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A17 - Laser/IPL pain in hair removal
Pain is often associated with laser/IPL treatments, particularly with hair removal. Why? Where does this pain come from and how can we minimise it?
An understanding of the nerve receptors in the skin is important to answer these questions. From the figure below, we can see that the ‘thermal’ receptors are located just below the epidermis – very close to the basal layer where the melanocytes live.
We can also see that the pain receptors can be found in the epidermis, and also in the upper dermis. When light energy is launched into the skin, the melanin granules absorb a significant portion of that energy (if the energy is between 400 and around 1200 nm).
As a consequence, heat is generated in the epidermis, and it stimulates a response in the pain nerve endings. This is the thermal pain felt during such treatments. The more melanin in the epidermis, the more pain may be felt.
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