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US 6,470,216 B1Granted
Method for smoothing contour irregularities of skin surface
AssigneeThermage, Inc.
InventorEdward W. Knowlton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method to modify a skin surface or a soft tissue structure underlying the skin surface includes a template with a mechanical force application surface and a receiving opening to receive a body structure. The mechanical force application surface is configured to receive the body structure and apply pressure to the soft tissue structure. An energy delivery device is coupled to the template. The energy delivery device is configured to deliver sufficient energy to the template to form a template energy delivery surface.
Claims18
A method for smoothing contour irregularities of a skin surface overlaying a tissue site, comprising:
- applying to the skin surface a conformer which is dimensionally conformable, includes a mechanical force application surface, and is coupled with an electromagnetic energy delivery device;
- applying positive mechanical force through the mechanical force application surface to the tissue site, such that the conformer conforms to the general three-dimensional contour of the tissue site;
- producing electromagnetic energy from the electromagnetic energy delivery device;
- compressing the conformer by an external mechanical force to produce converging and diverging vectors that smooth skin surface morphology by contracting and distracting the collagen matrix in the soft tissue structure beneath the skin surface;
- delivering electromagnetic energy produced by the electromagnetic energy delivery device through the skin surface to the tissue site while the conformer is being compressed;
- and
- applying a sufficient amount of electromagnetic energy to the tissue site through the skin surface to remodel at least a portion of the tissue site and smooth contour irregularities of the skin surface.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.