CosBeauty Magazine #88

confused?
we
explain
lasers
vs IPL
IPL and laser devices have
become fixtures in beauty and
aesthetic medicine. but what’s
the difference between the two?
The healing properties of
light have been recognised
for thousands of years.
The Greeks and Romans both
understood that sunlight could play
some remedial role – although there
was little understanding of why.
As early as 1903 scientists
realised light could be used for
therapeutic treatment. The same
year Danish physician Niels Finsen
Ryberg was awarded the Nobel
Prize for his work on light therapy,
which eventuated with a machine
that emitted similar wavelengths
to the sun.
In 1917, physicist Albert Einstein
theorised on the light amplification
by stimulated emission of radiation,
or what we commonly refer to
as lasers. Today lasers are used
in a multitude of products and
systems – from barcode scanners
and 3D printers to a host of
medical, industrial and commercial
applications.
Also harnessing the power of
light, Nikola Tesla first conceived
the idea of intense pulsed light
(IPL) in the early 1900s and
presented his idea to the American
Army. He believed that light energy
could be launched to intercept a
flying object, instantly vapourising
it. However, it was not until a group
of Jewish Russian physicists, after
migrating to Israel, implemented
the idea of using intense pulsed
light in medicine, paving the way
for IPL treatments.
Light-based therapies (both
laser and IPL) have been
successfully used for decades in
beauty and aesthetic medicine,
and for many conditions, such as
pigmentation, photodamage and
skin irregularities, are often the
treatment of choice.
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