Some people wonder why OB/GYN practices offer LHR. Isn’t it the realm of plastic surgeons and dermatologists?

For gynecologists laser hair removal is a natural transition and a perfect fit as they can perform these procedures in discrete areas of the female body in a comfortable setting of a medical office. Permanent reduction of hair in women care clinics also tends to be more affordable as these treatments are typically focused on small areas and can be combined with regular office visits.

How does laser remove hair?

Highly controlled flashes of laser beams are selectively absorbed by hair follicles lying below the surface of the skin. The absorbed light heats the hair, which damages and destroys the regrowth potential of the follicle- all without damaging surrounding tissue. Hair follicles are usually in different growth cycles at different times in relation to one another. Since the follicle must in active growth in order to be affected by the laser, several treatments spread over several months are required to assure the destruction of all hair follicles.

Areas treated: bikini area, underarms, and face.

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Why the newer fractional technologies are so popular?

The latest fractional laser technologies offer a better balance of efficacy, patient tolerance and lack of side effects compared to older lasers.

For better results the depth of the laser beam penetration and the depth of skin resurfacing are important. But even more important is an optimal combination of depth, microspot size, density, as well as the ratio of ablation to coagulation.

Depth is a simple term that indicates how deep the thermal damage extends into the skin tissue. It is the depth of the microcrater or hot cylinder.

Microspot size is the diameter of the microscopic wound.

Density is the percent coverage over the skin surface, e.g. 20 percent density means 20 percent of the skin surface is damaged.

The “ratio of ablation to coagulation” can be explained as follows: one pulse of laser beam produces a crater (coagulation area), which is 100 µm wide, and the lateral thermal damage (area of ablation) of 50 µm in radius (100 µm in diameter) ; therefore in this case, the total width of coagulation is 100 µm, and the total width of ablation is 100 µm, therefore 1:1. This ratio is an indication of the downtime. Coagulation is a type of thermal damage, which greatly influences wound healing.

The problem is that no one knows the precise best recipe among all of these variables to achieve the best ratio of cosmetic enhancement to days of “downtime.”