BBL® HEROic™

BBL HEROic is not a separate machine but the newest handpiece and mode for delivering Sciton's BroadBand Light, or BBL, treatments on the company's JOULE X and mJOULE platforms. BBL works by pulsing broad-spectrum light into the skin; the light is absorbed by pigment or by small blood vessels and converts to heat, which the body then processes as part of its normal healing response. HEROic adds a motion-tracking sensor system, which Sciton calls its Skin Positioning System, that follows the handpiece as the provider moves it over the skin so pulses land evenly, including on curved or uneven areas of the body. It is used for concerns such as sun spots and other pigment, visible redness and small vessels, mild to moderate acne, unwanted hair, and, using a separate SkinTyte mode on the same handpiece, mild skin laxity. Sciton's original BroadBand Light device received FDA 510(k) clearance in 2003, with the wrinkle-treatment indication added in 2007; a device-specific FDA record naming the HEROic handpiece itself could not be located, so it should be understood as the current handpiece on that already-cleared platform rather than as a newly and separately cleared device.