The Emsella: a chair to treat urinary incontinence

People People might assume that aesthetics is all about ‘tweakments’, botox and cosmetic surgery but the Dublin office of BTL Aesthetics is an eye-opener in terms of the kinds of cutting-edge, non-invasive medical and beauty treatments that are available in clinics around the country.

The Emsella, for example, looks like a fairly innocuous blue plastic armchair but is actually something I suspect many Irish women are not aware exists, an FDA-approved treatment for urinary incontinence. The patient sits on the chair, fully dressed, while the seat of the chair emits an intense and focused electromagnetic pulse that stimulates the pelvic floor area, giving it an intense workout. BTL says a single treatment brings 11,000 pelvic floor muscle contractions, which helps retrain and re-educate the muscles in incontinent patients, who might also suffer from sexual dysfunction, both problems many women feel they have to live with.

Dee MacMahon, country manager with BTL Industries Ireland, set up the Irish office more than a year ago and has 17 years experience in the industry. She says the treatment can help people with stress, urge and mixed incontinence.

“So many women who have had babies have this problem to some degree. When they are carrying a baby, it pushes the organs down and stretches the hell out of the pelvic floor and that happens whether a woman has had a C-section or a vaginal delivery because the hormones of pregnancy have a loosening effect. The muscle needs to be stretched to do its job, it’s like an elastic band, it can stretch and stretch and all of a sudden it’s a stretch too far, it has lost its muscle memory. If the pelvic floor is hanging low, the bladder is at the wrong angle and that causes problems.

“What this chair does is use sensory receptors to stimulate, strengthen and re-educate the muscle, and that helps the patient to regain bladder control and the improved muscle tone can improve their sexual satisfaction.”

She says patients will need at least a course of six treatments – two a week for three weeks – and the cost to the patient in clinics is about €300 per treatment, or about €1,800 for the course, “but if you put that in context, the cost of incontinence pads can be between €700-€1,200 per year,” she says. If the patient is not seeing any improvement after that, they would then need to see a urinary gynaecologist but BTL say, that in a clinical trial, 75 per cent of treated patients either reduced or eliminated the use of pads. The Emsella can also help condition the pelvic floor in men who are post-surgery for prostate cancer.

She says the treatment doesn’t work for overactive bladder “which is an orally medicated condition”.

BTL is long established brand with 62 global affiliates and a range of 300-plus products in the areas of aesthetic medicine, physiotherapy, cardiology and traction therapy and it supplies its devices to BTL-approved clinics around the country. A list of the clinics that offer their treatments can be found on btlaesthethics.com.

Another treatment on show in BTL was the Lymphastim, a physio device for lymph drainage therapy. The treatment encourages the natural drainage of the lymph, carrying waste products away from the tissues back toward the heart. It is designed to boost the circulation and can be used to help treat everything from cellulite to weight loss, to toning and shaping the body to relieving inflammatory conditions using a pneumatic presso-therapy principle. The patient lies in an inflatable suit, which has trousers and sleeves with overlapping chambers that provide a gentle massage and encourages the natural circulation of the lymph through the body.

The therapy can help speed up your body’s natural healing process, help eliminate toxins, accelerate the metabolism and boost energy. BTL says it can help people with ‘heavy legs’ syndrome and can help to prevent varicose veins. It is also be used to help clear the post surgical obstruction of lymph vessels and requires at least four to six sessions, costing about €100-€150 per treatment.

The plan is to bring the Lymphastim to more aesthetic clinics around the country and to the Irish physio industry, which traditionally hasn’t invested in these kinds of devices.

While the Lymphastim is doing its work, some clinics’ clients opt to have a skin rejuvenation anti-ageing treatment using the Exilis Ultra 360 which, MacMahon says, like the other devices, needs to be in the right hands because heat is applied at temperatures of between 40-43 degrees to the skin with a handpiece in order to increase skin density, increase collagen and reduce wrinkles. It requires one treatment a week for four weeks before there are real results and costs about €400 for a full face, and €200 for a specific treatment area.

A multifunctional device, it can also target fat and cellulite on the body. “The focused energy penetrates deep into the subcutaneous layer and leads to the contraction of fibres in the tissue. When you heat up a fat cell, it inhibits the ability of the fat cell to function, the high temperatures hit deep into the fat, and the fat is then melted, while tightening superficial tissues. It also increases oxygen, cellular activity and blood flow through an influx of bio-stimulation to the area.

The Emsculpt Neo, which is used for body shaping and has advocates such as Kim Kardashian and actor Megan Fox, claims clinical outcomes of a 25 per increase in muscle and a reduction of 30 per cent fat in the treatment area.

She says the fat cell is interrupted in its ability to work by the focused radio frequency travelling through the fat tissues , liquefying them and at the same time the muscles contract. A single session is the equivalent of 20,000 crunches in the gym, says MacMahon, and it can be used on abs, tummy, bottom and bingo wings. A course of four sessions is not cheap at €2,500-€3,500.

MacMahon has seen a rise in the number of Irish people looking for non-invasive beauty treatments.

“There are a lot of people with a few quid in their pocket since Covid and the ‘Zoom boom’ happened, where people have being seeing themselves on screen and are not happy with what they have been seeing and want to do something about it. We are so happy to have the tools available to support and bring better confidence to women and help them flourish.””