IPL Rosacea Treatment
Rosacea, flushing, redness, ruddy complexion, broken capillaries and spider veins
Are you suffering from Rosacea? Perhaps you find yourself avoiding certain triggers that make your Rosacea worse or you avoid some social situations because your Rosacea makes you feel self-conscious or embarrassed? Although Rosacea is relatively common – affecting 10% of adults – we understand that it can be a very distressing condition.
How can IPL & lasers be used to treat Rosacea?
It is believed that the light from IPL and pulse dye lasers has two actions that help in Rosacea.
Firstly, red thread veins absorb the light energy, which makes them hot. This damage encourages the body to reabsorb the veins, improving and fading their appearance.
Secondly, the light energy warms the collagen fibres in the skin. This stimulates new collagen and collagen remodelling, which improves the support of the small blood vessels and helps to delay the development of more thread veins.
Can IPL rosacea treatment help me?
If you have Rosacea, then laser or IPL treatment could make a significant difference to the redness of your skin. Every case is different, so we would recommend that you book an initial consultation so that we can assess your Rosacea and discuss your treatment options with you in detail.
Why come to Avora Skin Spa Clinic for laser & IPL Rosacea treatment?
As Avora Skin Spa – Skin Laser Clinic is doctor-led, we have a great deal of experience of treating patients with Rosacea. Our medical, rather than purely aesthetic perspective, means that we can explore different treatment options and draw on more than 20 years’ experience of using lasers and IPL to help improve the appearance of this distressing condition.
Our laser technicians are all experienced doctors and nurses ( from Europe). At all times, you can rely on us for an honest, professional and realistic approach.
What symptoms can you treat?
We treat the redness and broken veins of Rosacea with Intense Pulse Light (IPL) . We use either the Angelite medical grade IPL machine.
These deliver a pulse of bright light to the broken vessels, causing them to heal up and fade away. People with Rosacea flush easily and develop redness, pimples, and thread veins on their cheeks, nose and forehead. It often starts in the second or third decade of life, and women are more often affected than men.
Rosacea is common, affecting perhaps 10% of adults. Because Rosacea affects the face, it can cause significant psychological problems. You may find the people assume you’ve had too much to drink, which can be distressing.
Many people with Rosacea find the rash on their face causes them embarrassment and anxiety. Some people stay well by avoiding triggers of flushing such as certain foods and beverages, sunlight and certain cosmetics. The active flare ups when spots break out are best treated with antibiotic lotions to rub on or as tablets to swallow.
The better active flare ups are controlled, the fewer thread veins are left behind. Lasers and IPL machines are used to help the remaining redness and broken veins.
What does the IPL Rosacea treatment involve?
You will be asked to keep your face as pale as possible by avoiding sun exposure before and during your course of treatment. At your first visit you can discuss the pros and cons of treatment and a patch test can be performed to check the reaction of your skin.
A week later, the first full treatment is carried out. The whole of the affected area will be treated, except in men where the beard area is avoided. There is a feeling of heat during the treatment and your face will be redder for a short while afterwards. Cooling packs can be applied to help combat this.
You will need to wear goggles to protect your eyes from the intense light. A course of four to six treatments at three- to four-week intervals produces the best outcomes.
Improvement may continue for many weeks after the course has finished. Rosacea is a relapsing condition and, although this treatment improves the appearance, it does not cure the Rosacea. If you have active inflammatory Rosacea then this will need to be controlled with medication before you can have IPL or laser treatment.
Treatment of the vascular lesions of the face and neck using selective vascular photothermolysis with intense pulse light. To date, a variety of lasers has been used for treating vascular skin lesions. Intense pulsed light (IPL) is a proven technology for vascular lesion management, such as rosacea.
Intense pulse light with a flash lamp has been a treatment modality for several years. The technology uses multiple filters capable of treating various types of vascular lesions. An advantage of this diverse machine is the ability to adjust wavelengths through different filters and modify pulse duration and pulse delay. This allows treatment of various vascular lesions of different size and depth. This retrospective study in 44 patients determined the long-term outcomes and efficacy of intense pulse light on vascular lesions of the face, including telangiectasias, rosacea, cavernous hemangioma, and port wine stains. We also evaluated the proportional clearance of the lesion, number of treatments to achieve optimal results, side effects, and patient satisfaction. Patients were followed for an average of 19 months and received an average of 2.9 treatments. In 52% of patients, there was over 75% resolution of the lesions. A higher number of treatments resulted in better outcomes without any increase in the side effects. Overall 81% of the patients were totally satisfied with the treatment. Intense pulse light offers an easy and effective way of treating vascular lesions of the face and neck. It has minimal side effects and yields high patient satisfaction.
Tahsin Oguz Acartürk1 and Guy M. Stofman2
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA. (2) Division Plastic Surgery, Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA.
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of IPL in treating vascular facial lesions in rosacea patients.
METHODS: Sixty patients presenting with telangiectasia owing to facial rosacea were selected randomly from the patient population in the Department of Laser Therapy at the Medical Centre Maastricht, the Netherlands. Patients of various skin types (Fitzpatrick I-IV) were selected with an average age of 44.2 years. Five hundred eight sites were treated, with a mean of 4.1 treatments per site and an IPL spectrum ranging from 515 to 1,200 nm with different pulse durations between 4.3 and 6.5 milliseconds. The energy density varied from 25 to 35 J/cm2.
RESULTS: Patients were assessed clinically and photographically. A mean clearance of 77.8% was achieved and was maintained for a follow-up period averaging 51.6 months (range 12-99 months). No correlation was found between the clearance of rosacea and patient-related or technical data. For approximately 3 years post-treatment, lesion recurrence was noted in 4 of the 508 treated facial sites.
DISCUSSION: This study demonstrated that IPL treatment of facial rosacea is effective in obtaining clearance of 77.8%, with minimal side effects, and that treatment effects are maintained.
CONCLUSION: The IPL system, with its broad range of technical variables, is an effective tool in achieving meaningful and lasting rosacea clearance.
Effective treatment of rosacea using intense pulsed light systems. Dermatologic Surgery. 2005 Oct;31(10):1285-9., Schroeter CA, Haaf-von Below S, Neumann HA., Department of Laser Therapy, Medical Centre Maastricht, Becanusstraat 17 A05, 6216 BX Maastricht, the Netherlands.