Solta Medical Brand Guidelines: Thermage & Fraxel Under One Name, Now Part of Bausch Health

Two device brands under a new name.

Solta Medical was created by a merger of two Californian aesthetic-device companies. The first was Thermage, Inc., of Hayward, California, maker of the Thermage radiofrequency system, which Laser Focus World described in 2009 as a non-invasive procedure for tightening and contouring skin. The second was Reliant Technologies, of Mountain View, maker of the Fraxel lasers.

Fraxel came out of academic research. English Wikipedia says the line was developed by Reliant in 2004 from a United States patent licensed from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, with the dermatologist R. Rox Anderson as inventor, and that it is based on fractional photothermolysis, in which a laser treats the skin in a pattern of small zones rather than across the whole surface. Laser Focus World reported in February 2009 that Reliant had received United States FDA clearance in October 2008 for three new Fraxel re:pair handpieces for skin resurfacing and surgery. In the same year Reliant announced a partnership with Philips on home-use skin devices, and a patent licensing programme with Palomar Medical Technologies, of Burlington, Massachusetts. Laser Focus World said the Philips agreement was designed to combine Reliant’s expertise with Philips’ design, marketing and global distribution, and that the licensing programme covered six fractional patent families owned or controlled by Reliant, Palomar and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Thermage bought Reliant in an acquisition that closed on 23 December 2008, Laser Focus World reported. On 12 January 2009 Thermage changed its corporate name to Solta Medical, Inc. and began trading on the Nasdaq under a new ticker, SLTM. The company called the change “a key milestone in the integration” of Reliant, and said the new name brought the Thermage and Fraxel brands together under one corporate identity. At the same time it expanded a customer loyalty programme that let physicians fix preferred terms for Thermage and Fraxel treatment tips. In February 2009 Stephen J. Fanning, its chairman, president and chief executive, said the integration of Reliant was “nearly complete” and that the company would compete with “two premier brands in Fraxel and Thermage.”

Four product names, each its own brand.

Solta Medical’s products have always carried their own names alongside the corporate one. In 2009 the company presented itself around just two brands, Thermage and Fraxel; the company called them the industry’s “two leading brands,” and Laser Focus World reported that around one million Thermage and Fraxel procedures had been performed in nearly 80 countries since 2002.

The range has since grown. In June 2022 Bausch Health listed Solta’s lines as the Thermage radiofrequency systems, the Fraxel laser, the Clear + Brilliant laser and the VASER ultrasonic systems. Solta’s website, in 2026, presents four product names — Thermage FLX, Clear + Brilliant, Fraxel FTX and VASERlipo — each with its own registered mark, and refers to earlier Thermage generations named NXT and CPT.

Fraxel itself comes in several versions. English Wikipedia describes Fraxel Restore, which uses an erbium glass laser; Fraxel Restore Dual, which adds a thulium fibre laser; and Fraxel Repair, which uses a carbon-dioxide laser.

On 28 May 2026 Bausch Health announced that the China Trademark Association had awarded Thermage its AAA Well-Known Trademark certification, which the company said only 217 brands in mainland China hold. In the same release Solta said Thermage had been present in China for more than a decade and that more than five million treatments had been performed worldwide — the company’s own figure.

Clinics, consoles and congresses.

Makers of aesthetic lasers and energy-based devices sell to clinicians first and to their patients second, and their brand material is built for both. The usual product image is a tall white console on castors, with a touchscreen and one or more handpieces on coiled cables, photographed in a softly lit treatment room. The machines are designed to look at home in a clinic and in a medical spa alike.

Around the hardware sits a familiar visual language: close-ups of glowing skin, clinicians in white coats, pale backgrounds, generous white space and clean, light sans-serif type. Product names tend to be short coined words, often styled with trademark symbols, and families are extended with suffixes such as Pro, Plus or a version number. Colour is usually held back to one accent against white, grey and skin tones.

Much of the industry’s calendar runs through medical congresses rather than consumer shows. AMWC, the Aesthetic & Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress; IMCAS in Paris; and the annual meeting of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) are among the places where new systems are shown to doctors. Candela, for example, says it unveiled its Vbeam Pro at the 2025 ASLMS meeting and launched its Glacē system in Europe at IMCAS in January 2026.

The companies behind these brands have changed hands often, through mergers, private-equity buyouts and restructurings, and several now trade under names different from the ones they started with. This guide sets out who founded each maker, who owns it now and what it says about its own products, and gives the company’s claims as its own.

From Nasdaq to Bausch Health.

Solta Medical did not stay independent for long. English Wikipedia’s history of Bausch Health records that in January 2014 Valeant Pharmaceuticals acquired Solta Medical. Valeant, based in Laval, Quebec, later renamed itself Bausch Health Companies, and Solta became its aesthetics business.

Bausch Health later tried to float Solta as a separate public company. On 16 June 2022 it announced that it was suspending its previously stated plan for an initial public offering of Solta, “in light of challenging market conditions and other factors,” and said Solta would remain part of Bausch Health while the company would “revisit alternative paths for Solta in the future.” Bausch Health’s chief executive, Thomas J. Appio, called Solta “a valuable business” with room for “geographic expansion” in medical aesthetics. Practical Dermatology reported the suspension the following day. As of Bausch Health’s May 2026 announcement, Solta was still described as its aesthetic business.

The Solta Medical name today mostly appears as an umbrella. Its website, in 2026, lists an office in Bothell, Washington, states that its trademarks belong to Bausch Health or its affiliates, and uses the line “Innovation. Inclusion. Impact.” on its home page. The product names — Thermage, Fraxel, Clear + Brilliant and VASERlipo — take the foreground, each carrying a registered-mark symbol.

For a design guide, Solta Medical shows how a corporate name can be built to hold together brands that were already established before it existed. Compare Philips, Reliant’s home-use partner in 2008, and Candela, another maker of aesthetic lasers. For this guide we use a deep teal, a pale sage and a warm copper with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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