07 Mar, 2009
Is Your Local Laser Clinic Reusing Thermage Tips?
Posted by: Laser Clinic MD In: Thermage ()
Plastic Surgery & Cosmetic Dermatology: Used Thermage Tips.
Thermage Skin Tightening treatments from Solta Medical have ushered in a new type of anti-aging and skin laxity treatments for cosmetic dermatologists, plastic surgeons and medical spas that adds another nonsurgical treatment to a cosmetic medical practice Radio Frequency Skin Tightening.
Thermage has implemented a change in cosmetic medicine.
Pricing strategies that charge the plastic surgeon or cosmetic dermatologist for each Thermage treatment by ‘killing’ the Thermage tip after a preset number of treatment pulses or predetermined length of time, even if the Thermage tip could still be used for additional pulses. This leaves the plastic surgeon or cosmetic dermatologist (and patient) in the position of paying for a Thermage treatment tip that would still work, except that they’ve been turned off by Thermage.
With tips costing up to $800 for a single treatment and medical practices under increasing pressure to maintain profitability, many doctors are turning to third parties to ‘reactivate’ these Thermage tips for additional use by bypassing the counter inside the chip and effectively resetting the device to allow for continued use.
According to Thermage, tips are disabled only to ensure patient safety.
The Thermage position on reactivating used Thermage tips:
“The largest study we know of involving Thermage is a four year study conducted by Weiss,1 and it only involved 600 patients. In addition, the claims in the Stevens publication are also wildly inconsistent with immense quantities of Thermage quality and reliability data we have compiled on our own products over the years. We know for a fact the dielectric membrane on our treatment tip will break down when subjected to a tiny fraction of the repeated use this publication alleges can be done. Dielectric breakdown can result in patient harm.”
Potential complications can arise from treating patients with damaged Thermage tips that can include burns or the destruction of underlying fat that can leave permanent depressions in the skin. But, with more and more cosmetic dermatologists and plastic surgeons looking to squeeze out a profit wherever they can and grey-market suppliers able to sell a reactivated Thermage tip for hundreds of dollars below the retail price, refurbishing or reusing Thermage tips may be used in an increasing number of cosmetic practices and medical spas.
