As some of you may know, I have designed and patented a new medical device that will aid in the comfort of injectables around the face. This device, called the Ouchless Needle attaches to the needle syringe combinations that are used by cosmetic providers to place Botox, Dysport, Juvederm and Radiesse into the face.
The injector can, with the push of a button, deliver a short spray of a vapocoolant to the skin’s surface that immediately freezes it thereby reducing the feeling of a needle penetrating the skin and making the injection more comfortable. This vapocoolant spray freezes above the freezing point of water and therefore does not cause the frostbite pain that ice can cause. Injectables at present are done with the prior application of a numbing cream to the area to be injected. The creams take about 40 minutes with a saran wrap type of occlusion over them in order for them to be effective. Their duration of effect is long after the injectable procedure and can leave a discoloration to the face when adrenalin is added to the mixture.
The vapocoolant, on the other hand, works immediately and its duration is only minutes at most. Lidocaine can be mixed into the injectable because it is water based. Lidocaine is a numbing medicine that when injected under the skin will numb the overlying area. Unfortunately, the first needle puncture to introduce the lidocaine will still hurt and every injection thereafter, if done in the same location as before may be more comfortable. Each injection, however, is usually in an independent area so that this medication may make the injectable hurt less after its in then reducing the actual needle puncture pain.
These devices are disposable and are priced fairly so as not to be much more expensive than the cream often used. The device will allow for more spontaneity from the patients perspective as after the decision to have an injectable done is made, no longer will they have to wait for 40 minutes to have it be more comfortable. For the practitioner, this device will speed the delivery of injectables in that the patient will not have to arrive 40 minutes prior to have the numbing cream placed nor will they have to go to a pharmacy and purchase the numbing cream and still place it on the face 40 minutes prior to the injection.
We anticipate beginning to sell this device to physicians in the US starting in October of 2009. Shortly thereafter worldwide distribution is planned. It is an exciting time in my professional life as this has been a unique odyssey. Being an entrepreneur is certainly different and requires a different skill set than doing cosmetic surgery in Louisville. I am learning everyday and having fun doing it.
