Notes

The "Laser"

I chuckle to myself when I think about lasers. I expect Austin Powers to put air quotes throughout the word when I say it. I find that lots of people utilize term just as if it was an awesome device that could do anything - including come up with a scarless incision. It can't. Lasers are just a method to apply energy to your spot. All you can change will be the sized the location, just how long the laser is on, as well as the color (and t here by the energy) of the laser. That's pretty much it. (Physicists possess a term called fluence that measures the quantity of energy delivered per unit area. Higher fluence = more energy. Don't keep in mind that or men and women think you're a geek.)

My first knowledge about medical lasers what food was in 1984. I was a surgery intern and happy to be watching an instance of hemorrhoids (yes, hemorrhoids) being removed with a laser. The attending physician was proud to show me how his new toy worked. He pointed the hand piece of the laser at a wooden tongue depressor and stepped for the pedal. Sure enough - the laserlight immediately went all the way through the wooden stick. Unfortunately it kept going, punching the paper drapes within the patients legs. Poof, a smaller fire started. The nurse was totally calm and merely dumped a basin of water for the smoking paper. No harm done, but I realized that this is not only a simple toy.

So what types of medical lasers is there and what exactly are they used for?

The carbon dioxide laser was made at Bell Labs in 1964. It is an efficient laser that emits inside infrared part from the spectrum. The wavelength in the CO2 laser is absorbed by water and therefore heats tissue perfectly. It is utilized in facial resurfacing to take out wrinkles. By controlling just how long the heart beat lasts and the pattern of pulses, very precise layers of skin can be removed. It is often used having a computer pattern generator for perfect application in the pulses.

Nd:YAG is a kind of laser also manufactured by Bell Labs inside same year. Nd is short for neodymium. The initials YAG is good 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 found in ophthalmology and can be used to take out skin cancers. Gynecologists use it during hysteroscopy to take care of certain uterine conditions. It's most popular cosmetic use is for laser treatments and to get rid of spider veins through the face and legs. It can also help in removing fungus in the fingernails and toenails.

Er:YAG is often a similar laser. Instead of neodymium, erbium is used. This laser emits further in the infrared spectrum (2940 nm) and is also strongly absorbed by water. It is found in laser resurfacing of the skin to treat scarring, wrinkles, and melasma (patchy pigmented areas of the skin). It also could be used to eliminate warts. Dentists and oral surgeons make use of this laser to slice bone.

Q-Switched Lasers - Alexandrite, Ruby, Nd:Yag, Tunable Dye. OK, another geeky term, but a really useful technique. Q-Switching allows the laser to own high energy pulses rather than a continuous beam. That makes these lasers perfect 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 can be 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 pores and skin or tan) that makes 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 can be highly absorbed by green and dark tattoo pigments. Because it is more highly absorbed by melanin this laser may produce undesirable side effects for example pigmentary changes for patients of most but white skin.


Q-switched Alexandrite: 755 nm. Similar towards the Ruby laser, the alexandrite laser also results in a red light that's 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 compared to a ruby laser.


Q-switched Nd:YAG: 1064 nm. This laser produces a near-infrared light (invisible to humans) that's poorly absorbed by melanin, creating this the only real laser suitable for darker skin. This laser wavelength is also absorbed by all dark tattoo pigments and could be the safest wavelength to use on the tissue due to low melanin absorption and low hemoglobin absorption. This wavelength will be 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 securely and effectively treat multi-color tattoo inks.



Dye lasers make use of an organic dye mixed which has a solvent that is certainly stimulated by an high energy external source of light to lase. Mirrors are widely-used to increase the force. Then cavities or resonators are utilized to tune the output. By selecting different dyes the output color could be changed. They are widely used to deal with port-wine stains along with other pigmented lesions from the skin. The can also be familiar with decrease scarring and also to make the skin tone more even. By matching the dyes for the different ink colors they are able to also be useful for tattoo removal.

IPL is the last one to talk about. Intense Pulsed Light is technically not just a laser. It produces quite high intensity light in very short pulses. IPL could be the most popular type of techniques 'laser' and is also roughly as good as the Nd:YAG mentioned previously. It is additionally used to treat rosacea, birth marks, sun damaged skin, and scarring.

And that should take action for today. You are now more educated. Enjoy!

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