Dr. Charles Townes, recipient of Special Recognition Award at ASLMS Meeting

Last week we attended the ASLMS (American Society for Laser Medicine & Surgery) meeting in Phoenix. One of the highlights of the meeting, besides celebrating the 50th anniversary of the operation of the laser, was the Special Recognition Award given to Dr. Charles Townes, an American Nobel Prize-winning physicist and educator. We were excited to see this award presented, as Townes is known worldwide as the “Father of Lasers,” having developed laser technology to the benefit of millions, both in military and medical uses.

Townes, born in 1915 in South Carolina, graduated summa cum laude from Furman University at the tender age of 19. He completed a master’s degree in physics at Duke and a PhD from Cal Tech with a thesis about isotope separation and nuclear spins. Keep in mind that this was back in 1939, when these technologies were in their infancy. As an early member of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, his work in radar bombing systems and microwave technology, which led to his appointment to the faculty at Columbia University, led to uses of ammonia gas in masers (microwave amplification through radiation), which ultimately produced laser technologies. He and his research assistants were the first to detect complex molecules in the galaxy, as well as the measurement of the mass in the black hole in our galaxy’s center. With the assistance of Arthur Schawlow, he wrote Microwave Spectroscopy, which was published in 1955. During his tenure at Bell Labs, Dr. Townes was asked to help with the development of a radar system for WWII aircraft. Although Dr. Townes did not serve in the military, he and his team contributed to the war efforts by creating more accurate and precise radar systems, though none of them were ever mass-produced by the military. Some of the new systems developed were used as prototypes in the early B-52 bombers.

Dr. Townes went on to become the VP and Director of Research for Washington DC-based Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit group that advised the government. After 2 years in that position, he became Provost and Professor of Physics at MIT, specializing in research of quantum electronics and astronomy. In 1967, he became a professor at University of California, on the Berkeley campus.

We'll be posting more details from the event later this week! Don't miss our upcoming info about the ASAPS (American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) conference this weekend!

Dr. Jason Pozner and Dr. David Goldberg

Two more allegations of illegal cosmetic surgery

There's been yet another arrest in cosmetic surgery:

In Chicago: "Med Spa Patients Say Lasers Scarred, Burned Them"
A chain of med-spas is dealing with lawsuits alleging that inexperienced and unqualified practitioners treated them with lasers when they should not have.

From the article:

"Can your skin type tolerate laser treatments? If so, which laser? At what energy level? And for how long? Those are all decisions that need to be made by an experienced practitioner.

For others the treatments can bring great results, but Garden, the past president of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery warns, "These machines can still cause damage. They can still injure the patient."

This is a bad trend that is getting worse and worse with the state of the economy. Expect some big stories in the media about this type of thing soon.

Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin Laser and Surgery Specialists, NY/NJ

Why does fractional laser skin resurfacing work?

Fractional resurfacing has been a buzzword for the last few years with the introduction of the Fraxel device. Things have progressed and new machines have been introduced that have made treatments more effective. Fractional resurfacing is a laser procedure that treats only a fraction (or portion) of the skin surface. The laser puts down a series of spots that treat typically from 5-30% of the skin surface area per treatment – leaving 70-95% of skin untreated. The theory is that the partial injury creates an environment under the skin that leads to collagen changes and therefore improved skin. The devices are broadly grouped into non-ablative and ablative lasers. Non-ablative fractional lasers create a column of dead skin that the body eradicates while ablative lasers create an ablation channel.

For the record, laser skin resurfacing was one of the big movers in the American Society of Plastic Surgeons' 2007 report (PDF), being performed 32% more times than in 2006. I expect this trend to continue in 2008, as the faster turnaround time and less scary perception of non invasive surgery seems to be en vogue right now.



Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center