IPL, short for Intense Pulsed Light therapy, is a non-surgical Photofacial Skin Care Treatment. IPL is a very effective, no down time, safe method for removing pigment, or brown spots, and excess or broken blood vessels from the facial skin.

 

Browns spots, broken blood vessels around the nose, chin and cheeks are classic signs of sun damage and aging of the facial skin. Brown spots, often called age spots are caused by pigment that is produced by the skin to protect the skin from the harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun. New blood vessels grow into the skin in response to skin injury, first to wash out damaged skin debris and later to bring in healing factors. 

 

As our skin ages, the brown spots and broken blood vessels are left behind on the skin after the inflammation or skin injury has passed. These pigmented and red vascular spots create an aged variegated appearance to the skin which is called dyschromia, and is a sign of aging. Photofacial skin care treatments or IPL treatments are the non-surgical anti-aging skin care treatment of choice for benign facial skin pigmentation, age spots, brown spots and broken blood vessels, the small red spots called telangiectasia, on the face, hands, neck and Décolletage. Photofacial treatments are now preferred over laser treatments for these specific pigment and vascular lesions.

IPL or Photofacial anti-aging skin care treatments use a bright flash of visible light, like the light of a camera flash to remove pigment and blood vessels non-surgically from the skin. This pulsed or flashed light is very different from a laser and in most instances, less powerful and less dangerous that laser light.

 

Photofacial skin rejuvenation works by passing a flash of bright light through a filter that only allows a specific color of light in the flash to pass through the filter and hit the skin. When the Photofacial light energy is absorbed by the pigment or blood vessel, the heat from the IPL light destroys the pigment or blood vessel by heating it. This process is called Target Specific Photothermolysis. A specific target, that is a color, is heated (thermo) with a light (photo) beam and dissolved or destroyed (lysis).

 

Using color filters placed in front of the Intense Pulsed Light beam, a wide variety of colors can be allowed through to treat many different skin conditions including hair removal, acne, and others.

Unlike lasers, which can cause the skin to peel and possibly leave scars, IPL treatments are very gentle on the skin. The pigment in the brown spot or age spot will darken very slightly, and the treated blood vessel will also darken a bit. However the skin will be intact. The treated areas may also be slightly pink for a few hours. You may return to work. And your skin will be nearly normal the next day.

There is minimal discomfort during an IPL care treatment. Anesthesia or numbing medicine is not required. When the IPL flash hits the skin you will feel a small snap or sting, but this is easily tolerated by all of my patients.