Electrical Thermal Abrasion (Fibroblast) with Osmosis
More and more aesthetic practitioners, aware of the damaging effects caused by repeated exposure to lasers for tattoo removal prefer thermal abrasion with and without osmosis to lasers. This has long been done with devices operating in either elecrofulguration or electrodesssication mode.
The preferred operational method for this procedure is electro fulguration (also now referred to as “fibroblast”) as the ablation requires to be very superficial. If performed correctly, electrofulguration, or electrical arcing, provides an effective way to remove tattoos while minimizing the number of sessions required to achieve the desired effects, also minimising the risks of collateral damages or scarring. The risks to the skin are minimized drastically because thermal abrasion with osmosis allows removing tattoos, in most cases halving the number of sessions otherwise required with laser treatment.
Although different tattoos present different levels of difficulty in their removal, depending on the type of ink and instrumentation used to draw it, experience has shown that thermal abrasion with osmosis can remove tattoos within 3 to 6 sessions, on average, per area treated. If thermal abrasion is applied without osmosis the number of sessions required for tattoo removal increase dramatically and the number of treatments and results can be comparable to those of lasers.
Therefore, it has to be noted that the clinical advantages of using thermal abrasion with osmosis over laser treatment for tattoo removal. Thermal abrasion with osmosis is more effective and efficient than lasers and it has the following advantages:
- Less potential harm to the client because less sessions are required.
- No collateral damage associated to the repeated use of lasers on the skin.
- The cost of the instruments required for tattoo removal are a fraction of specialized tattoo removal lasers.
Why thermal abrasion with osmosis more than halves the number of sessions required compared with conventional laser removal equipment?
Like with laser treatment, thermal abrasion causes the colour pigments to be broken down. However the protocol of thermal abrasion involves also packing the area treated with sodium chloride for a period of half to a full hour after thermal abrasion.
The sodium chloride is applied because it causes osmosis. Osmosis draws the broken tattoo pigments to the surface removing them from the deeper part of the dermis. It therefore facilitates further speeds up the tattoo discolouration and hence eventual removal.
Additionally, from a clinical stand point, it is important to try and find any possible way to minimise the number of exposures to burns or to any similar skin abrasions. The more the skin is exposed to laser treatment or any other thermal abrasion techniques the more damage is caused to the skin.
Adverse reactions to Tattoo removal by applying electrical thermal abrasion with osmosis
It has been extensively shown that thermal abrasion with osmosis is very effective in removing tattoos without leaving any scars and within only few sessions.
However, scars could develop when:
- thermal abrasion had been carried out to cause extensive damage to the dermis.
- the treated area had become infected
- the client has a particular predisposition to developing Keloids or hypertrophic scars
Tattoo Removal with Electrical Thermabrasion (Fibroblast) without osmosis.
In those cases where the risks of scarring are increased by the use of osmosis then only thermabrasion should be used.
Those areas of the body are those parts of the skin subject to continuous stretching and creasing. Like knees, wrists, elbows etc. this is because the continuous creasing and stretching of the skin makes it difficult for the area to heal speedly and therefore more prone to infection and delayed healing.
In these cases the use of electrical arcing or thermabrasion on its own may be the best course of action.
However when we use electrical thermabrasion on its own the degree of tattoo fading is rather low after each session. In other words the degree of tattoo fading after each electrical arcing session without osmosis is comparable to that of most Q Switched lasers for tattoo Removal.