Dr. Steven Weiner started his ultrasound journey in Rotterdam, at Dr. Leonie Schelke’s complications clinic. He witnessed a nasal vascular occlusion which failed to clear after injection of 3000 units of hyaluronidase. Using ultrasound guidance, Dr. Schelke was able to resolve the occlusion by injecting 125 units in the exact area of occlusion. Vascular flow was re-established and confirmed using color doppler. Now, 3 years later, Dr. Weiner, a board-certified Head and Neck Surgeon specializing in Facial Plastic Surgeon, is teaching other clinicians how to use ultrasound to perform safer injections and achieve better results.
When I started using the Clarius L20 HD, I saw firsthand the benefits of using ultrasound every day. It’s better for my patients because I can place fillers exactly where I want and it’s better for my peace of mind because I know I’m performing safe injections every time,” Dr. Weiner explains.
As an industry leader and avid Clarius user, Dr. Weiner was invited to test the new Clarius handheld ultrasound systems before the products were brought to market. Watch this video to learn what he had to say about his experience with the new Clarius L20 HD3 ultrasound – now 30% smaller, more affordable, and with new specialized AI-powered features that optimize imaging for medical aesthetics. And read the article that follows for Dr. Weiner’s seven reasons Clarius handheld ultrasound is the right choice for your facial aesthetics practice.
1. Surprisingly Affordable
The handheld ultrasounds are going to change aesthetics because the price point and the resolution are so good. Normally, if you were to get one of those cart systems, you’re paying in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. With Clarius, you’re way less than that. You’re paying around $7,000, or even less for certain models. Not everyone can afford the $20,000 to $30,000 piece of equipment, but they can afford this.”
2. Great Resolution
I think that ultrasound, particularly Clarius, is going to become the gold standard for filler treatments. With this 20-megahertz resolution, you can see fillers and you can determine the different types of filler. You can see calcium hydroxyapatite, PMMA, HA. You can determine all the different types of filler with the resolution of the handheld Clarius L20. The new Clarius scanner is just as powerful and the resolution is just as good as the previous generation, even though it’s smaller. You can clearly see detailed vascular anatomy.”
3. Easy to Use
I value the L20 for its great resolution and easy-to-use screen. The app is really intuitive and easy to learn: it’s all touch screen. Clarius is very easy to use with the Apple environment. Other systems use DICOM, which is a totally different language that’s very hard to use in a small aesthetic practice. I can save the images to my iPad and even Airdrop or text images to my patients.”
4. Increases Confidence
Using Clarius increases my confidence. I would never ever inject deeply onto the bone in the pyriform without actually looking at the vessels prior. I have seen so many occlusions in that area, but if you have ultrasound and you see it’s clear, you can inject with significant confidence. You can look at an area that’s a bruise, and you can tell that it’s a bruise versus an occlusion. You don’t have to stay up all night worrying in your head, ‘Is there a problem with this patient?’ You can inject the temples and you can see, ‘There was flow after I injected.’ So that makes you much more confident.
Your patients are also more confident when you show them exactly where you want to put the filler and then show them that’s exactly where it went and everything is as it should be. These are things that you can’t do without seeing through the skin. The only way you can see it through the skin is with ultrasound.”
5. Resolves Complications Quickly
I often get calls from colleagues asking for help to treat vascular occlusions. When they have an ultrasound, I can help them quickly treat the issue over FaceTime. Before using ultrasound, we injected 20, 30, 40 vials of hyaluronidase to blindly try to dissolve a vascular occlusion. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t.
Now we have an eye below the skin. We can see a vascular occlusion clearly at the bedside with a very inexpensive but high-resolution Clarius L20.
For example, this weekend, one of my trainees who has a Clarius ultrasound contacted me about helping another doctor’s patient who had an obstruction in the pyriform. She showed me the area of the pyriform over FaceTime and I was able to tell her exactly where to look for the filler and obstruction. She was able to inject the area precisely with ultrasound guidance and saw immediate improvement in discomfort, and the skin perked up. It went from pale to a good red color.”
6. No Wires to Get in Your Way
I appreciate that Clarius is wireless as sometimes a wire is difficult to manipulate around the patient or it lays across the patient’s face. Now they’re going to be a little bit bulkier than a small, hockey stick probe that you can use on a cart-based system, but then you’re dealing with the weight of the wire, the bulky system, and the higher cost.”
The new third generation HD Clarius is much more compact and balanced than the one I have been using. It’s smaller, easier to hold and easier to manipulate. It works great for facial aesthetic procedures.“
7. Take it With You Everywhere
Unlike a cart-based system, Clarius takes up no floor space and is easy to take from one room to the next, which is ideal for busy clinics. If you have more than one clinic, you don’t need to buy several ultrasounds. You can go from clinic to clinic with the same ultrasound.
For me, it’s great that I can put Clarius in my backpack and take it on a plane when I travel to teach courses, which I do two or three times a month. I believe so much in spreading the word of ultrasound in aesthetics that I created a course, which is feasible because I can easily take an ultrasound system to my trainees. I can’t carry or ship a cart to them.”
About Dr. Weiner and Ultrasound Training for Facial Aesthetics
Dr. Steve Weiner is a Facial Plastic Surgeon based in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. He was trained at Johns Hopkins and established The Aesthetic Clinique 15 years ago where his team performs non-invasive and minimally-invasive procedures.
In an effort to spread the word about ultrasound for aesthetics, Dr. Weiner recently created Sonosthetics, an ultrasound course, which has evolved into a network of ultrasound-trained aesthetic professionals who collaborate to help resolve patient complications as needed. The course takes trainees through the physics of ultrasound, the nomenclature, the anatomy of the face, how to use duplex and color Doppler, ultrasound-guided injections, and provides hands-on training.
Visit Clarius Classroom to see brief training tutorials with Dr. Weiner using the Clarius L20 HD3.
You’re also invited to join Dr. Weiner on February 23rd for his free educational webinar “Using Ultrasound for Safer Injections of the Lower Face: Deep Pyriform Space and Jawline.” He will showcase a real-patient procedure recently captured on video to demonstrate step-by-step techniques for performing safer filler injections by using ultrasound to limit vascular complications in the facial and angular arteries. Save your seat today!
About Clarius Handheld Ultrasound HD3 for Facial Aesthetics
More aesthetic clinicians than ever are using Clarius high-definition wireless ultrasound for better results. That’s because Clarius scanners are more affordable and easier to learn than traditional systems. The Clarius L20 HD3 is the world’s only high-frequency ultrasound (20MHz) in a wireless scanner, with exceptional superficial imaging for facial aesthetics and advanced features like Vessel Depth AI to automatically measure the depth of vascular structures.
Contact us today or request a virtual ultrasound demo to see the difference ultra-high-definition imaging can make for your patients.
