Page 147 - Chapter 3 - Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 2nd Edition
much of it.
If not contact cooling is available, use ice packs.
heat in it and the laser/IPL cold tip is an excellent tool to remove
Apply ice packs, or similar, to cool the whole area immediately
after the treatment. If treating a large area (such as legs) use a After number of ice packs – place these on the skin during the
treatment process – don’t wait to the end of the treatment – it’s too late by then!
Table 26 – Cooling of the skin in LHR treatments
Cooling the skin during photothermal treatments is a three-stage process:
Pre-cooling – before the laser energy is fired,
During – using a cold tip touching the skin and gel,
Post-cooling – with a cold flannel or icepack after the treatment.
Cooling is absolutely critical in all photo-thermal treatments! We are purposely over-heating the skin so we MUST take measures to prevent unwanted damage. Adopting the above cooling technique will reduce the chances of thermal damage significantly, and improve results.
In addition, when using the above technique we can apply higher fluences which will increase the overall success rates. What this means, in reality, is that we must mitigate against all this excess heat energy in the dermis, before, during and after treatments. We do this by applying a proper level of cooling – contact cooling is the most efficient. Air cooling is relatively poor in many cases, but surface contact cooling with ice packs is at least twenty-four times more efficient at removing the excess heat energy.
Proper cooling will not only minimise any potential tissue damage but it will also improve the comfort level for the patient. In addition, it allows for higher fluences to be used, which may be required in certain procedures (such as for deeper follicles).
We need to realise that we are deliberately over-heating the skin in all of these photothermal treatments – so we must balance that over-heating with plenty of cooling. The calculations above reveal that when we treat hair (and, it turns out, blood vessels too!!) we are mostly heating the skin (not to the same temperature as the actual targets, obviously!!) – the treatment of the hair is almost a “by-product”!
________________________________________________________________________ 147 Chapter 3, Ed. 2.0 Laser/IPL Hair Removal
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