IPL Rejuvenation: What Is Intense Pulsed Light and How Does It Work?

Look­ing youth­ful and the improve­ment of one’s phys­i­cal appear­ance has been, and always will be, an area of great inter­est to peo­ple all around the world. Recent advances in cos­met­ics and der­ma­tol­ogy have brought some excit­ing tech­nolo­gies to the table, ones that not only are more effec­tive but also less inva­sive and require less down time. IPL, or Intense Pulsed Light is one of these options. Let’s take a look at what IPL is, how it works, and what it can do for you.

What is IPL?

IPL is a tech­nol­ogy that employs dif­fer­ent wave­lengths of light to treat a vari­ety of cos­metic pro­ce­dures, from hair removal to scar reduc­tion. IPL dif­fers from laser treat­ments in that it uses non-coherent light as opposed to laser treat­ments, a treat­ment that uses coher­ent light. Laser treat­ments typ­i­cally use one focused wave­length of light at a time, whereas IPL uses a range of spec­trums depend­ing on the con­di­tion being treated. Typ­i­cally deliv­ered through a hand­held wand, IPL is rel­a­tively non-invasive, allow­ing patients to return to nor­mal activ­ity usu­ally within the same day.

How Does IPL Work?

IPL deliv­ers light, which pen­e­trates prob­lem areas of skin. The depth of pen­e­tra­tion is depen­dent on the wave­length cho­sen by the admin­is­tra­tor. Using hair removal as an exam­ple, light from IPLwill pen­e­trate the sur­face layer of a patient’s skin and dis­solve the base of hair fol­li­cles, also known as the bulb. Since the bulb usu­ally has a higher con­cen­tra­tion of melanin, which IPL is drawn to, that is where the light will turn into heat energy, sub­se­quently destroy­ing the hair from its base.

What Can IPL Be Used For?

Using the same method of light pen­e­tra­tion described pre­vi­ously, IPL can be used to treat a vari­ety of symp­toms other than hair removal. The dis­solv­ing of melanin at dif­fer­ent lev­els of skin can be par­tic­u­larly use­ful for the reduc­tion or com­plete removal of unwanted pig­men­ta­tion. Dis­col­oration result­ing from con­di­tions such as scars, lesions, birth­marks, bro­ken cap­il­lar­ies, or freck­les can all be treated through IPL. Unsightly leg veins can also be reduced at a dif­fer­ent wave­length of IPL. Veins are heated and the tem­per­a­ture within them is raised until they col­lapse and are vir­tu­ally invis­i­ble. Another perk of IPL is the excel­lent effi­cacy against pig­men­ta­tion over rel­a­tively large areas of skin and its abil­ity to remove tat­toos. When the cor­rect wave­length is selected, tat­too pig­ment par­ti­cles will absorb IPL heat energy and shat­ter into frag­ments nat­u­rally absorbable by the body.
One of the main rea­sons why IPL is often rec­om­mended as an alter­na­tive to tra­di­tional laser treat­ments is because it is a rel­a­tively gen­tle and non-invasive treat­ment. If admin­is­tered by a trained tech­ni­cian, IPL can be tuned to just the right wave­length so as to only tar­get the con­di­tion being treated and noth­ing else. With a wide vari­ety of appli­ca­tions, vir­tu­ally no recov­ery period, and a pain­less deliv­ery sys­tem, it is no mys­tery why IPL is fast becom­ing one of the most pop­u­lar meth­ods of skin reju­ve­na­tion in the world.
See our line of IPL Skin reju­ve­na­tion prod­ucts from VISS Beauty.