Surgery – Instruments – Electrical application
Patent
1996-07-29
1998-01-06
Kamm, William E.
Surgery
Instruments
Electrical application
A61B 1741
Patent
active
057049351
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to an appliance for epilating hair, in particular hair of the human skin, with a casing adapted to be held in the user's hand for accommodating a motor driving a clamping device provided in an epilation head of the appliance for gripping and plucking the hairs, with the clamping device being adapted to be guided over the skin to be treated.
A multiplicity of such appliances are already known from pertinent literature, and some of these appliances have proven to be successful in practical use. An appliance of this type is described, for example, in European Patent Application No. 0 147 285. Another appliance is known from German Patent Application No. DE 39 22 949 A1. Finally, a more recent further development of an epilating appliance is described in German Patent Application No. DE 43 09 406. The disclosure content of the aforementioned applications (filed by the same applicant) is included in the present application by express reference.
It is a general problem in these appliances to increase the efficiency of the hair plucking operation and reduce the user's feeling of pain as hair is removed. Although many attempts have been made in the past to increase the efficiency of these appliances and reduce the user's feeling of pain, the application of such appliances to the extraction of hair from the human skin is perceived extremely unpleasant by part of its users, some even rejecting this method of hair removal totally because of the great pain felt during use.
By contrast, it is an object of the present invention to improve upon a hair epilating appliance to the effect that the feeling of pain in the use of the appliances is reduced to the largest possible extent.
According to the present invention, this object is essentially accomplished in that the appliance includes at least two electrically conductive parts, in particular electrodes or the like, which during the hair plucking operation are movable into engagement with the skin together with the clamping device, that the appliance has a related generator producing a stimulator current, in particular a pulse generator or the like, and that the outputs of the generator are connected to the electrically conductive parts.
Accordingly, the present invention makes use of the effect of nerve stimulation by the application of a stimulator current, in particular of current pulses, to the skin, in order stimulate the nerve system under the skin, thereby alleviating or even eliminating the pain during the application of the hair epilating appliances. In use of the appliance, the electrically conductive parts make contact with the skin jointly with the clamping device, while a pulse generator or the like operates on the electrically conductive parts to apply current pulses to the skin to be treated. These current pulses electrically activate pain inhibitors that are present in the human organism, blocking in consequence the transmission of pain impulses produced by the extraction of the hairs. The action of the stimulator current on the skin results in a perceptible raise in the pain threshold produced by a release of morphine-like substances normally present in the body (endorphines). The intensity of the stimulator current is individually adjustable, so that the user senses a slight tingling, a vibration or the like in the area of the skin located between the electrodes. In any case, the user may adjust the stimulator current to a setting sufficiently low to prevent muscular contractions from being released. As practical tests have shown, extracting the hair while at the same time applying a stimulator current to the skin results in a distinctly perceptible reduction of the feeling of pain as the hairs are extracted.
In an advantageous further aspect, the generator is received in the casing and is connectible, in particular together with the motor, to a power supply, in particular the line voltage, or an a.c. voltage stepped down by a transformer, or a d.c. voltage of a rechargeable accumulator, a battery or the like. Because the generator
REFERENCES:
patent: 5169398 (1992-12-01), Glaros
Copy of International Search Report dated Jun. 21, 1995.
Merz Diethard
Pahl Dietrich
Braun Aktiengesellschaft
Kamm William E.
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