Medical Aesthetic News

 Pigmentation, loss of firmness, neck lines. As we age, skin concerns rarely come one at a time. With more people arriving at the clinic with several concerns at once, the standard for treatment is shifting from "how dramatic the change looks" to "how natural it feels." One device drawing attention in this shift is DEKA's RedTouch PRO, a 675 nm laser built around collagen selectivity. Where HIFU and RF typically stimulate collagen indirectly through heat, RedTouch PRO uses a wavelength preferentially absorbed by collagen to deliver fine thermal stimulation that prompts new collagen formation. Its relatively low discomfort and limited downtime make it a treatment that can fit into daily life. Dr. Hyeokjae Kwon of Spring Day Clinic Pyeongnae-Hopyeong sees it as "lifting that works on skin texture, rather than contour." Rather than promising to fix everything at once, he stresses that "consistent care is what matters" — and he walks us through w...

 "Same device, same procedure — so why fly all the way to Korea for it?" Thermage FLX, the original monopolar RF platform, is available worldwide, including in China and Japan. Yet a significant number of international patients still travel to Korea for it — and Japanese patients, in particular, have grown noticeably more common in recent years. At Class One Clinic, where 60 to 70 percent of patients are international visitors, Dr. Wonkyu Hong points to three reasons. Treatment prices in Korea are relatively low, physicians perform the procedures themselves, and a transparent practice of opening sealed, genuine tips in front of patients has earned their trust. In some overseas markets, it can be difficult to verify whether a treatment tip is genuine, and some patients may hesitate to proceed unless they can see the sealed package opened firsthand. We asked Dr. Wonkyu Hong why international patients seek out a trusted original in Korea.  #MedicalAestheticNews #SoltaMedical #Th...

 Curiosity about lifting treatments often comes with a familiar hesitation: the fear of pain. Hearing that a procedure "worked well but really hurt" is enough to make many people put it off. In recent years, lifting technology has increasingly moved toward keeping discomfort low while still aiming to preserve results. Dr. Kwangsoo Kim of AFOR Clinic works with the XERF system — a monopolar RF device that combines 6.78MHz and 2MHz frequencies with Wave Fit Pulse technology and ICD cooling to help keep treatment comfortable. In his experience, it has also kept the risk of issues like burns low, and he says this has contributed to patient satisfaction in his practice. In our interview, Dr. Kim explains how he uses a consultation notepad to map each patient's concerns and designs a lifting treatment that even pain-sensitive patients can undergo comfortably.  #MedicalAestheticNews #CynosureLutronic #XERF #AFORClinic #DrKwangsooKim ★ Article Link: https://www.medicalaestheticne...

 Exosome-based treatments have long been viewed mainly as "boosters for acne patients," but in clinical practice they are now drawing renewed attention in areas that have been difficult to address with conventional protocols — melasma, erythema, and refractory pigmentation. Dr. Sookhyun Bang of DR Dermatology Clinic runs the Sylfirm and P198 ExoHealer combination as a routine protocol for her melasma patients. Because melasma is closely associated with an abnormal dermal environment and chronic inflammation, her clinical philosophy is that pairing Sylfirm's dermal remodeling effect with ExoHealer's anti-inflammatory and regenerative signaling may help address the underlying pathophysiologic environment more directly. Applying this protocol — 3 to 5 sessions at two-week intervals, and up to 10 in severe cases — she has observed a growing number of patients reporting visible improvement in pigmentation, reduced facial erythema and sensitivity, and a more refined skin te...

 As skin boosters surge in popularity, non-ablative fractional lasers (NAFL) are drawing renewed attention — and for pores, scars, and pigmentation, Dr. Seongoo Lee of Alive Dermatology Clinic (Cheonan-Asan) has made Candela's dual-wavelength platform, the Nordlys Mini, his device of choice. The core of the system lies in its dual-wavelength design: the 1550 nm addresses deep dermal rejuvenation, textural improvement, and selected deeper pigmentary changes associated with photoaging, while the 1940 nm reaches more superficial layers for tone evenness. Having found it the most satisfying option across both efficacy and safety, Dr. Lee highlights two things in particular — its complementary clinical positioning in shallow scars and pores, where it offers a different role relative to the downtime of ablative devices, and a treatment philosophy that maximizes synergy by combining heat-based "hot rejuvenation" with skin booster–based "cold rejuvenation" in a single s...

 Aesthetic medicine is shifting from simply "adding" more of a good ingredient toward "rebooting" the skin into a more receptive state for that ingredient. DermaShine—the line that has set the standard in the precision drug-injection (injector) market—has introduced DermaShine Duo RF, a hybrid device that integrates low-output radiofrequency (RF) with drug delivery in a single handpiece. It addresses the demand for combination treatments through a sequential protocol that first conditions the skin with RF and then delivers the agent precisely; in a preclinical photoaging mouse model, RF alone reduced wrinkles by about 30%. Under a single concept—creating a more receptive tissue environment for injectable treatment—the speakers presented combination-treatment strategies spanning reticular-dermis tightening, fat-graft preconditioning, the newly launched PDLLA skin booster AestheFill Lux, and the curved-cartridge HIFU device Lincurve Pro. At the DermaShine Duo_RF Launc...

 "I get skin boosters regularly, but my skin still never quite feels replenished from within"… it's a frustration many medical aesthetic patients have carried for years. Beyond the familiar approach of "prompting" the skin to produce collagen, a new direction is gaining attention: directly supplying the structural components that make up the dermis — the extracellular matrix, or ECM. Rather than sowing seeds in bare soil and waiting for them to grow, the idea is closer to reinforcing the soil itself. Dr. Kwangcheol Hong of SKINMEDI Dermatology, who specializes in scar, pigmentation, and skin regeneration, has brought one such ECM booster into his own practice. What sets the product he uses — Juveàcell — apart is its processing: rather than the chemical solvents used in conventional processing, it relies on supercritical CO₂ to selectively remove only the cellular components. We sat down with Dr. Hong to hear how he approaches this versatile treatment across a ra...

 Deep wrinkles and atrophic scars have typically been treated by filling them with dermal filler or resurfacing the skin with lasers — yet both approaches are widely seen as leaving limitations. The Self Dermal Regeneration technique, which board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Sehun Jin (Jin Plastic Surgery, Seoul) has performed for 17 years, takes a different mechanistic route. Carbon dioxide gas creates microscopic spaces within the dermis, and while hyaluronic acid holds those spaces open, the approach is designed to induce collagen formation. Because the two substances are injected in alternating micro-doses at the same site, Dr. Jin explains, the method is distinct from conventional fillers that add volume and projection. The foundational study was published in Annals of Plastic Surgery in 2013. Once dependent on the practitioner's sense of touch, the procedure is now performed with JUVGEN — a medical device that controls injection volume in 0.001-cc increments — helping reduce...

 After four decades, one of the hardest problems in vascular laser medicine has finally been solved. Delivering a yellow wavelength strongly absorbed by oxyhemoglobin from a solid-state laser — and at high power — was a barrier the field could not overcome for decades. With its own proprietary KGW Raman technology, LASEROPTEK has broken through, unveiling VASCURA 589, the world's first high-power solid-state vascular laser. By eliminating dye entirely, it is designed to substantially reduce the maintenance burden; one patient put it simply — "If PDL pain is a 5 out of 10, VASCURA 589 is a 1 out of 10" — and the KOLs in attendance called it not a simple new device but a new platform for vascular lasers. At the VASCURA 589 PREMIERE, held on June 13 at Halla Hall, Seoul Dragon City, in Yongsan, Seoul, a commemorative address by KIST President Sangrok Oh and a keynote by LASEROPTEK CEO Changjin Lee were followed by Dr. Wooseok Koh of JMO Dermatology, who framed the physics of...

 In aesthetic medicine, combining RF microneedling with exosome-based products is one of the most actively discussed approaches today — yet the clinical answer to "which RF microneedling device, with which exosome-based product, and why" differs from one physician to the next. Dr. Sookhyun Bang of DR Dermatology Clinic answers that question with more than a decade of clinical experience using Sylfirm. In her view, Sylfirm's distinctive ability to help modulate abnormal vascular components and down-regulate inflammatory cytokines can make it a comparatively well-tolerated option for sensitive, barrier-compromised skin — cases in which conventional RF microneedling may require greater caution. Her reason for adding P198 ExoHealer, an umbilical cord blood-derived exosome-based skin booster, is that the immunological immaturity of cord blood may reduce concerns around rejection and inflammatory responses, its growth factors and cytokines support regenerative signaling, and it...

 CaHA-based collagen stimulators are carving out a distinct clinical position in the aesthetic medicine market. Even within the same collagen-stimulator category, product selection and treatment design diverge depending on whether the goal is volume or skin quality improvement, making the question of which patient to treat with CaHA, and for what purpose, an increasingly nuanced clinical judgment. Dr. Kiwoong Yu of Maylin Clinic's Jamsil Lotte Hotel branch, who has used this CaHA product line since its earlier VoLassom era, views CaHA as a treatment positioned more toward rejuvenation than volume. He explains that CaHA suits patients who need a modest degree of volume alongside skin quality improvement, and that the keys to nodule prevention lie in proper dilution and even product distribution. From patient selection criteria to mixing and layer design, combination with energy-based devices, and safety management, Dr. Yu shares his clinical experience.  #MedicalAestheticNews #...

Candela, a global energy-based device (EBD) company, held the China-Korea Gentle Premium Hair Removal Institution Leadership Summit in Seoul on May 20. At the summit, where premium hair removal clinic leaders from Korea and China gathered to share market trends and operational insights, we met Dr. Yuming Wang, who participated as a speaker representing the Chinese delegation. A physician with a master's degree in plastic surgery from Zhejiang University and 26 years of clinical experience, Dr. Wang operates a premium hair removal clinic in Hangzhou that has been recognized as a Candela Excellence Clinic. He described the GentleMax Pro Plus as "an all-rounder—a versatile device that goes beyond hair removal to skin tone improvement and selected vascular concerns." He also shared the tangible impact it has had on his clinic: "Since adoption, nearly half of our patient traffic is driven by this device, and it accounts for about one-third of our clinic's revenue....

 As the skin-booster market grows, the clinical question is shifting from "what to use" to "how to deliver it." Getting a surface-applied active ingredient to its intended depth comes down to how well you can enhance absorption, and that's where a familiar trade-off gets in the way: push delivery harder and pain follows; ease the pain and delivery weakens. re:H (Curiosis) is a transdermal active-ingredient delivery platform built around the SSCM™ (Selective Smart Control Microneedle System) microneedle system, pairing positive and negative pressure control with microneedles to target exactly that intersection of Low Pain and High Delivery. We sat down with Dr. Hyungeun Cho, Chief Medical Director of Rejuel Clinic Gangnam, who runs re:H alongside a broad lineup of energy-based devices and has integrated it into clinical practice, to ask how he balances pain reduction with delivery efficiency. He walks through how he adjusts depth and tip selection to each patient...

 Many people wonder why a dermatologist would draw their blood and put it back into their face. Yet PRP, which concentrates the platelets and growth factors in your blood and returns them to the skin, is a regenerative treatment that patients with sensitive, inflammation-prone skin have long trusted. Its benefits were well recognized, but it carried a drawback: delivered by manual syringe, the pain and bruising were significant enough that many hesitated even when they understood its potential. Once a needle-free injector eased that burden, the treatment left no needle marks and minimal bruising and allowed patients to return to daily life the same day, and its scope widened from acne scars and enlarged pores to rosacea, atopic dermatitis, and melasma. Dr. Somin Ryu of Bluebird Dermatology (Seongnam, Korea), one of the country's most prolific CureJet users, calls PRP "regenerative components the body makes on its own," and walks through her patient-tailored approach, 100 ...

 As injectable HA products rapidly expand as a category, the question of how to draw the line between fillers, skinboosters, and boosters, even among products built on the same hyaluronic acid, is becoming an increasingly difficult one in clinical practice. In Part 1 of this lecture, Dr. Hansaem Kim, director of DOD Dermatology Yongsan (Seoul, Korea), places HILO WAVE, a product drawing growing attention, at the center of this classification debate and examines, from a rheology perspective, how it differs from conventional HA fillers, HA skinboosters, and PLLA/PDLLA-based collagen boosters. Drawing on the storage modulus (G'), the loss modulus (G''), and the tan δ and phase angle behavior under quasi-static and dynamic conditions, he shows that HILO WAVE has intermediate viscoelastic properties: closer to a skinbooster at rest, yet moving in concert with the tissue like a filler during facial expression. On this basis, Dr. Kim defines HILO WAVE as a dual-HA collagen booster...

 In choosing a lifting device, the benchmark has long been how well it sculpts facial contour. Macroscopic contour lifting, represented by Ultherapy and Thermage, was the mainstream for years, but the focus in aesthetic medicine is gradually shifting toward results that are quieter and more refined. The DEKA RedTouch PRO is a 675 nm collagen-targeting laser positioned squarely within that shift. Unlike HIFU and RF, which stimulate collagen indirectly through heat, its distinguishing feature is a wavelength designed to be preferentially absorbed by collagen fibers, helping limit epidermal disruption and reduce the pain burden. Dr. Hyeokjae Kwon, whose clinic, Spring Day Clinic Pyeongnae-Hopyeong, operates a broad EBD portfolio, calls RedTouch PRO "a device that elevates the clinic, rather than simply increasing turnover." Interpreting it as lifting for skin texture rather than contour, he shares his hands-on clinical experience — from full-face protocols to region-specific use...

 How far can the results of monopolar RF be pushed? At Cheongdam CIRCLE Clinic (Seoul, Korea), Dr. Heewon Suh looks for the answer along two axes — temporal fascia–oriented lifting and basement membrane support — using the Pulsar handpiece and Quasar tip of SHENB's Sunny. With its IMCT (Individual Movement Control Technology) structure of 25 individually moving pins, the Quasar tip delivers RF energy evenly to the scalp and to curved facial areas that flat tips struggle to reach, expanding treatment options beyond conventional flat-tip RF. The scalp lifting mode, running monopolar at 1 MHz to reach deep toward the temporal fascia, uses RF heat to promote contraction in the temporal fascia region and contribute to facial lifting, while the subsequent Base Toning mode at a 2:8 monopolar-to-bipolar ratio supports basement membrane remodeling with minimal discomfort, helping optimize the absorption and response of a subsequent skin booster. The final step is P198 ExoNature SB PLUS — a ...

 Held at Lieul Dermatology Clinic in Seoul on May 26, the DermEden Pre-Launch Expert Session gathered Korean key opinion leaders in pigmentation care. Ahead of French dermocosmetic brand DermEden's Korean debut, local partner Primoris International shared early field-test results and examined where the line might fit in Korea's pigmentation market. The session ranged across the mechanism — how tranexamic acid (TXA) suppresses the plasmin pathway to act on pigment formation, melanosome transfer and PIH; the 5% TXA–niacinamide formulation; clinical cases in which Dr. Eunyoung Kang and Dr. Kyungtae Bae combined the line with lasers and exosome boosters; and a KOL panel discussion on indication selection and positioning. Notably, presenters and panelists converged on using DermEden alongside procedures such as lasers, exosome boosters and microneedling while narrowing its indications and patient groups: non-sensitive patients with non-severe melasma; post-procedure PIH prevention; ...

 For many people, vitiligo is remembered as "a condition you can do nothing about" or "something you have to live with forever." The spreading white patches, the stares from others, and the long-standing misconception that "there is no treatment" have only added to the weight patients carry. Yet phototherapy, which sits at the center of vitiligo treatment, has been evolving quietly but steadily. Unlike the gas-based excimer lasers long used as the standard, a solid-state UVB laser that requires no gas replacement has emerged — eliminating the gas-related odor during treatment and maintaining a more consistent output, marking a step forward. With minimal discomfort, this approach can also be considered for children and, when clinically indicated, for pregnant patients, and it helps ease the burden of a treatment that may need to continue two to three times a week over a long period. We sat down with Dr. Mingyeol Cho of Oaro Dermatology Cheongnyangni to ask ...

 Candela, a global energy-based device (EBD) company, held the China-Korea Gentle Premium Hair Removal Institution Leadership Summit in Seoul on May 20. Bringing together leaders of premium hair removal clinics from Korea and China to share market trends and operational insights, the summit reflected Candela's strategic ambition in the APAC market: to evolve beyond a device supplier into an "ecosystem partner" that helps clinics succeed. At the summit, Medical Aesthetic News sat down exclusively with Indra Suardi, SVP & GM, Asia Pacific Commercial at Candela. He described Korea as "the beauty capital not just of Asia, but of the world," emphasizing that the Korean market holds strategic value far beyond its revenue contribution. He also highlighted Korea's use of the GentleMax Pro Plus in the male hair removal market as a model other APAC markets can learn from. "Candela is no longer just a company that sells devices," he added. "We aim to...

 We met Dr. Jongho Jeon of MizSlim Clinic, the newly inaugurated 13th president of the Korean Primary Care Society (KPCS), at the 2026 Spring Conference. Founded in 2003 and now with some 6,000 regular members, KPCS is a primary-care society spanning aesthetics and pain management, as well as reimbursed and self-pay areas of care, and it runs specialized academies in pain, dermatologic disease, and integrated aesthetic dermatology alongside its spring and autumn conferences each year. Dr. Jeon distilled the society's identity into "a society built on idealism—one where what you learn today can be applied in the clinic tomorrow," and named the bond among officers who regard the society as their professional home as its greatest asset. Announcing plans to hold this year's autumn conference independently at the ST Center on a larger scale, he stressed that mutual growth between the society and the industry matters above all. From an operating philosophy that nurtures jun...

 On May 19, Daewoong Pharmaceutical and DNC Aesthetics held the "DEEP Symposium" for Korean physicians at the Sofitel Ambassador Seoul. The gathering was designed to take an in-depth look at how Facetem—the K-CaHA biostimulator now exported to 30 countries, known in Korea as DCLASSY CaHA—can be applied in domestic clinical practice. Opening the event, Dr. Carmelo Crisafulli of Dubai highlighted Facetem's lattice-pore structure and uniform microspheres as its key differentiators, sharing a surgical follow-up case in which the treated area showed almost no scar tissue. Continuing the discussion, Dr. Giwoong Hong of SAMSKIN Plastic Surgery Clinic argued that a product's material properties matter more than "how it builds collagen," presenting his rheology-based injection protocol, the CAST Code. Dr. Jisoo Kook of It's Me Clinic then extended the day's theme—standardizing practice through data rather than experience—into clinical territory with his ...

 As the monopolar RF market grows increasingly crowded, combination protocols that move beyond simple tightening toward structural skin remodeling are drawing attention. At Cheongdam CiRCLE Clinic, Dr. Heewon Suh pairs SHENB's Sunny — a monopolar RF–based platform — with the plant-derived exosome skin booster P198 ExoNature to pursue a multilayered total anti-aging approach spanning superficial tightening, temporal fascia–oriented lifting, basement membrane support, and skin barrier recovery. Sunny's dual RF architecture and the IMCT (Individual Movement Control Technology) of its Quasar tip let a single device address both superficial tightening and temporal fascia lifting, while the Base Toning mode at a 2:8 monopolar-to-bipolar ratio supports the basement membrane to help optimize the response to subsequent treatments. Adding the ginseng-derived plant exosome P198 ExoNature brings anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune-modulating support for skin recovery into a single s...

 Surgery feels daunting, and EBD monotherapy has limitations in the durability of results. The periorbital region, with its thin skin and proximity to the globe, leaves minimal margin for error, making it one of the most challenging areas to treat. A combination of two distinct mechanisms is drawing attention: Eye Thermage, a monopolar RF treatment using an eye-specific tip that contracts and remodels existing collagen through thermal stimulation, paired with Juvelook i, a PDLLA-based biostimulator that promotes neocollagenesis, in a periorbital-specific protocol. We spoke with Dr. Byonghan Song of Renewme Dermatology, Hongje Branch, whose practice centers on anti-aging treatment and who has actively applied this combination in clinical practice. He shared practical, immediately applicable details: patient selection by Grade 0–3 classification, the rationale behind the "Thermage-first" sequencing that accounts for potential infection risk related to coupling fluid and RF ther...