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by Linda W. Lewis

In less than a decade, radiofrequency-based devices have carved out a niche in the medical aesthetic industry as a noninvasive option to treat skin laxity on the face, neck and upper arms. More recently, that niche has widened to include body contouring and fractional skin resurfacing.
The Thermage (Solta Medical, thermage.com) was the first RF-based device to garner FDA marketing clearance in 2002 for the treatment of periorbital wrinkles. This technology is based on the work of plastic surgeon Edward Knowlton, MD, who believed that RF exhibited properties that could be harnassed to tighten the skin noninvasively. “RF has been used for years for cautery where you actually see a wound or vein shrink. So it was from Dr. Knowlton’s roots in surgery that RF skin-tightening technology grew,” says Stephen J. Fanning, CEO and president of Solta Medical.
The original monopolar Thermage ThermaCool was soon followed by bipolar devices, including the Alma Accent (almalasers.com) and Syneron’s elos technology (syneron.com), which combines RF and light. More recently we have seen the introduction of so-called multipolar RF devices, such as the EndyMed PRO (endymed.com) and Venus Freeze (venus-concept.com), and a new entry in monopolar technology with the BTL Exilis (btlaesthetics.com).

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