i just came across this article at cnn ,
sounds real weird and a tiny bit scary to me
not a 'corrective' person here still this sounds like a possibly
cool alternative surgery or botox
sounds real weird and a tiny bit scary to me
not a 'corrective' person here still this sounds like a possibly
cool alternative surgery or botox
Here comes the one-hour face-lift
Thermage unveils a rapid, nonsurgical procedure
By Michael V. Copeland
Friday, October 10, 2003
(Business 2.0) -- In the fight against wrinkles and aging, Americans spent $7.7 billion on cosmetic medical procedures last year.
Next year they'll undergo 12 million nips, tucks, peels, and plumps of one sort or another. Botox treatments have attracted headlines, but now Thermage, based in Hayward, California, hopes to steal the spotlight with its nonsurgical, one-hour face-lift procedure.
What's the secret? Imagine a slice of bacon cooking in a pan. As the protein heats up, the bacon shrinks.
Thermage's $40,000 ThermaCool tissue-contraction device works much the same way, using a ray-gun-like radio frequency emitter to heat the collagen beneath a patient's skin, causing it to shrink. As the tissue heals during subsequent weeks, the face conforms to the tighter, smaller structure -- with no downtime spent wrapped like the English Patient.
Thermage's procedure won FDA clearance late last year, and it's also been accepted in Canada, the European Union, and much of Asia.
"People are always looking for nonpainful and noninvasive ways to look younger," says Dr. Mitchel Goldman, a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology, who cautions that Thermage's technology may not work for every patient.
Still, hopeful customers seem willing to try their luck, with an estimated 5,000 thus far having paid plastic surgeons from $1,500 to $4,000 to undergo the ThermaCool procedure.