COSMETIC MEDICINE

Dr. Christopher Zachary, head of the Department of Dermatology at UCI School of Medicine, has long been a skeptic of claims made for low-impact lasers and similar treatments for rejuvenating skin. (Read “UCI dermatology chair warns of unproven devices“)

But a newly approved laser that he helped to test has made him a believer.

It’s the Fraxel re:pair system from Reliant Technologies of Mountain View, which announced Dec. 4 that the device has won clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in treating wrinkles, irregular skin and discolorations.

“The results we are achieving with the Fraxel re:pair system are remarkable by any standard. Results approach that of a facelift, with very few complications and limited downtime,” Zachary said.

“The Fraxel re:pair system produces significant tissue tightening, wrinkle reduction and textural improvement, both on and off the face.”

It’s a “fractional” system, which means that although it can treat a broad area, it removes only a portion of the skin in a computer-controlled pattern of tiny dots. That stimulates growth of new skin cells, just as a full CO2 laser treatment does, but with much shorter recovery time than the several weeks that a CO2 laser requires.

One of the patients whom Zachary treated with the Fraxel re:pair laser was Sandra Longnecker of Newport Beach, who was featured in the recent Register article on people’s changing expectations for what they will look like as they age.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 3:05 am and is filed under Academic innovators, Corporate innovators, Cosmetic medicine, Lasers, New products, Reliant Technologies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.