Intense Pulsed Light

Intense pulsed light (IPL) is similar to laser but the light is produced in a different way. IPL is a versatile treatment: The effects can be altered by using treatment heads with different light filters and by altering the duration of the light pulses.

IPL targets

• melanin, the pigment in hair and skin
• oxyhaemoglobin, the red pigment in our blood

IPL is used to treat

• unwanted hair
• irregular skin pigmentation
• freckles
• lentigenes
• 'liver spots'
• birth marks
• port wine stains
• vascular lesions
• facial redness
• dilated blood vessels (telangiectasias)
• thread veins
• rosacea
• acne

IPL is an excellent treatment to reduce both the irregular pigmentation and dilated blood vessels seen in aging skin particularly on the face and neck. This treatment is called photorejuvenation and often refered to as a fotofacial or photofacial.

Clinical photographs of some of our patients treated for vascular lesions or pigmentation are shown below.

	Mature Port Wine Stain birthmark before treatment
	After 8 treatments with intense pulsed light (Quantum SR)

	Venous Lake before treatment
	After 3 treatments with intense pulsed light (Quantum SR)

	Freckles on the forearm before treatment
	After 1 intense pulsed light treatment. At this stage the improvement is a little uneven
	After 2 intense pulsed light treatments. There is now an even improvement with just a few remaining freckles
	The same pictures as above with photographs showing melanin in the skin
	After 1 intense pulsed light treatment
	After 2 intense pulsed light treatments