Page 56 - Chapter 3 - Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 2nd Edition
Management of Safe and Efficient Light-based Skin Treatments
Figure 20 shows the "basic knowledge" that a professional light therapist has to manage in order to provide safe and effective light-based skin treatments. As can be seen there are two fundamental steps to accomplish.
The first step is meticulous diagnosis of the skin indication to be treated including accurate estimate/measurement of the epidermal light absorption. Excessively dark skin leading to
dangerously high light absorption and subsequent overheating of the epidermis inhibits many types of treatments.
It must be understood that energy absorbed by melanin in the epidermis is ‘lost’ – it cannot be used to treat the real targets, which are usually in the dermis.
The second step is to determine the optimum set of parameters (settings) to use on the target: wavelength, fluence, pulsewidth, skin cooling and skin pressure. Only by careful selection of these parameters can safe, efficient and successful treatment outcome be guaranteed.
Figure 20 – What is required for safe and efficient treatments?
Light Absorption in Epidermal Melanin
All skin types (besides albinos) have some melanin in the epidermis. The amount of epidermal melanin can range from about 2% (by volume) in very pale skin, and up to more than 43 % in dark skin. The melanin is produced in cells called melanocytes present in are the basal cell layer (the bottom layer of epidermis. Note that the thickness of epidermis typically is less than 0.1 mm
________________________________________________________________________ 56 Chapter 3, Ed. 2.0 Laser/IPL Hair Removal
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