Page 59 - Chapter 3 - Laser/IPL Hair Removal

Chapter 3 – Fundamentals of Laser/IPL Hair Removal 2nd Edition
Figure 22 – The depth of cooling in the skin depends on the applied temperature and how long it is applied
When laser-hair treatments first were developed in mid 1990s no skin cooling was provided which resulted in very high rates of skin burns. It took about 5-10 years before the benefits of skin cooling were fully realised. The common procedure that was then adopted in the early 2000s, relied on applying a layer, typically 2-5 mm thickness, of cool (temperature around +5oC) water-based gel on the skin prior to treatment.
Unfortunately, this procedure is still one of the most frequently used. So, what is the problem with gel-based skin cooling? It is normally better than no cooling at all, but the two main problems are that gel cooling is very inconsistent in terms of cooling depth and the skin area distribution is typically much larger than the spot size.
We will discuss proper skin cooling in a later section.
The lack of understanding of the importance of consistent and depth- controlled skin cooling in light-based skin treatments is probably one of the main reasons for the high frequency of unwanted side-effects in SPT treatments.
The cooling methods shown in below image (Figure 23) are poor and can neither control the cooling depth nor confinement to the spot size.
________________________________________________________________________ 59 Chapter 3, Ed. 2.0 Laser/IPL Hair Removal
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