Palovia Home Use Device Works for Wrinkles

NEW FRONT IN WRINKLE WARS

Cosmetic doctors pay as much as $100,000 for lasers that help combat wrinkles, and now patients can buy a  low-powered version for about $500 to use as a wrinkle-smoother at home.

The PaloVia laser has found a champion in Dr. Christopher Zachary, chairman of the UCI Department of Dermatology, though many other cosmetic specialists are skeptical or dismissive.

“This sophisticated and rather handsome compact home-use device works,” Zachary says. “This laser can be safely used by individuals in the comfort of their own homes to rejuvenate their skin, albeit over an extended time. ”The 1420nm-frequency wavelength of the laser penetrates deeply enough to create some heat injury to the skin, he said, which stimulates safe growth of new skin cells.

The laser was introduced by Massachusetts-based Palomar Medical Technologies in late 2010.

Palomar said that, in its preliminary study, 92 percent of patients using the PaloVia laser saw an improvement of one step on the Fitzpatrick wrinkle scale. That’s a nine-point scale, so “one step, while measurable, is a pretty mild change,” said plastic surgeon and blogger Dr. Thomas Fiala in his Orlando Plastic Surgery blog.

“Palomar has been pretty secretive about the other parameters of the laser. Obviously, the power of this laser is much, much less than an office-based machine, so the depth of penetration of the laser beam will be less, tissue heating will be less, and so the total effect will be much less. It might be enough to treat the thin skin around the eyes, but probably not enough to treat other facial areas, where the skin is thicker. It will probably be a good addition to retin-A based skin care and Botox, but time will tell,” Fiala said.

Dermatologist Dr. Dore Gilbert of Newport Beach is unimpressed.

“The main problem with home-use lasers is their lack of power.  The companies cannot risk making devices with enough energy to actually work,” he said.

If a laser were powerful enough to be effective, he said, it “could cause significant skin burns and open the companies to significant liability.  It’s really about common sense.  Office-based lasers are powerful devices that really work.”

“I would suggest using home laser devices as flashlights in an emergency,” he said.

That would be a $500 flashlight!

Plastic surgeon Dr. Marcel Daniels of Long Beach said, “Medical lasers typically cost 5 – 6 figures and that operation of a medical laser is restricted to medically qualified staff. It certainly does ask the question what is a ‘home laser’ and what type of result would it deliver?”

Plastic surgeon Dr. Val Lambros of Newport Beach is skeptical about both the PaloVida laser and some medical lasers.

“It is very difficult to document wrinkles photographically,” he said. “They change with the time of day and how hydrated you are and whether you had popcorn and beer the night before. ”

“Most of the lasers rely on heat to change the skin. It is hard to understand how a consumer device can make a difference when many of the more powerful lasers don’t,” Lambros said.

The device was approved by the FDA in 2009, but is only now reaching the market.

Although Palomar says the results of its home laser are dramatic, some of its marketing photos show relatively modest changes.

For more, see the “Hot talk” slide show.

Zachary expects more home lasers will soon be introduced using the “fractionated” technology that limits light exposure to just a fraction of the skin, as in the PaloVia device.

“Hold onto your hats as new home use devices are developed over the next several years. Not far behind, it is rumored that the electronic giant Philips is about to launch its rival personal fractionated handheld,” Zachary said.

Plastic surgery Dr. Ed Domanskis of Newport Beach agreed.

“This is just the start of many at home rejuvenating systems that will appear within next years,” he said. “Anything that can help rejuvenate the skin and be beneficial to the patient is good. However, it will never take the place of office-based procedures, primarily because of the necessity to make them incapable of causing harm [because of] -product liability laws.

“They are, though, further help to overcome the ravages of the elements — sun,wind — and aging.”

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