Page 35 - LASERS & IPLS IN MEDICAL/AESTHETIC APPLICATIONS

Chapter 1 – Fundamentals of Medical/Aesthetic Lasers and IPLs v1.1
● IPL systems do not produce monochromatic light. They produce what is commonly known as a broadband output which encapsulates a large range of wavelengths. The infiltered light from a typical Xenon discharge lamp is always a ‘cool white’ (bluish white) with a correlated colour temperature in the range 8 – 10,000 Kelvin.
● The reason for this is simple. All IPL systems use a flashlamp to generate the light, typically a Xenon discharge lamp. These are essentially glorified light bulbs and they produce light across the entire visible spectrum plus some UV and some near-infrared.
The Plasmalite IPL System was one of the very first devices created for the purpose of removing hair using light energy. PA was involved in the development of this system which sold all over the world.
This device was developed further to include new filters to allow for the treatment of blood vessels, benign pigmentation and acne.
Virtually all of the IPLs produced today are based on this original device!
IPL systems are usually designed to filter out the unwanted wavelengths and leave only those desired wavelengths required for the treatment. In most systems the broadband wavelength range extends from around 400 nm to around 1200 nm (some go up to 1400 nm), when unfiltered. However, you should be aware that there exist some systems which are not properly filtered and which output some harmful UV light. These tend to be the cheaper (salon) systems and should be avoided.
Learning to apply IPL light energy successfully to the skin is much more difficult than with lasers because of the higher number of variables! A good understanding of the basics is required to do this successfully.
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Chapter 1 LEVEL A Fundamentals of Lasers/IPLs
Figure 15: The Plasmalite – launched in the UK in 1999 by Mike
© The Laser-IPL Guys 2021