Let There Be Light...

Created on 31st July 2008

Glowing, healthy-looking skin is everyone's dream, but what if you suffer from dark spots, lesions or ageing jowls? Take heart, as Jenny Pitt finds out more about an exciting new light technology that's giving incredible results

If you have unsightly dark patches, marks or lesions on your skin, then you've probably tried many different products to try to get rid of them, but to no avail and you probably thought it was something you would have to live with. Not necessarily so, as a relatively new technology known as ‘Intense Pulsed Light' or IPL is now available. Laser treatment has been around for years, but with limited success in removing skin marks. Now, however, IPL systems can treat all types of pigmented marks with a high rate of success. So just how does this new technology work? IPL uses high energy, multicoloured light to target the pigmentation. With brown marks this is usually melanin, although in some cases it may be blood-based, such as in hemosiderin (the ferric oxide by-product of haemoglobin breakdown). The darker pigment absorbs this light energy and is destroyed by the resulting temperatures - the skin then grows new tissue in its place.

Will it suit your skin type?

This treatment works well for all skin types (except Afro-Caribbean), particularly in Asian skin where pigmented lesions are very common. In some cases, lesions can be removed after just one treatment with no recurrence, especially for people of Chinese origin. Other causes of pigmentation can also be easily treated, such as port wine stains and general patches, while broken veins and spider nevi are routinely removed with IPL, usually within two to three repeat sessions. The added bonus is that not only will you be successfully treating skin patches, you will also notice general improvement in your skin's appearance. While patches or marks are usually targeted for treatment, the overall skin appearance invariably improves by the end of the treatment. This is thought to be due to the general repair process improving the skin outside of the targeted area.

If you do decide to choose this kind of treatment, then bear in mind that one of the best IPS systems around is the PhotoNova PLS3, with technology to treat marks without damaging your skin. With a range of eight filters, your treatment can be designed especially for your skin, depending on your condition and natural skin colour. A sapphire tip, cooled to 5°C, ensures no skin damage and prevents any post treatment open wounds. Dr Mike Tee of CapCity Cosmetic feels this is one of its strengths. "It's by far the best system at doing this and always means that the treatments are safe."

If among other skin issues you may have, you would love to benefit from improved skin tone, with wrinkles and fines lines smoothed, then you're in luck, too, because fractional resurfacing treatment is also now available. By delivering energy deep into the skin with a compact matrix of hundreds of small ‘dots' the skin's repair process is stimulated which results in very fast recovery times, typically between one and two weeks. The whole area is left rejuvenated and toned after only a couple of sessions. In addition, there is no limit on the number of repeat treatments - you can return for ‘top-ups' every six months if you want. IPL has come a long way since its inception in the late 1990s. As Dr Mike Tee explains, "I've been using lasers and IPL systems for more than fifteen years and I think that the PhotoNova PLS3 is easily the best device out there."

Side effects are few and far between but there are still some systems around that you should avoid. These tend to be the lower powered units which promise much but usually fail to deliver. In essence, only the best systems deliver the best results.

No more loose, baggy skin

If you are plagued by ageing, loose, jowly skin on your face or neck, then light treatment is extremely effective here, too, and a great way to avoid cosmetic surgery. Now a new infra-red light system (ILS) has yielded excellent results, stimulating the collagen production in your skin using a gentle process. Collagen can be ‘unravelled' when its temperature is maintained at between 50 and 55°C for a couple of seconds. When this happens, the collagen is effectively useless and the body's repair process kicks in. If you decide this is the treatment for you, then shop around for the best ILS system, one of which is PhotoNova's. It uses carefully controlled pulses of infra-red light energy.

How does it work?

After the treatment, within six to twelve months the skin starts its repair, producing new collagen, pushing out wrinkles and tightening the skin. This new collagen will give a much more youthful looking skin. The good news is that patients can undergo up to three or four treatment sessions on the same area to promote the repair process, without risk of damage to the skin. The face and neck can be treated within 40 minutes with no downtime or recovery period post-treatment. Watch out though - the skin's pain nerves activate at around 48°C. This means that some people definitely feel the heating sensation during the pulse. While this sensation is not painful as such, it is very noticeable. Fortunately the cooling sapphire tip ensures this sensation doesn't last long. But it's worth it, the results speak for themselves.
CSMUK