Surgery – Means for introducing or removing material from body for... – Treating material applied to or removed from external...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-07
2002-05-14
Lewis, Kim M. (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Means for introducing or removing material from body for...
Treating material applied to or removed from external...
C604S290000, C132S333000, C004S525000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06387081
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for delivering skin coating chemical compositions directly to the skin. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for applying such coatings onto the skin using a principal of electrostatic misting.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventional skin coating products, whether designed for cosmetic, treatment or medical purposes, are often liquid or viscous or semi-solid products. Most of them are produced in the form of lotions or creams. These products are traditionally applied by gentle massage or rubbing-in with the fingers. These methods of application necessitate the addition of relatively large amounts of adjunct material, i.e. other than the one or more active ingredients necessary to achieve the desired result. Most of these adjunct materials are added to create an aesthetically acceptable product and act as a carrier to deliver the active agent to all parts of the skin. These known delivery systems are wasteful of cosmetic raw materials and have limited efficiency in delivering a desired active ingredient to an intended site. Control over the applied dosage is difficult and limited and the application of the product itself is often time consuming and messy.
In addition, the presence of any significant amounts of stabilizing ingredients such as surfactants, polymers, preservatives, etc, may result in the user experiencing stickiness, greasiness, and possibly irritation. This may be particularly pronounced where skin is damaged or diseased, which may make the application of a product by massage or rubbing-in particularly undesirable.
In the case of coating compositions that are typically applied over the entire body i.e. sun tan lotions, self-tanning products, or moisturizers, application by massage or rubbing-in usually requires a second individual. This is necessary because the user of the product cannot reach and evenly coat all parts of the body unassisted. This is a significant disadvantage because a large percentage of the population would not have such an individual available to apply the product to those hard to reach places.
In addition to the above-described systems for delivering skin treatment agents, there are a small number of known examples where a skin cosmetic or therapeutic active is delivered using an aerosol spray. Two such examples are sprays for sunburn and sprains or other sports injuries. However, aerosol sprays, which are well known in the art for delivering personal products, also suffer from several disadvantages. First, the types of product and active agent that lend themselves to effective aerosol spraying are limited. Second, the use of aerosols still results in significant inefficiency and waste through non-target specific application (over-spray). This over-spray results in loss of active material to the atmosphere. It also creates unwanted mists which can damage surrounding objects if the active ingredient is reactive with whatever object the mist happens to fall on. The use of aerosols to deliver skin cosmetic or therapeutic active agents is also believed to be even less efficient than conventional massage or rubbing-in delivery regimes in the context of percentage and evenness of coverage of the skin surface. Although aerosols can be used to reach many of those hard to reach areas of the body that usually require a second individual for full body application, it is still difficult for a user to achieve a good even coating over the entire body without the assistance of another individual.
The skin is, in fact, a very complex material and has many important characteristics which must be considered in the design of an optimized system for delivering cosmetic or therapeutic actives thereto. For example, skin has a multi-faceted surface having both lipophilic and lipophobic character. This character allows the skin to “breathe” and release water vapor, yet function as an effective barrier against water, dirt and other unwanted materials. One particularly important physical feature of skin is its very rough surface terrain, which creates a problem in successfully applying a desired skin cosmetic or therapeutic active with complete and even coverage.
In a very different technical field, the principle of electrostatic spraying of liquid and solid materials to increase the effectiveness of applying coating materials to objects is also known. In this technique a formulation to be sprayed is raised to a relatively high electric potential in a spray nozzle to cause the formulation to atomize as a spray of electrically charged droplets. Such electrically charged droplets seek the closest grounded object to discharge their electric charge. This can be arranged to be the desired spray target. Electrostatic spraying techniques have been proposed principally for only large-scale industrial and agricultural applications. Examples of these applications include delivering reactive materials like paints, adhesives, and other surface coatings, as well as large-scale delivery of pesticides and other agricultural or agrochemical formulations.
More recently, there have been a small number of proposals for utilizing the known principle of electrostatic spraying for delivering particular materials in specific applications other than those mentioned above. For example, EP-A-224352 (Ocular Treatment) suggests the use of an electrostatic sprayer for delivering a pharmaceutically active agent to the eye, to replace conventional ocular treatment using eye drops.
Other proposals for applying the principle of electrostatic delivery to the skin, for example, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,166 (Cosmetic Application System), U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,674 (Skin Treatment System) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,684 (Cosmetic Delivery System). Each of these proposals suggests the same method of electrostatic spray application to coat the skin with different types of chemical compositions. In one proposal (U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,166) the coating compositions are color cosmetics, in another proposal (U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,674) the coating compositions are skin treatment agents, and in the final proposal (U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,684) the coating compositions are cosmetically active agents, such as, perfume.
In all three of the above proposals the basic application method outlined is basically the same:
(a) providing an apparatus which includes:
(i) a reservoir containing the coating composition to be delivered which is in an electrostatically sprayable form;
(ii) at least one delivery means which is a nozzle in communication with the reservoir;
(iii) a high voltage generator generating voltage in the range of 2 to 20 kilovolts powered from an electricity source; and
(iv) control means for selectively applying the high voltage from the generator to the at least one delivery means; and
(b) actuating the said control means to electrostatically spray the coating composition from the at least one delivery means directly onto the skin at an intended site.
The above proposals reference a number of possible “suitable electrostatic spraying hardware” including EP-A-441501 (Electrostatic Spraying Apparatus), EP-A-468736 (Electrostatic Spraying Device and Method), and EP-A-031649 (Containers and Holders Therefor for Use in Electrostatic Spraying). Each of these referenced electrostatic spraying devices are handheld, self contained units where the reservoir, nozzle, generator, and control for applying high voltage from the generator are in the self-contained apparatus. It is apparent from the descriptions of the “suitable electrostatic spraying hardware” that the anticipated use of the methods described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,166, U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,674 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,322,684 was to apply the specified coating compositions to the skin on various small, localized areas of the body (e.g., the face) by electrostatically spraying them through a handheld self-contained device.
Although this method of application offers some advantages over aerosol spraying because it would eliminate some o
Jenkens & Gilchrist
Lewis Kim M.
Mystic Tan, Inc.
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