Skin aging rating system
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Merz Aesthetics presents the Merz Scales, a standardized system for measuring skin aging, at the American Academy of Dermatology's annual meeting in San Francisco, Calif. March 8. The scales - including "A Validated Grading Scale for Forehead Lines" and "A Validated Grading Scale for Crow's Feet" - offer "the first standardized rating system that measures, helps educate and provides a common language for physicians, researchers and patients on the skin's aging process," according to the Marz Pharmaceuticals division. A Merz rep noted that companies - those marketing anti-wrinkle creams, for example - can use the scales to set clear, universally recognized endpoints for clinical trials. "After years of having no comprehensive scale we need to bring new science to the aesthetics business," says Jack Britts, president and CEO of Merz Pharmaceuticals. The scales were developed by nine experts around the world in the fields of dermatology, ophthalmology and plastic surgery who evaluated images of individuals and then generated the scales using computer-morphed photography; the scales were published in a special issue of Dermatologic Surgery in November 2008. Merz is developing other scales for facial volume loss, décolletage, nasolabial folds and glabellar lines