Emerald Laser Explained: How the World’s First Green Fat Loss Laser Works
Emerald by Erchonia is the world’s first green laser to be FDA market cleared for overall body circumference reduction. It’s TGA listed in Australia, and InnovaMed Aesthetics is the distributor for Australia and New Zealand.
If you’re looking at adding non-invasive fat reduction to your clinic, this is the article that explains what Emerald actually is, how it works, and what makes it different to everything else in the category.
What Emerald is
Emerald is a non-invasive low level laser that emits ten 532nm green lasers onto the skin to treat hypertrophic adipocytes, the enlarged fat cells responsible for stubborn areas that don’t respond to diet or exercise.
Nothing touches the patient. There’s no suction, no applicator, no freezing plate, no heating element. The patient lies under the lasers for thirty minutes and the light does the work.
It’s a low level laser, which means the effect is photochemical rather than thermal. Hot lasers are used in surgery for precision cutting. Cold lasers, which is what Emerald is, are used for healing precision. No heat is applied to the tissue at any point.
How Emerald works
The treatment emulsifies the adipose tissue and releases excess fatty materials into the interstitial space. From there, the fat passes through the body during its natural course of detoxification through the lymphatic system.
At cellular level, the sequence is well documented. Erchonia’s low level lasers stimulate cytochrome C oxidase, an enzyme in the mitochondrial respiratory chain that absorbs light directly. Stimulating it increases mitochondrial activity, ATP, NADH and cellular respiration, along with nitric oxide production.
In the fat cell specifically, that activation upregulates cAMP and activates cytoplasmic lipase. The lipase breaks intracellular triglycerides down into fatty acids and glycerol. At the same time, transient pores form in the cell membrane, allowing the fatty acids and glycerol to pass out into the extracellular space.
The result is the complete collapse of the adipocyte, but not its death.
The fat cell is emptied, not destroyed
This is the point that separates Emerald from most of the category, and it’s worth understanding properly because patients will ask.
Freezing and heating technologies work by destroying fat cells. Emerald doesn’t. The cell collapses and empties, then stays in the body as a normal, functioning cell. Professor Bob Khanna describes it as a metabolic transformation, turning sluggish fat cells into active, lean ones.
Once released, the lipids travel to the lymph nodes, where lysosomal acid lipase hydrolyses the triglycerides. Some are transported to the liver through the lymph network and undergo normal fatty acid oxidation. It’s the same route the body uses for fat it processes every day.
Worth knowing for the consult: the release of lipids following LLLT does not elevate plasma lipids. In one study of abdominal treatment using the same protocol, serum triglycerides actually decreased in 16 of 19 treated subjects, and serum cholesterol decreased by an average of 18.8 mg/dL.
Why green
Erchonia spent more than two decades working with red lasers before developing the green one, and the difference is measurable.
Emerald’s green laser produces 23% more energy than Erchonia’s red lasers. It was proven and FDA market cleared through three separate double blind clinical trials, with no known side effects recorded.
Erchonia has been committed to low level laser research for around 25 years and holds more than eighteen FDA market clearances. The company made history in 2010 when the FDA granted market clearance for the first non-invasive fat loss laser, which created a new FDA category, OLI-Fat Reduction Laser.
What the clinical evidence shows
In the double blind, sham controlled study published in the American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery, subjects treated with the 532nm green laser recorded a mean decrease in total combined circumference measurements of 3.9 inches at week two, compared with 1.1 inches in the sham group.
Of the treated subjects, 68.6% achieved a reduction of three inches or more across combined measurements, against 18.8% of the sham group. Overall satisfaction was reported by 65% of treated subjects, compared with 19% of the sham group.
Two details from that study matter more than the headline numbers.
The effects were independent of baseline body weight, BMI and total baseline circumference. And every subject agreed to maintain their normal diet and exercise routine throughout, with no weight loss programs, supplements or other body contouring treatments permitted. The result came from the laser.
Across Erchonia’s broader clinical data, the average circumferential reduction reported is six inches. Individual results vary, and any consult should say so.
Who you can treat
Emerald is TGA listed and FDA cleared to treat patients with up to 40 BMI. It is the only low level laser in the industry FDA market cleared to treat patients above 30 BMI.
That single specification changes the shape of your enquiry list. Every patient other body contouring devices turn away on BMI grounds is a patient you can consult, assess and treat.
What a treatment looks like
Thirty minutes, one to two times per week.
The patient lies down under the laser array. Nothing touches the skin. There’s no heat, no pain, no discomfort during treatment and none afterwards. There’s no downtime, so the patient walks out and returns to their day.
The treatments are completely unattended. No practitioner needs to be in the room while the laser runs, which means the treatment occupies a room rather than a member of staff. For a clinic managing a full diary, that’s a real operational difference.
How Emerald compares to other fat reduction technologies
Patients almost always arrive having read about something else first, so practitioners need a straight answer to the comparison question.
Freezing and heating technologies work by destroying fat cells. They apply an applicator to the skin, the tissue is taken to an extreme temperature, and the cells die. It’s an effective mechanism and it’s well established, but it carries the things that come with it: discomfort during treatment, a recovery period afterwards, and applicator based treatment that limits the area covered in one session.
Emerald doesn’t destroy anything. The cells collapse, empty and stay in the body as normal cells, and the contents leave through the lymphatic system on the body’s own schedule. Nothing touches the skin, nothing is heated or cooled, and there’s no recovery period because no tissue has been damaged.
The other practical difference is coverage. An applicator treats what sits inside it. Emerald’s ten lasers treat across the body area rather than a defined pocket, which is why the trials measured total combined circumference across waist, hips and thighs rather than a single treated patch.
Measuring the result properly
One thing worth setting up before you treat your first patient.
Emerald’s cleared indication is overall body circumference reduction, and that’s what the clinical trials measured. So circumference is what you should be measuring too.
Take baseline measurements at fixed anatomical points before the first treatment, and repeat them the same way each time. Scales are the wrong tool here, and patients who judge the treatment by weight will talk themselves out of a course that’s working.
3D body scanning is the better option if you have access to it, because it removes the operator variability that makes tape measurements arguable and gives the patient something visual to compare across the course. Patients who can see change complete their courses.
Why clinics choose Emerald
Practitioners tend to arrive at the same three reasons.
The evidence base is unusually strong for an aesthetic device. Three double blind trials, a mechanism documented in peer reviewed literature, and 25 years of research behind the technology rather than a marketing claim.
The safety profile makes the consult straightforward. No pain, no side effects during or after treatment, no downtime and nothing touching the skin removes almost every objection a hesitant patient raises.
And it treats patients other devices can’t. The BMI clearance is the detail most owners overlook when comparing devices, and it’s the one that changes how many enquiries convert.
Emerald also won Best Aesthetic Technology 2022 at the Safety in Beauty Awards, which is a useful third party marker when patients are researching before they book.
Seeing it for yourself
Reading about a laser only gets you so far. Most practitioners make up their minds in the room, watching a treatment run and asking the questions that occur to them at the time.
InnovaMed Aesthetics runs demonstrations for clinics across Australia and New Zealand, and we can walk you through the clinical data, the treatment protocol, the training that comes with it and what it costs to run per treatment.
To book a demonstration of the Emerald Laser or find out more about bringing it into your clinic, get in touch through the contact form at innovamedaesthetics.com.au/contact-us or call 1300 653 522, and one of our team will organise a time that suits you.
