Page 63 - LASERS & IPLS IN MEDICAL/AESTHETIC APPLICATIONS

Chapter 1 – Fundamentals of Medical/Aesthetic Lasers and IPLs v1.1
Remember....
To achieve good clinical results with your laser you MUST use the proper settings – wavelength, pulse duration, spot size and fluence (energy density).
If you set up your laser, using the correct setting for the job, then use the handpiece in the wrong position, you have lost all your prep work!
IPL Spot Size
● IPL systems typically use rectangular light guides to transport the light energy to the skin surface. Hence their spots are usually rectangular and are quoted as ‘x’ by ‘y’ mm.
● However, the effective spot size can be significantly smaller than the quoted spot size. This is due to poor optical design leading to a loss of light at the peripheral edges of the light guide.
● So, a light guide of 6 cm2 may only provide useful light energy in its central 5 cm2 region, or maybe even only 4 cm2. The problem is, it can be very hard to tell.
Figure 34: A typical laser spot vs an IPL spot
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Chapter 1 LEVEL A Fundamentals of Lasers/IPLs
Typical laser energy profile at skin surface – more energy tends to be in the centre of the spot, with less energy near the edge of the spot.
Typical energy profile from an IPL output – more light energy tends to be concentrated in a linear, central portion than in the (long) edges.
© The Laser-IPL Guys 2021