Surgery – Instruments – Means for removal of skin or material therefrom
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-22
2001-09-25
Dawson, Glenn K. (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Instruments
Means for removal of skin or material therefrom
C606S131000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293953
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an appliance for the epilation of the human skin, having a housing to accommodate a motor for driving at least one clamping device rotary about an axis for epilation, and having a means to reduce the sense of pain during epilation, said means including at least one element that is movable toward and away from the skin when the appliance is placed in epilating position on the user's skin. The invention relates in addition to a method for the epilation of the human skin.
An epilating appliance of this type and a related method of epilation are known from European patent application No. EP 493 849 A1. According to this patent application, the hairs are continuously entrapped and extracted by counter-rotating rollers. In front of the rollers are webs which lie flat on the skin during use and jointly perform a vibrating reciprocating movement. The frequency of this vibration can lie between 5 hertz and 1000 hertz. During use of the epilating appliance the vibrations of the webs engaging the user's skin are intended to produce a pain that overshadows the pain caused by the epilation. This should result at least subjectively in a reduction of the user's sense of pain caused by the actual epilation. In practice, however, it has shown that the actual stinging pain caused by the epilation is still perceived and felt as unpleasant by the user in spite of the use of these vibrating webs engaging the skin.
An epilating appliance according to the non prior published German patent application No. P 44 08 809 has a rotary cylinder with clamping devices that enable the cyclic entrapment and extraction of hairs. Provision is made furthermore for two electrodes enabling a stimulating current to be emitted to the skin. This enables stimulation of the underlying nerve structures, resulting in the at least subjective impression of a reduction of pain for the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide an appliance and a method for the epilation of human skin as well as a method for using the appliance, whereby the epilation is performed more effectively and with the greatest possible reduction of the user's sense of pain.
According to the present invention, this object is achieved in an epilation appliance and in a method wherein by reason of the fact that the at least one element that is movable toward and away from the skin has one free end, a mechanical pulse can be generated to advantage, producing a stimulation on the skin which overshadows the actual pain during epilation. Furthermore, by arranging the at least one element, but in particular several elements, adjacent to the side of the rotary clamping device, the stimulation on the skin occurs advantageously before or during the epilating operation.
The pulse emitted before or during the actual epilating operation simulates artificially the pain otherwise caused by the epilation, being preferably of less intensity but having essentially the same pain characteristic, so that it overshadows or anticipates the actual pain. Because of the reduced intensity the additional pain is not felt by the user to be as disagreeable as the actual stinging pain caused by the actual epilation. On the contrary, practical tests have revealed that users of the epilating appliance hardly feel the actual stinging pain any longer as the result of the preceding pulse, but that instead they notice essentially only the far more agreeable stimulation caused by the respective pulse. This is probably owed to the fact that the nerve cells are practically paralyzed temporarily by the stimulation caused by the pulse and hence are insensitive to pain so that the actual stinging pain caused by the epilation is largely subdued, meaning that the user does not notice it at all or only to a weakened degree. On the whole, therefore, the pulse results in the user either not feeling or hardly feeling the actual stinging pain during epilation so that the sense of pain is substantially reduced.
The appliance and the method are optimized by delivering the pulse against or onto the skin directly before either the time or place or the time and place of the particular individual epilating operation because in this way the nerve cells that are about to be activated by the directly imminent epilating operation will be temporarily deadened or deactivated, so to speak, by the pulse performed ahead of the epilation in time and/or place.
In an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, the element is associated with the clamping device so as to be rotary about the axis thereof. Hence the element is set in rotation directly with the clamping device. There is no need, therefore, for any special components to drive the element.
In an advantageous further feature of the present invention, the element is movable toward and away from the skin. The pulse is thereby obtained mechanically in simple manner by the reciprocating movement of the element. This requires few additional components and therefore little extra manufacturing effort.
In an advantageous further feature of the present invention, the element is movable from a retracted position into an advanced position and hence into contact with the skin directly before epilation. This movement produces the desired pulse and hence the artificial pain in the skin. It is an advantage for this movement to be performed as close as possible to the epilation, and for the type and manner of the movement, particularly its acceleration and speed, to occur in the manner of a pulse. The pulse serves to create an artificial, weak pain that overshadows the actual stinging pain caused directly afterwards by the epilation and reduces the user's perception of this pain at least subjectively.
In an advantageous further feature of the present invention, the element is movable into the advanced position directly after the pulse is delivered to the skin. This ensures that the element is back in its starting position for the next epilating operation and able to trigger a new pulse onto the skin. The desired artificial pain is thus created by the pulse without. this having any other adverse effects on the user.
According to the present invention it is particularly suitable for the element to be able to be urged back into the retracted position by the skin itself. This arrangement does not require any special components or the like. Instead, the element recedes automatically while delivering a pulse against or onto the skin as soon as it reaches the skin. It is an advantage for each individual clamping device of the appliance to be assigned one element for delivering a pulse. This approach represents an independent feature of the present invention.
In an advantageous aspect of the present invention in which the clamping device is able to perform a rotary movement with cyclic epilation, the element is coupled with the rotary movement of the clamping device and is arranged directly ahead of the clamping device viewed in the direction of rotation. In this simple way the element always delivers a pulse directly ahead of the time and position of each cyclic epilation by the clamping device. This is thus accomplished without any special additional components simply by the advantageous arrangement of the element in front of the clamping device viewed in the direction of rotation.
In an advantageous further feature of the present invention, the element is capable of adopting a retracted position which during a rotary movement has a diameter smaller than the maximum diameter of the clamping device, and an advanced position which during a rotary movement has a diameter greater than the maximum diameter of the clamping device. Hence during a rotary movement the element protrudes beyond the clamping device in its advanced position but not in its retracted position.
Particularly suitably, these two positions of the element are utilized for the following possible ways of generating pulses. A first possibility entails using the advanced position as a starting posi
Cohen Richard
Kreutz Norbert
Pahl Dietrich
Sanchez-Martinez Pedro
Braun Aktiengesellschaft
Dawson Glenn K.
Podszus Edward S.
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