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A13 - How much energy is really coming out of your laser/IPL device?
All laser/IPL systems have a screen where you can set them up. Usually, you choose the energy or fluence, repetition rate, pulsewidth or similar, depending on what you are treating.
But, how do you know if your device is actually generating the energy/fluence it claims on the screen?
If you are driving a car and the speedometer says 100 km/hr (that’s about 62 miles/hour in old money!!), but you can see that you are hardly moving at all, it is obvious that something is wrong with the speedometer. But it’s often not so obvious with a laser/IPL!!
The important point here is CALIBRATION.
We do tend to go on about this here, but it’s because calibration is important. If your device is not properly calibrated, you cannot possibly know what it is really doing. Nor can you really offer good and safe treatments!
Unfortunately, it appears that many laser/IPL manufacturers do not calibrate their systems before selling them. They merely use a ‘standard’ set of numbers on their screens, which may or may not be accurate. This is particularly true of the low-cost systems.
In a perfect world, all lasers and IPL systems would be supplied with an accurate, up to date calibration chart which shows exactly what is coming out of the unit. However, we don’t live in a perfect world...
Mike’s Blog Posts 39
