Is Your Laser Clinic Reusing Used Thermage Tips?
Posted by: Laser Treatments MD In: Laser Clinic| Medical Spa ()
Plastic Surgery Info: Reactivating Used Thermage Tips!
Thermage Skin Tightening medical treatments from Solta Medical have created a new type of anti-aging and skin laxity treatments for cosmetic dermatologists, plastic surgeons and medical spas that adds another nonsurgical treatment to any cosmetic medical practice Radio Frequency Skin Tightening. (Thermage is not a laser treatment.) But there are potential troubles that both Thermage and patients may face.
Thermage has also implemented a new pricing strategies that charge the physician for each Thermage treatment by ‘deactivating’ the Thermage treatment tip after a predetermined number of pulses or specific length of time, even if the Thermage tip could still be used. This leaves the plastic surgeon or cosmetic dermatologist in the position of paying for Thermage treatment tips that would still work, except that they’ve been artificially turned off by the company.
With tips costing up to $800 for a single treatment and laser clinics 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 a statement from Thermage, Thermage tips are only disabled to ensure patient safety.
Thermage’s position on reactivating Thermage tips is this:
“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 plastic surgeons and cosmetic dermatologists 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.
