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Applying skin cooling
The purpose of surface skin cooling is to prevent or minimise these unwanted effects.
By applying a good level of skin cooling, the epidermis and upper dermis temperatures will drop. This includes the temperature of the pain nerves too. The longer the cooling is applied, the colder the skin becomes!
If the cooling induces a temperature drop of, say, 20C, in the pain nerves, then any heat energy would need to raise their temperature by 28C to reach painful levels, instead of just 8C.
Applying ice cooling to the skin surface for a few minutes can achieve a 20C drop in these nerves. This can reduce the pain sensations significantly! I know from personal experience. I’ve fired 40 J/cm2 from an IPL to my arm skin after 4 minutes of ice cooling – the pain level was about 2/10.
I later fired 35 J/cm2 to my arm with no pre-cooling – the pain level was closer to 9/10. This also resulted in a large blister subsequently. After a few months, this area was still hypopigmented, whereas the other area (40 J/cm2) was perfectly fine.
My arm after 35 J/cm2 – with no pre-cooling
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