, 4.5 mm), with a 128-channel imaging probe for real-time images during treatment.

A handheld probe works beside whichever HIFU platform the clinic already runs, Ultherapy, Ultraformer, Doublo or another, and keeps working between HIFU sessions for filler mapping, vessel checks and follow-up scans. On the Clarius L20 HD3, T-Mode AI Aesthetics labels the layers and the clinician chooses the cartridge; T-Mode, Vessel Depth AI and the aesthetic presets come with the Essentials membership at $695 a year, $1,785 for three years or $2,500 one-time. On the Suresult L20Pro, FaceAtlas AI measures depth to SMAS and writes the suggested focus from mid-face to neck into the plan, beside the free Suresult imaging app.

The number on a HIFU cartridge is its focal depth below the skin surface, and each depth targets its own layers. Lower frequencies reach deeper: most 4.5 mm cartridges run at 4 MHz and the 6 mm cartridge at 2 MHz.

Linear cartridges fire a row of focal points along a line; dot handpieces fire single points. In Zhu’s 2024 study the dot focal area measured about three times the diameter of the linear one (2–3 mm against 0.7 mm) and heated tissue to 50–60 °C, and the team used dot handpieces on the perioral and preauricular areas, where the mental nerve and facial nerve branches run. FaceAtlas AI suggests Linear and Dot focus depths for the mid/lower face, upper neck and neck.

Each row pairs what ultrasound studies measured at a site with the cartridges published protocols used there. Depths run from the skin surface down. Use the chart for the range to expect, then measure the client in front of you.

Skin changes little across the face. Jeong’s team measured full skin thickness at eight facial points in 99 adults and found means of 1.31 to 1.67 mm, with no link to BMI. The layers beneath the skin move. On the forehead, the deep subcutaneous layer grows from 1.07 mm in the leanest BMI group to 1.88 mm in the heaviest, and the superficial layer thickens with age (Zhuang 2025). At the jowl, Yi’s two arms of ten women averaged 3.98 and 4.08 mm from skin to SMAS, with standard deviations of 0.44 and 0.48 mm, so the line between the 3.0 and 4.5 mm cartridge runs through the middle of the group.

A cartridge heats a band of tissue, not a single plane. In Zhu’s phantom tests, the 4 MHz MicroUltra 3.0 mm cartridges coagulated from about 1.5 to 5.5 mm deep, most tightly at 2 to 3.5 mm, and the 4.5 mm cartridges from 2.5 to 7.0 mm, most tightly at 3 to 4.5 mm (linear) and 3 to 5 mm (dot). In thin tissue that band reaches past the target: Zhu’s team explains the lack of clear improvement in underweight participants by the band acting on muscle, bone or deeper fat instead of the superficial subcutaneous tissue. Kim reports the same limit on the forehead: strong 3 mm shots over the frontal bone were painful, so the 3 mm cartridge passed over the forehead only weakly, without direct shots, and the 4.5 mm not at all.

The handpiece also moves the target. Zhu’s team saw better results where lower-face skin and tissue measured 5 to 7 mm, and puts handpiece compression at about 80%, which brings that tissue to 4 to 5.6 mm, the depth most shots targeted. So the planning reading is taken at rest, and pressure belongs to technique: Kim pressed harder on obese patients to reach deeper tissue.

Yi’s 2026 randomized trial treated 20 women aged 60 to 72 on the same Ultraformer MPT. The conventional arm received one 4.5 mm pass at 0.7 J and one 3.0 mm pass at 0.4 J on every face. The anatomy-guided arm had its cartridges, energy (0.6–0.8 J at 4.5 mm, 0.3–0.5 J at 3.0 mm) and line spacing set region by region from baseline ultrasound, for a similar 380 to 450 shots per session. At week 16 an independent investigator, blind to the arm, rated 6 of 10 women in the guided arm “much improved” or better against 4 of 10 in the conventional arm, and lower-face skin-to-SMAS distance fell 0.19 mm more with guidance.

1. Choose a high-frequency linear probe. The studies behind these charts imaged facial layers with linear probes of up to 33 MHz: 15 MHz for Zhuang’s forehead survey, 24 MHz for Meng’s skin survey and 24 to 33 MHz for Zattar’s SMAS atlas.
2. Scan at rest. Use a generous layer of gel or a coupling pad and the lightest contact that keeps the image full. Yi’s and Zhuang’s teams scanned through a generous gel layer to avoid compression, and Zhu’s applied the probe without compressing the skin.
3. Hold the probe perpendicular to the skin at the treatment point, with the same landmarks and orientation at every visit: Yi’s team measured the jowl lateral to the mouth corner above the mandibular border, and the submental midline just below the menton.
4. Measure from the skin surface to the SMAS, and note the superficial fat above it and the deep fat below it: those readings set energy and line counts in Yi’s protocol.
5. Scan both sides. Left and right differ: in Zhuang’s forehead survey the frontalis and the connective tissue beneath it were thicker on one side at several points.
6. Write a plan per region: cartridge, energy and line spacing for each zone, the way Yi’s anatomy-guided arm was treated.

FaceAtlas AI runs the same logic on every scan. Paired with a Suresult L14, L20 or L24 probe or its Pro version on a 64-bit Android tablet or phone (Android 8.0 or later), it labels skin, fat and SMAS on the live image, measures depth to SMAS only on frames that pass its image-quality check, and turns readings on the mid/lower face, upper neck and neck into Linear and Dot focus depths. The L14Pro, L20Pro and L24Pro include three months; on the L14, L20 and L24 a license starts at $50 a month.

Readings are rounded to 0.1 mm before the rule runs, so a site shown as 4.5 mm gets the 4.5 mm focus. On the mid/lower face and upper neck the deepest focus suggested never sits deeper than the depth to SMAS on screen; read at rest, as in Yi’s trial, that is a step stricter than Yi’s 4.2 mm line. On the neck the 3.0 mm focus begins at 3.5 mm. The first suggestion comes at 3.0 mm to SMAS on the mid/lower face and upper neck and at 2.0 mm on the neck; on the upper face FaceAtlas AI records depth to SMAS for the plan.

Here the two sides disagree in both zones. The right mid/lower face reads 5.0 mm and takes the 4.5 mm focus; the left reads 4.3 mm and stops at 3.0 mm. The right neck reads 3.6 mm and takes the 3.0 mm focus; the left reads 2.4 mm and gets a 2.0 mm Dot focus only. At Finish scan FaceAtlas asks “Left and right focal depths differ for mid/lower face and neck. Remeasure?” and offers the shallower side, here the left, for a second reading before the first pulse.

The Classic protocol covers the upper face, mid/lower face, upper neck and neck. For a full-face record, the Expert protocol measures depth to SMAS on the right and left at nine named sites: the forehead, the superior temporal ligament attachment, the zygomatic, buccal-maxillary, masseteric cutaneous and mandibular retaining ligament regions, the buccal fat pad region, the submental region and the neck. Each visit ends in a Facial Ultrasound Assessment PDF with one-click comparison to earlier visits, shared by email, Drive or print.

Each Pro probe pairs a 256-element, 25 mm linear array with a 4,400 mAh battery (4 hours of scanning) in a 145 g body, and each includes three months of FaceAtlas AI. Frequency sets how deep a probe reads and how fine the first millimeters look.

Every Suresult L-series probe carries an IP67 rating (dust-tight and waterproof), is drop-tested and is 510(k)-cleared under K211321. Imaging runs in the free Suresult app on iOS, Android and Windows: B-mode, M-mode, Color, Power and PW Doppler, plus DICOM export.

For HIFU planning across the face and neck, I recommend the L20Pro at $3,720. For thin foreheads, temples and lean necks, I choose the L24Pro at $4,185. For a clinic that adds body HIFU or MSK work, my pick is the L14Pro at $3,441. All three include three months of FaceAtlas AI, a 30-day trial and a two-year warranty, and the checkout price covers shipping, customs clearance, duties and taxes: No Hidden Fees.