PRESS RELEASE - November 14, 2000
Advancements in Scar Management
Low Temperature Splinting Goes High-Tech
Bio Med Sciences, Inc. of Allentown, PA announces the introduction of Silon-LTS® Low Temperature Splinting for scar management. Silon-LTS is the latest addition to Bio Med’s current line of scar management products.
Several years ago Bio Med Sciences introduced Silon-STS® Silicone Thermoplastic Splinting as the first product to combine the moldability of thermoplastics with a therapeutic surface of silicone. Silicone and pressure have been individually shown to reduce and prevent hypertrophic scars and keloids. Bio Med’s composite splinting technology is an innovative way of applying both of these modalities at once.
Silon-STS is a high-temperature thermoplastic composite material. The product is transparent but requires an impression making process for forming since softening occurs at too high a temperature to mold the product directly against the patient’s skin. Thus the material must be formed against a plaster mold of the anatomical area to be splinted. This has largely limited the usefulness of the technique to facemask applications where transparency is paramount and the extra step of impression making is acceptable.
The new product, Silon-LTS, represents the first development of a low-temperature splinting material that also offers silicone scar management technology. The product functions much like Silon-STS but softens at approximately 160o F (70o C). This allows the clinician to form the splint directly against the patient’s skin, thereby eliminating the costly and cumbersome step of taking an impression and making a plaster mold. Silon-LTS is not transparent, so Silon-STS will remain a splinting material of choice for facemask applications. Silon-LTS, however, offers great versatility and thereby greatly expands the usefulness of composite splinting technology to meet many scar management requirements.