Patent ID: 8585618

Claim:
A method of inhibiting hair growth in a skin tissue, the method comprising: placing a unitary ultrasonic transducer in contact with the skin tissue, the transducer having an acoustic aperture for producing a substantially collimated energy beam over a treatment area greater than 16 mm 2 , wherein the substantially collimated energy beam is produced by a single transducer element, wherein the cross-sectional area of the substantially collimated energy beam does not vary by more than 20% over a distance of at least 5 mm from the surface of the skin tissue to a treatment plane, and wherein a chilled surface is in contact with the skin tissue, the tissue having a plurality of hair follicles within the treatment area; and generating a plurality of ultrasonic energy pulses, by supplying a drive frequency to the transducer, said pulses for heating the hair follicles, said pulses being generated with at least two different drive frequencies selected to reduce variations in the intensity profile across the treatment area.