The "Laser"Posted by Wells Mathiesen on February 14th, 2021 I chuckle to myself when I take into consideration lasers. I expect Austin Powers to place air quotes throughout the word when I say it. I find that numerous people use the term just as if it had been a marvelous device that will do anything - including create a scarless incision. It can't. Lasers are a strategy to apply energy to a spot. All you can change may be the size the location, just how long the laser is on, and also the color (and thereby the vitality) in the laser. That's pretty much it. (Physicists use a term called fluence that measures the amount of energy delivered per unit area. Higher fluence = more energy. Don't remember that or people will think you are a geek.) My first exposure to medical lasers was in 1984. I was a surgery intern and happy to be watching a clear case of hemorrhoids (yes, hemorrhoids) being removed using a laser. The attending physician was proud showing me how his new toy worked. He pointed the hand piece of the laser at the wooden tongue depressor and stepped about the pedal. Sure enough - the laser immediately went right the way through the wooden stick. Unfortunately it kept going, showing up in paper drapes covering the patients legs. Poof, a smaller fire started. The nurse was totally calm and merely dumped a basin of water around the smoking paper. No harm done, but I pointed out that this became not only a simple toy. So what kinds of medical lasers is there and what exactly are they used by? The co2 laser originated at Bell Labs in 1964. It is an efficient laser that emits inside infrared part of the spectrum. The wavelength with the CO2 laser is absorbed by water and thus heats tissue adequately. It is employed in facial resurfacing to remove wrinkles. By controlling the length of time the heart beat lasts along with the pattern of pulses, very precise layers of skin can be taken off. It is often used using a computer pattern generator for perfect application in the pulses. Nd:YAG is a laser also put together by Bell Labs within the same year. Nd stands for neodymium. The initials YAG is for yttrium-aluminium-garnet. (Now you realise why we make reference to it by its initials.) This laser emits infrared light (1064 nm). It is utilized in ophthalmology and may be used to eliminate skin cancers. Gynecologists utilize it during hysteroscopy to treat certain uterine conditions. It's most common cosmetic use is for laser treatments and to take out spider veins from the face and legs. It can also help in removing fungus from the fingernails and toenails. Er:YAG is often a similar laser. Instead of neodymium, erbium can be used. picosure tattoo removal sydney emits further in the infrared spectrum (2940 nm) and is also strongly absorbed by water. It is found in laser resurfacing from the skin to take care of scarred tissues, wrinkles, and melasma (patchy pigmented areas of the skin). It also may be used to eliminate warts. Dentists and oral surgeons use this laser to chop bone. Q-Switched Lasers - Alexandrite, Ruby, Nd:Yag, Tunable Dye. OK, you could try this out , but an incredibly useful technique. Q-Switching allows the laser to possess high energy pulses rather than continuous beam. More hints makes these lasers well suited for tattoo removal. From the Wikipedia article on tattoo removal: Q-switched Frequency-doubled Nd:Yag: 532 nm. This laser generates a green light which is highly absorbed by red and orange targets. Useful primarily for red and orange tattoo pigments, this wavelength is additionally highly absorbed by melanin (the chemical that gives complexion or tan) making the laser wavelength also effective for age spot or sun spot removal. Q-switched Ruby: 694 nm. This laser results in a red light which is highly absorbed by green and dark tattoo pigments. Because it is more highly absorbed by melanin this laser may produce undesirable side effects like pigmentary changes for patients of all but white skin. Q-switched Alexandrite: 755 nm. Similar towards the Ruby laser, the alexandrite laser also creates a red light which can be highly absorbed by green and dark tattoo pigments. However, the alexandrite laser color is slightly less absorbed by melanin, so this laser carries a slightly lower incidence of unwanted pigmentation changes when compared to a ruby laser. Q-switched Nd:YAG: 1064 nm. This laser produces a near-infrared light (invisible to humans) which can be poorly absorbed by melanin, thus, making this the sole laser ideal for darker skin. This laser wavelength is also absorbed by all dark tattoo pigments and could be the safest wavelength to work with on the tissue due to the low melanin absorption and low hemoglobin absorption. This wavelength is the wavelength of choice for tattoo removal. Dye modules are for sale to some lasers to convert 532 nm to 650 nm or 585 nm light. Which allows one laser system to soundly and effectively treat multi-color tattoo inks. Dye lasers readily organic dye mixed with a solvent that is stimulated by an high energy external light to lase. Mirrors are used to increase the force. Then cavities or resonators are used to tune the output. By selecting different dyes the output color may be changed. They are popular to treat port-wine stains and also other pigmented lesions from the skin. The can also be familiar with decrease scarring also to make the skin tone more even. By matching the dyes for the different ink colors they are able to also be used for tattoo removal. IPL may be the last one to go over. Intense Pulsed Light is technically not just a laser. It produces very high intensity light in very short pulses. IPL is the most typical form of traditional hair removal 'laser' and it is roughly as effective as the Nd:YAG stated previously. It is also used to help remedy rosacea, birth marks, sun damaged skin, and scarring. And that will take action for today. You are now more educated. Enjoy! Laser hair removalLike it? Share it! More by this author |