Electrotherapy (cosmetic)

Cosmetic electrotherapy is a range of beauty treatments that uses low electric currents passed through the skin to produce several therapeutic effects such as muscle toning in the body and micro-lifting of the face. It is based on electrotherapy, which has been researched and accepted in the field of rehabilitation, though the "scientific and medical communities have tended to sideline or dismiss the use of electrotherapy for healthy muscles".

The use of electricity in cosmetics goes back to the end of the 19th century, almost a hundred years after Luigi Galvani discovered that electricity can make the muscle in a frog's leg twitch (see galvanism). Subsequent research in electrophysiology has been carried out by people such as Robert O. Becker, Dr Björn Nordenström, a former chair of the Nobel Selection Committee for Medicine, and Dr Thomas Wing, who invented some of the first micro-current devices.

The are four main types of treatment, that differ in the type of current they use (see Comparison table, below), including:

Galvanic treatment in the beauty industry has been described since at least the 1970s and earlier. Sometimes called galvanism, the treatment aims to improve the skin in two ways: (1) cleansing: a process called desincrustation, and (2) nourishing the skin condition, through an electro-chemical process called iontophoresis (also called ionisation). This is achieved by the application of a small, constant, direct current. The treatment works on the principle that charged ions in the skin are either attracted or repelled from the electrodes, resulting in certain chemical effects.

Galvanic treatment are often used on the face (facial galvanic treatment) and on the body to treat cellulite (galvanic cellulite treatments).

Faradic treatment has also been described in the beauty industry since the 1970s and earlier. The treatment tones the muscles by repeatedly contracting them with the electric current, resulting in their firming and toning, and an increase in muscular metabolism aims to remove waste products more readily. Faradic treatments are generally used on the face and body, and work by contracting muscles with a short pulse of interrupted direct current.

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