Beauty Forum Feb23 - Flipbook - Page 45
n and discomfort differently
discomfort at that time, and then the procedure
becoming too much to bear. During this time
phase between just managing the tolerance of
discomfort and not sure if you want the laser
procedure to be continued, adverse or
unwanted skin reactions often occur.
This level of poor practice is inexcusable
with many types of laser, and IPL having
quality skin cooling systems in-built, such as a
chilled sapphire window. However, have you
considered treatment procedures such as
fractional laser, ablative laser, or laser tattoo
removal never come with contact cooled
sapphire windows as part of the laser delivery
system?
Lasers such as these should always be
conducted using cooling of some sort, to
protect the skin, reduce pain, and reduce
unwanted side effects from occurring. Manual
cooling methods may be as simple as using
reusable ice bricks, or Icey cold wet towels,
however these methods are quite inconvenient
and can add water to the skin which in fact
may also be a target for your laser.
A possible solution is the cold air blower
machine such as Zimmer, Uchill, or our own
brand we now supply called Derma chill. Cold
air blowing machines are much like
refrigerators with a copper coil filled with chilled
liquid, or in some cases a cryogen gas-based
liquid, which works to create a stream of cold
chilled air (-10-20°c) down to the skins surface,
this provides instant pain relief and skin safety,
it also does not interfere with the laser
procedure, or delivery of the laser.
Why is that? Customers who have not had
opportunity to experience a comfortable laser
procedure, would not be aware that feeling
uncomfortable isn’t normal.
The biggest issue here is that there is a fine
line between a customer being at the very top
end of their pain or tolerance threshold, and
not alerting the laser technician to their
In some medical laser settings, a topical
anaesthetic preparation may be used on the
area to be treated prior to the laser being
delivered to the skin, the aim is to reduce
nerve pain, and numb the skin. Our issue with
this method is that it can also lead to a
disruption in the persons pain threshold and
feedback to the laser operator. For example,
they can still feel the pain, and so the laser
operator may feel the person is just being
