Page 194 - Chapter 3 - Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 2nd Edition
Pain level – what is a good level?
How do we know if the fluence is sufficient to achieve a good outcome? Well, one simple technique is to simply ask your patient/client how much pain they experience during the treatment.
On a scale of 1 to 10, we recommend a level of less than a 5 – but, only if proper ice-cooling has been applied for a few minutes before treatment. If your patient/client starts to complain of thermal pain during the treatment, stop and re-apply the ice-cooling.
PAIN = 1 / Skin Cooling
Remember, the more cooling you apply before and during the treatment, the less pain they will feel!
Freezers and ice packs
As discussed before, we recommend the use of frozen ice packs to cool the skin efficiently – before and after the treatment. Often, we are asked if a standard fridge is ‘good enough’. The reality is that a fridge typically cools to around 4 or 5C, whereas a freezer can easily go below 0C.
As soon as you remove an ice pack from a fridge or freezer, it will begin to heat up. This limits the length of time you can use it. But you mut allow a little time for some melting of the outermost ice. This will form a water-ice layer between the frozen ice and the skin. This is much safer to apply to the skin as it will greatly minimise the chances of ice-burn.
We recommend using a freezer to cool the ice-packs as they will remain cold for a much longer period, but it’s your choice. We also recommend using clingfilm/Seram Wrap (or sandwich bags) to wrap around the ice-packs, for hygiene reasons.
Skin cooling – ‘No pain, no gain?’ Is this still true?
We cannot emphasize this enough – skin cooling is absolutely CRITICAL!!! Poor or insufficient cooling will inevitably result in skin damage. It will also make the treatments more painful with the likelihood that your patients/clients will not return.
________________________________________________________________________ 194 Chapter 3, Ed. 2.0 Laser/IPL Hair Removal
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