EVOKE

COVID-19 has changed everything including how some medical treatments are being administered. Kim Holman shows us a fairly new hands-free device that hit doctors’ offices at just the right time. The pandemic changed the way many people work from in-office to virtual. Zoom meetings became the norm, followed by concerns about Zoom chin. Zoom jawline, some people call it the jeck, when the jaw and the neck merge into one and you don’t have anything distinct. I truly, since I have been on Zoom meetings, I am like self-conscious and kind of sitting like this at times and I am hoping that I won’t have to do that. Before you actually attach it, do this. Beth O’Neil turned to New Orleans dermatologist Dr. Mary Lupo to address her insecurity. Well, with my age I am noticing the effects of gravity and the jowls and a little bit of the fullness here. And so I thought that this would be perfect, this is kind of what I was looking for. She is now part of a post-market study with Dr. Lupo on a device called Evoke that kills two birds with one stone. It is a non-invasive, non-surgical device to improve the contour of the jawline with the jowls and what’s called submental region which is underneath the jawline where you may have either laxity and/or extra fat. It’s contactless contouring with a radiofrequency device that penetrates deep below the skin to remodel facial tissue and tighten things up. Take a look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos. This helps more like a bulldog look where you get very jowly and your look like your mouth is turning down because everything is heavy down here. Unlike many devices that require a technician to be in close proximity of the patient for an extended period of time, this one involves a quick setup and then it is hands-free. For patients who are perhaps little uncomfortable yet, even though we are vaccinated, they may even be vaccinated, I am not quite sure if we will ever get in some people a level of complete comfort with having someone hovering over them. This is one of a few devices we have in our practice where once the patient is hooked up, the technician or the doctor is not hovering over them during the procedure. Dr. Lupo says some patients like the idea of social distancing at the doctor’s office and some like O’Neil just like the solitude of a more hands-off approach. It was nice to sit here forty five minutes and I could check my emails, I even took a phone call, so it just gives you time to relax and do things that you want to. You could close your eyes really and take a nap. At the end of the day, people want what’s going to give them a nice result and you know, as long as they feel like you are being reasonable careful and now that people are getting vaccinated, they are really coming at. Who knows devices like this could be the wave of the future. It is all calibrating – non-invasive, hands-free and programmable to allow for contouring with minimal contact.