Page 36 - Chapter 3 - Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 2nd Edition
The vast majority of people treated with photo-thermal devices belongs to skin type range I-IV. Skin type VI can only be treated in safe and effective manner using a long-pulsed Nd:YAG laser.
In the skin tone range I-IV only skin tone I safely can be judged visually. The melanin content/absorption of skin tone II-V must be measured with an appropriate optical skin reflectometer device, to be certain.
Note that it is not actually the ‘colour’ of the skin that is of interest, it the amount of light absorption that has to be measured. Two quite different skin colours can in fact be equal in terms of epidermal light absorption.
Light absorption % in Epidermal Melanin vs Fitzpatrick skin type
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Fitzpatrick Type
Absorption %
Low abs High abs Average
Figure 7 – How much light energy does the epidermis absorb?
From the diagram above you can see why the Fitzpatrick skin typing system is so inaccurate.
The actual light absorption in epidermal melanin for each specific skin type typically diverge a factor of 2. For example, in skin type III the melanin light absorption range is between 4 to 8 % i.e. a factor of two between low and high. The implication of this variation is that you cannot use standard device settings in terms of fluence / pulse duration, light colour, for each specific Fitzpatrick skin type.
Device parameter settings that are safe for treatment of one individual with skin type III may cause severe side effects on another individual with same Fitzpatrick skin type!
________________________________________________________________________ 36 Chapter 3, Ed. 2.0 Laser/IPL Hair Removal
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Fitzpatrick Type
Low abs %
High abs %
Average %
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0.5
1.5
1