After more than three years of development and five years wading through regulatory paperwork, a new device to permanently remove ingrown eyelashes (trichiasis and districhiasis) is now available to buy in New Zealand and Australia.
Permablate is a precise, portable and affordable electrolysis device which permanently ablates the germinal follicles of ingrowing eyelashes and eyelid margin metaplastic hairs, said Ignatios Koukouras, national product manager of distributor Designs for Vision (DFV). “Traditional larger-scale electrolysis devices can cause collateral tissue damage and necrosis. Permablate offers an affordable, safer treatment, greatly reducing the risks.”
Permablate was developed by the late trans-Tasman eye health educator, entrepreneur and DFV founder Richard Grills, former Sydney Eye Hospital head of oculoplastic surgery Associate Professor Ross Benger and Australian GP-turned-inventor Dr Stuart Esnouf. Other treatment methods are not localised sufficiently, leading to the loss of normal hairs; are often ineffective, regardless of treatment length; overly destructive of perifollicular eyelid tissue, due to the intensity and speed of treatment; and are very expensive, said A/Prof Benger, whose frustration with these issues led to Permablate’s development.
