Researchers use new technique to alter facial appearance without surgery

Using electricity and 3D-printing, scientists have figured out a new technique that can alter one’s facial appearance without the need of any painful surgeries or incisions.

Doctors have developed a new ‘molecular surgery’ to soften and re-shape cartilage without even making a single incision, scarring or recovery time, just by using tiny needles, electricity and 3D-printed molds – a technique that can cut down recovery time for medical procedures and make the process less painful.

“We envision this new technique as a low-cost office procedure done under local anesthesia,” said one of the lead scientists, Michael Hill. “The whole process would take about five minutes.”

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The research describes how cartilage, which shapes our noses and other features, can be made more malleable after being subjected to an electrical current. If the malleable cartilage is held in place as it hardens, the technique could be used for performing a nose job or other surgical procedure without the need of using scalpels, reported Futurism.

The scientists came up with the process by accident. Previously, one of the team member heated cartilage with infrared lasers, which was too expensive and often killed the tissue it heated. Hence, the team tried electricity instead. The electrical charge worked, but instead of heating the cartilage, it unbalanced the electrically-charged ions that stiffen cartilage, loosening it up and letting it be reshaped.

As per Phys.org, the team tested their method on a rabbit by bending one of its ears to a desired new shape. However, human applications are still far off in the future. Apart from the technique being used in cosmic surgeries to reshape people’s features, the team foresees their method being used to restore function to stiff joints or to repair people’s deviated septum.