Skin Rejuvenation
Uneven skin tone, sagging, and sun damage: three common problems for skin that don’t have answers in a bottle. Even moisturizing, drinking eight cups of water daily, and using SPF products – all hallmarks of good skin care – aren’t enough to stave off sags and wrinkles from aging, the rough texture of sun damage and scars, or a blotchy complexion. These effects can be counteracted with skin rejuvenation procedures which offer balanced technology to brighten and bring out healthier, rejuvenated skin.

• Discoloration
  FotoFacial combines sessions with an intense pulsed light and radio frequency device with microdermabrasion facials. The light/RF energy treatments focus on and lighten pigments in the skin like sun spots and age spots, while the microdermabrasion exposes the treated skin.
• Sagging and wrinkles
  Skin tightening treatments use alternating pulses of infrared heat and radio frequency to deep-heat tissue, boost collagen to lift, and tighten the surface skin.
• Damaged skin
  There is laser skin resurfacing, which uses a strong, specially filtered laser to penetrate beneath the skin and triggers a healing response in the lower layers of the skin. The developing skin naturally heals and lessens visible skin damage and scarring.

FotoFacial ®
Little things – large pores, acne scars, uneven skin tone – add up to make skin look dull and unhealthy. FotoFacial ® skin rejuvenation treatments even out skin color, decrease pore size and fine lines, and exfoliates to expose healthier skin.

Intense pulsed light (IPL) energy is attracted to color, including skin pigments, and lightens that color in the skin, which improves things like freckling or the redness from. The IPL is alternated with radio frequency (RF), a stronger energy heightens the effect of the IPL on pigments. RF also produces heat, which causes the skin to contract and repair itself, which tightens skin and shrinks pores.

The full skin rejuvenation routine combines the light treatments with microdermabrasion, a deep exfoliating therapy which uses tiny crystals to buff skin clean and smooth. Microdermabrasion sloughs off the dull surface skin to expose the newly treated skin. Regular semiannual treatments maintain that effect, even if factors that cause discoloration – like smoking or sunbathing – continue.

Skin Tightening
Another area of skin rejuvenation improves sagging and wrinkles by increasing collagen production and using heat to cause skin to contract and appear tighter. Infrared light and RF energy penetrate and heat skin tissues. As with FotoFacial, this signals the skin to repair itself; the increased heat energy (infrared and RF) means that there is more of a healing response. The deep-tissue heat also boosts collagen production, which fills in wrinkles and firms sagging skin naturally. This kind of skin rejuvenation offers long-term benefits for firming sagging skin and wrinkles, with effects lasting as long as two years before needing maintenance.

Solutions for Skin Damage
For more extensive skin damage, the problem is texture, so the leathery look of sun damage or the roughness of scars needs a special approach. A new method of skin rejuvenation provides a non-chemical way to soften and smooth skin texture: Laser skin resurfacing using a fractional laser.

In laser skin resurfacing, a specialized laser penetrates deep into the tissue and injures the skin, which signals the tissue to heal itself, which repairs existing damage both on the surface skin (for immediate improvements in skin tone) and beneath the skin (to visibly lessen scars and damage). The laser is as strong as a chemical peel, and, at full impact, could cause similar blistering. A cap on the instrument filters the laser so that only tiny spots of skin are exposed to the laser, like water through a sieve. Enough of the laser is blocked that only about a quarter of the treatment area is actually treated, and the surrounding skin is untouched. This makes the healing process faster after each session, with only some redness and tenderness. After about five sessions, the entire area is treated. It can cause some lingering redness or discomfort, simply because of the method that triggers the healing process, but this usually only lasts one or two days. Once the treatment course (about five monthly sessions) is complete, the skin rejuvenation can take up to two years.

Lasers can such precise targeting and different strengths so making lasers an ideal tool in cosmetic procedures and are excecllent for the precise nature of laser hair removal. Aiming the laser at your skin, it pulsed at a precise point of the hair itself, this creates a thermal reaction to destroy the hair follicle. This causes the existing hair to fall out and future hair growth is reduced or stopped.

Laser hair removal can noe be performed on most hair colours and types, but results do vary so consultation is critical. Generally these procedures are safe if done by qualified and trained practitioners. Always check the credentials of any consultants.

Apart from hair removal lasers can also be used to remove unwanted skin pigmentations such as tattoos. Tattoo removal by laser is a common procedure in the UK. Like hair removal the laser is aimed at the dark tattoo ink in the layers of your skin to literally burns away the dark ink. Laser Tattoo removal usually requires several treatments for best results.

Lasers used in the beauty and medical industries have pathed the way for many treatments that enhance peoples looks and well-being./pbr
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Lasers are single wavelength devices with absorption coefficients relatively specific to the chromophores they are intended to target. Intense Pulsed-light (IPL) devices expose the patient to a broader spectrum of light energy defined by cut-off filters, typically in the range of 600-1200 nm. The fact that lasers and IPL devices may target multiple chromophores allow these products to be marketed as being capable of treating a variety of conditions in addition to hair removal, including treatment of vascular and pigmented lesions, warts, wrinkles, and even acne.

Since no two lasers or IPL devices have identical operating parameters (i.e., wavelength, fluence, pulse duration, spot size, or epidermal cooling methodologies), the performance levels of these products differ substantially. In particular, the comparative results of lasers and IPL devices vary greatly in hair removal.

Discussion

Lasers and intense pulse-light devices are gaining in popularity not only because of patient demand for permanent hair reduction, but also because of physician demand for increased utility. Unfortunately, these devices vary widely in their ability to deliver on their promoted indications, including hair removal.

Because lasers use single wavelengths of energy, the side-effect profile and dependability of response are superior to IPL devices. This differing performance level is a function of IPL design-IPL subjects the skin to a wider range of light energies of varying absorption coefficients for the chromophores targeted for cosmetic laser procedures.

While IPL devices are marketed for a variety of treatment applications, their performance levels are inferior to lasers, particularly in hair removal. Further, IPL needlessly exposes patients to some unnecessary and/or ineffective wavelengths of radiation and are lacking, by definition, the purity of treatment available with a single-wavelength laser.

Specifically, IPL hair removal treatments resulted in an increased frequency of complications and offered overall inferior results when compared to laser hair reduction.

Based on the experience at the Cleveland Clinic, they have ceased using IPL devices in their department due to the inconsistency of response between patients and even between sessions on the same patient. Another reason for the cessation of IPL use was the unacceptably high complication rates. At the Cleveland Clinic, they had far more adverse skin reactions (usually minor and transient, but occasionally serious) from IPLs than from any laser system.

By contrast, the GentleLASE alexandrite (755 nm) laser from Candela is marketed as a hair removal laser, and its performance is exemplary. The large spot, deliverable fluence and skin protection afforded by the patented, cryogen-based DCD system available on all Candela lasers make the GentleLASE an especially easy-to-use, safe, and comfortable laser.

Based upon physician feedback and patient satisfaction, the GentleLASE, in our opinion, is the gold standard in laser hair removal. The GentleLASE laser is the superior treatment modality when compared to any IPL technology we are aware of for permanent hair reduction. REFERENCE Anderson RR, Parish JA: Selective Photothermolysis: Precise microsurgery by selective absorption of pulse irradiation. Science 220:524-527,1983

The above information is a summarized version of the Clinical Paper comparing Single Wavelength and IPL Technologies

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pa target=_new href=http://www.nadsclinic.com.au rel=nofollowhttp://www.nadsclinic.com.au/a provides information on laser hair removal such as comparisons of laser equipment, skin type analysis and a video of actual treatment./pbr
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