by
Loren Bonner, DOTmed News Online Editor | August 24, 2012
From the August 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
While lasers continue to evolve, alternatives to mainstays like YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) and CO2 lasers are being used increasingly for cosmetic procedures.
“I call it the laser and energy field because, in fact, right now the most exciting stuff is not through lasers, but ultrasound,” says Dr. George Hruza, president of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and director of the Laser & Dermatologic Surgery Center in St. Louis, Mo. High-intensity focused ultrasound [HIFU] can tighten skin on the face.
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Ulthera, a device that consists of a hand piece that focuses heat energy to stimulate collagen onto a 2-5 mm area under the surface of the skin— deeper than a laser can go — utilizes that technology. It initially received Food and Drug Administration clearance for eyebrows lifts in 2009, and received approval last year for additional areas of the face. Various technologies are also being fused together. For example, intense pulsed light [IPL] combines with radiofrequency for photorejuvenation skin treatments “to give a little boost,” says Hruza.
“What the engineers are doing is beginning to provide technologies that marry some of the pros of various technologies so that one can more selectively target the problem tissue and spare the surroundings,” says Lanzafame.
But he cautions that no technology will be a panacea.
“Unfortunately, some folks use these technologies as hammer and nail: If I got a hammer, everything becomes a nail. I think each of these things has their role. A lot of people bought these devices with the promise that they would do everything. But the patients didn’t come. On the other side of that, folks who are doing this well do find they need an arsenal of techniques and technologies that can be expensive to acquire.”
Body contouring shapes the aesthetic market
Reports indicate as procedures become safer and more
effective for patients, the market will continue to expand,
with technologies finally catching up to consumer demands.
“There has been a great evolution of products in the last 12 months with results finally matching up,” says Thomas Merolla, sales director at Phase 2 Laser in Golden, Colo.
