SOLUTION:

 

Who is it for?

Men and women of all ages wishing to remove or improve various skin imperfections. The most common areas of treatment are those that are regularly exposed to the sun.

 

What is the procedure?

Intense pulsed light (IPL) or flashlamp therapy is a non-invasive and non-ablative treatment that uses high-intensity pulses of visible light to improve the appearance of skin imperfections.

Lumecca is the most powerful intense pulsed light (IPL) device and is FDA cleared to improve the appearance of vascular lesions and pigmentation irregularities.

Lumecca differs from conventional IPL in that it uses a higher light intensity, making it more effective at treating sun damage, acne scars, and redness from rosacea.

 

How does the treatment work?

Lumecca IPL works on the same principles as lasers in that light energy is absorbed into particular target cells with colour (chromophores) in the skin. The light energy is converted to heat energy, which causes damage to the specific target area. IPL systems are different to lasers in that they deliver many wavelengths (or colours) in each pulse of light instead of just one wavelength. Most IPL systems use filters to refine the energy output for the treatment of certain areas. This enhances penetration without using excessive energy levels and enables targetting of specific chromophores (these are skin components that absorb light):

• For the treatment of spider and thread veins, and some vascular birthmarks, light pulses are targeted at the red-pigment (haemoglobin) in the blood which heat and destroy the pigment without affecting the skin or other tissues.
• For the treatment of age spots, freckles, flat pigmented birthmarks and other skin discolouration problems such as melasma and erythromelanosis of the neck (poikiloderma of Civatte), light pulses are targeted at the melanin in the skin’s surface which heat and destroy melanin to remove the discolouration.

Lumecca IPL therapy is a non-ablative resurfacing technique, which means that it targets the lower layers of skin (dermis) without affecting the top layers of skin (epidermis). The results are not as dramatic as ablative resurfacing where both the dermis and epidermis are injured to produce a much more noticeable overall outcome.

 

Benefits of the treatment

Effectively treats pigmentation, redness, blood vessels, sun damage

Generates collagen

Diminishes pore size

Improves tone and texture of skin

Little down time

Non-invasive

Comfortable

Patients can often have the procedure done in their lunch break and return to work immediately afterwards.

 

Duration of treatment

10-30 min, depending on the indication. 

 

How many sessions are required?

A series of IPL treatments is usually required, usually one to six, performed four weeks apart – our highly trained staff will advise you accordingly. 

Results may vary from patient to patient, however most patients will see improvement up to one year. Some patients, especially those with stubborn redness and blood vessels or those with frequent sun exposure, may need maintenance treatment and so choose to repeat one Lumecca IPL treatment every three to six months.

 

Downtime

There is now downtime and patients are free to carry on with any normal day to day physical activities and normal routine. However, some temporary discomfort, redness and swelling are possible after IPL treatment. Any signs and symptoms typically disappear within several hours.

It is important to avoid direct, excessive sun exposure or tanning one month prior to treatment and for a few days after treatment.