The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 14, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 06, 1998
Nikolai I Tankovich, San Diego, CA (US);
Lawrence H Sverdrup, Jr, Poway, CA (US);
Richard G Episcopo, San Diego, CA (US);
Thermolase Corporation, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a very simple easily administered skin treatment process for (1) the removal of superficial epidermal skin cells in the human skin (2) the reduction or removal of unwanted hair and (3) the mitigation of skin conditions such as acne and seborrhea. A contaminant having a high absorption at at least one wavelength of light is topically applied to a section of the surface of the skin. A preferred contaminant is a mixture of 20% by weight of one micron graphite particles in mineral oil. Graphite is a very strong absorber of 1.06 micron light produced by the Nd:YAG laser. Portions of the contaminant are forced to infiltrate into spaces between the superficial epidermal cells, into hair ducts in the skin and into and/or adjacent to sebaceous glands. The skin section is illuminated with short laser pulses at the matching wavelength, so as to impact sufficient energy to the contaminant to cause explosion in the contaminant. The energy released in the course of the explosions may blow off layers of dead skin cells and/or destroy tissue responsible for hair growth and/or sebum production.