Intense pulsed light (IPL), a star project in the field of medical beauty, is highly favored for its wide range of treatments and high market acceptance. This article will explain in detail the operating skills and treatment points of IPL. If you have more practical experience, please share it in the comment area.

Principle and mechanism of intense pulsed light

Intense pulsed light (IPL) is a specially treated strong light source that produces a wide spectrum, usually covering 400-1200nm, which includes visible light and near-infrared light. By using different filters, IPL can treat specific skin problems. The core advantage of IPL is its wide spectrum, which can achieve a variety of treatment effects. Its main characteristics: polychromaticity, incoherence, and non-parallelism.

Treatment parameter selection and endpoint response

1. Facial rejuvenation and photoaging

Parameter selection: People with darker skin should choose smaller energy, longer pulse width and more pulses; people with lighter skin should choose the opposite. The energy should be appropriately lowered for the forehead, temporal and lower eyelid areas, and the energy can be appropriately increased for the nose. Long-term treatment should not affect normal life after surgery.

End point reaction: Patients feel warm. Usually 2-3 IPL treatments are required to achieve a relatively ideal effect. If you want to achieve better results, a course of treatment (at least 5 times) is required.

2. Pigmented and vascular skin lesions

Parameter selection: When treating pigmented and vascular skin lesions, you can choose a shorter wavelength filter (515-590 nm). When treating pigment diseases, choose a short pulse width; when treating vascular diseases, adjust the pulse width according to the diameter of the blood vessels, use a short pulse width for thin blood vessels, and a long pulse width for thick blood vessels. If the main purpose is to improve skin quality, fine wrinkles, etc., it is advisable to choose a longer wavelength filter (640 nm) and a long pulse width.

End point reaction of treatment:

Pigmentation disease: Pigment spots become more obvious, and slight edema around the pigment spots is the end point.

Mild superficial capillary dilation: The color of blood vessels becomes lighter, blurred, temporarily disappears or turns light gray.

Lesions with changes in dermal structure: Patients feel warm.

3. Pigmented lesions

For pigmentary diseases of the epidermis and superficial dermis, such as freckles and solar lentigo, the selection of parameters should be adjusted according to the patient's skin color, sensitivity and tolerance. The following are specific parameter selection and treatment recommendations:

Skin color and parameter adjustment:

For patients with fair skin, lighter skin lesions and better tolerance, shorter pulse width, shorter interval time and higher energy density can be used to obtain better treatment effects.

For patients with darker skin or darker pigment spots, the pulse width and interval time should be extended to improve the safety of treatment and reduce adverse reactions.

Number of treatments and effects:

Treatment of freckles and solar lentigo usually requires multiple treatments (usually 3 times) and cannot prevent recurrence. The treatment effect is related to the patient's skin color, skin lesion color and the clarity of the skin lesion boundary. Patients with fair skin, darker skin lesions, clear boundaries and obvious contrast with normal skin, and no combined chloasma have better effects. On the contrary, patients with light skin lesions, dark skin color, and chloasma have poor efficacy.

Specific settings of treatment parameters:

For patients with fair skin, lighter skin lesions, and better tolerance, the pulse width can be appropriately narrowed, the interval time can be shortened, and the energy density can be increased.

For patients with darker skin or darker pigment spots, the pulse width and interval time need to be extended accordingly to improve safety and reduce adverse reactions.

4. Hair Removal

IPL hair removal is mainly suitable for patients with hirsutism and people with abundant hair. In order to achieve the best effect, it is recommended to treat once every 4-6 weeks, especially when the hair grows to 2-3 mm.

Wavelength: The spectrum of 600-1100nm can effectively penetrate to the depth of hair follicles and be absorbed by the melanin in the hair follicles, which is the ideal wavelength range for hair removal.

Pulse width: The ideal setting for IPL hair removal is 10-100ms, or longer, which helps ensure effective energy delivery and thorough hair removal.

5. Vascular diseases

Wavelength selection: Although wavelengths around 577nm are better absorbed by blood vessels, considering the absorption rate, clinically, a 560nm filter is more preferred, which can achieve better treatment results.

Pulse width setting: IPL mainly targets blood vessels with smaller diameters, so it does not require a long heating time. For patients with dark skin, the pulse width of IPL should be relatively wide, but it can be set as small as possible within the safe range to increase the intensity of treatment.

Treatment endpoint: If the parameters are set properly, the treatment can usually be completed in one scan. If the local reaction is limited after the postoperative assessment, you can consider strengthening the treatment appropriately.

6. Acne and rosacea

Acne: Adjust the parameters according to the characteristics of the patient's inflammatory skin lesions, skin color, and tolerance. Use 560 nm/590 nm/640 nm filters, double pulses or triple pulses, pulse widths of 3.0 ~ 4.5 ms, pulse delay time of 20 ~ 40 ms, and energy density of 15 ~ 18 J/cm². Single treatments do not overlap, and mild redness of the lesions is the treatment endpoint reaction.

Rose acne: Parameter settings are the same as acne. Adjust according to the patient's capillary dilation degree, skin color, and tolerance. The energy is low, and the treatment endpoint is slight fever and mild flushing of the skin.

IPL operation points

1. Test the light spot

The light spot test must be performed before treatment. Apply 1-2mm thick cold gel to the mandibular angle area, irradiate 2-3 light spots using the selected treatment parameters, and carefully observe the skin's reaction.

2. Gradual energy adjustment

During treatment, start from the lowest value of the recommended parameters, and adjust the energy density by 1-2J/cm² each time. If the skin is slightly red, the energy density is used as the treatment parameter; if there is no reaction, increase by 1-2J/cm²; if it is already purple, reduce by 1-2J/cm². In this way, adjust the energy for each 1/4 facial area, and apply wet compress with ice gauze until the full face treatment is completed. For the treatment of type V~VI skin (dark skin color), erythema reaction should be avoided. For the thin and sensitive bony areas such as forehead and cheekbones, the energy density should be 1-2J/cm² lower than that of the face.

3. Operation sequence and precautions

Treatment sequence: perform light therapy from outside to inside, from bottom to top, and stamp style.

Light spot overlap: During skin rejuvenation and anti-aging treatment, the light spots can overlap by 10-20%, and avoid light leakage and overlap in other cases.

Light spot selection: Use a large light spot treatment head for large areas (such as cheeks); use a small light spot adapter for small areas (such as forehead, nose, philtrum).

Cooling system: Before treating non-vascular lesions, use the handpiece's sapphire cooling system/cold air therapy device (refreshing healing wind) to cool down for 3-5 seconds to improve comfort and safety.

Skin reaction: The skin may have a delayed reaction of 5-10 minutes after treatment. Those with pigmentation, dull skin tone, and severe photoaging need to extend the observation to 10-15 minutes. According to the skin reaction, the number of treatments can be appropriately increased.

Conclusion

Care Recommendations

1. Postoperative cooling: Immediately after treatment, use a cold air therapy device/medical mask (refreshing healing wind/Fumaile hyaluronic acid dressing) to cool the treated area to reduce edema and discomfort.

2. Avoid hot water: Hot water should not be used within 12 hours after treatment to avoid increasing the risk of blisters.

Absolute contraindications

1. Photosensitive skin: People with photosensitive skin and photosensitivity-related diseases should not be treated.

2. Precancerous lesions or malignant tumors: People with precancerous lesions or malignant tumors in the treated area should not be treated.

3. Infection or open wounds: Patients with infection or open wounds at the treatment site should not be treated.

Foremed Legend

The core founding team of Suzhou Foremed Legend Medical Technology Co., Ltd. comes from Peking University and other well-known universities at home and abroad. Foremed Legend focuses on the design, research and development and application of high-end medical beauty optoelectronic equipment based on compliance and product strength, and is committed to becoming a leading enterprise in the field of high-end medical beauty optoelectronic equipment in the world, a provider of integrated intelligent solutions for diagnosis and treatment, and a pioneer of medical beauty data integration platform.

Through tackling a series of underlying key technologies, Foremed Legend has independently developed a number of high-end medical equipment such as picosecond laser therapy devices, long pulse laser therapy devices, intense pulsed light therapy devices, photoacoustic imaging skin detection devices and cold air therapy devices, and continues to deepen the research and development of core product technologies, using better technical solutions to benefit the vast number of beauty seekers.

Adhering to the principle of using technology for good, Foremed Legend will work with industry and ecological partners to bring more safe and effective medical aesthetic optoelectronic equipment and integrated diagnosis and treatment solutions to the global medical aesthetic market.