Papers a year rose 120% between 2016 and 2025, from 813 to 1,786; Injectables added the most (up 493 papers) and Body Contouring the least (up 59).
Values and shares are 2025, the latest full year.
PubMed papers per year by category, 2016–2026 (2026 partial)
Lasers & Light
Injectables
Body Contouring
Skin & Topicals
RF & Microneedling
Total
2016
337
164
72
179
61
813
2017
307
182
63
173
55
780
2018
334
200
70
154
67
825
2019
343
219
63
193
92
910
2020
403
314
81
211
115
1,124
2021
447
309
84
239
134
1,213
2022
404
320
91
227
154
1,196
2023
360
359
122
232
129
1,202
2024
398
499
97
266
173
1,433
2025
503
657
131
269
226
1,786
2026
311
431
47
190
149
1,128
PubMed records per year matching our fixed treatment queries — publication volume, not quality, efficacy or market share. What this measuresNumber of PubMed records matching each modality's fixed, hand-written title/abstract query, windowed to a single publication year. It measures publication volume about a TECHNIQUE, not a brand. It is NOT a quality score, NOT an efficacy measure, and NOT a count of randomised trials. 2026 is a partial year (run date 2026-07-26); its bar is short because the year is short, not because interest fell. 2026 contains only papers indexed by the run date (2026-07-26). Render it visually distinct (e.g. hollow/hatched) or annotate it; never let it read as a decline. The 25 modality series are summed into the five site categories; every per-modality number and query is on the Studies page. Methodology →
255clearances · 2025
clearances per year · 2015–2026 · 2026 partial
510(k) decisions a year rose 82% between 2015 and 2025, from 140 to 255; Lasers & Light added the most (up 100 clearances) and Body Contouring the least (up 4).
Values and shares are 2025, the latest full year.
510(k) clearances per year by category, 2015–2026 (2026 partial)
Lasers & Light
Body Contouring
Skin & Topicals
RF & Microneedling
Total
2015
68
17
0
55
140
2016
77
14
0
72
163
2017
93
17
0
59
169
2018
90
9
0
52
151
2019
67
21
0
58
146
2020
70
17
0
69
156
2021
89
18
1
58
166
2022
123
12
0
66
201
2023
114
25
0
79
218
2024
141
17
0
71
229
2025
168
21
0
66
255
2026
63
7
0
40
110
Injectables & topicals reach market via PMAPMAPremarket approval: the FDA's most demanding device review, in which the company has to hand over its own clinical evidence that the device is safe and does what it claims., BLABLABiologics licence application: the route used for products grown or purified from living sources, such as botulinum toxins. or NDANDANew drug application: the route used for a new drug, including injectable products regulated as drugs rather than as devices. approval, not 510(k)510(k)A submission in which a company shows the FDA that its device works much like a device already legally on sale, so the company does not have to prove the whole thing over from scratch. clearance — they do not appear in this feed.
510(k) clearance decisions per year in the tracked codes — filing activity, not sales or clinical benefit. What this measuresCount of FDA 510(k) clearance decisions per year whose product code is in each Dalphene category group. Not approvals, not efficacy, not safety, not sales — filing activity only. Category groups include broad-mixed codes (GEX in lasers-light, GEI in rf-microneedling, NGX in body-contouring), so these yearly totals carry non-aesthetic devices too; the per-code split is not fetched per year. 2026 is a partial year through the run date. Unlike the monthly series, these are count queries — there is no narrow-only variant here because a per-breadth split would double the request count. Charts using this series must carry the broad-mixed caveat on the chart. 2026 covers 01-01 through the run date (2026-07-26) only. No injectables group exists: neuromodulators (BLA) and fillers (PMA) are not 510(k) records. Absence is structural, not a gap. Methodology →
All 25 tracked modalities: PubMed publication counts, the two latest full years, the year-over-year change and the source query for each.
ModalityModalityA family of treatments that work the same way — such as radiofrequency microneedling, or lasers that leave the skin surface intact — rather than any one branded machine.
Category
Papers, last 10 years
All time
2025
2024
Change
2016–2026
SourceWhat the source links openEvery link in this column opens the exact PubMed E-utilities count URL that produced that row's 10-year number, so the figure can be re-run against the live database. Methodology →
Publication volume for a TREATMENT, not a brand — every brand on a modality shares its number. What this measuresNumber of PubMed records matching each modality's fixed, hand-written title/abstract query, windowed to a single publication year. It measures publication volume about a TECHNIQUE, not a brand. It is NOT a quality score, NOT an efficacy measure, and NOT a count of randomised trials. 2026 is a partial year (run date 2026-07-26); its bar is short because the year is short, not because interest fell. Counts are computed per MODALITY, never per brand. Brand-name literature searches reward manufacturers with big marketing departments and punish equally good devices with quieter names. Ranking brands by their own name-hits would be a popularity contest dressed as evidence. 2026 contains only papers indexed by the run date (2026-07-26). Render it visually distinct (e.g. hollow/hatched) or annotate it; never let it read as a decline. The 10-year and all-time columns come from a separate count query than the per-year series, so they are not expected to be the sum of the columns beside them; each has its own source link. Sorting a column moves rows, never colours: a modality keeps its category colour in every order. Methodology →
Under every card, left to right: papers published in 2025, the last full year, and that series' own highest single year. The final point of each line is the partial current year and is drawn hollow.
Sebaceous-gland laser for acne — PubMed papers per year, 2016–2026 (2026 partial)
Sebaceous-gland laser for acne
2016
2
2017
3
2018
0
2019
4
2020
2
2021
1
2022
5
2023
7
2024
7
2025
8
2026
10
810
Two honest views of the same 25 series: comparable heights, or readable shapes. Neither is the truth on its own. What this measuresOn the shared scale every panel is drawn against the single largest year in any series (258 papers), so band heights are directly comparable and small modalities correctly look small — but their shape is unreadable. On the own-scale view each panel fills its own maximum, so the shape is readable and heights are NOT comparable between panels; each card prints its own peak so the scale is never hidden. 2026 contains only papers indexed by the run date (2026-07-26). Render it visually distinct (e.g. hollow/hatched) or annotate it; never let it read as a decline. Methodology →