Future of Laser Skin Rejuvenation

Selective photothermolysis is or rather used to be dogmatic in cutaneous laser systems. Basically laser of a particular wavelength is selectively absorbed by a ‘chromophore‘ that gets heated up. Melanin is the chromophore for hair removal and hemoglobin for blood vessels. What is the chromophore for skin rejuvenation?

For non-specific tissue heating as in skin rejuvenation systems do not have a specific chromophore! But till recently we have been on the lookout for the ‘ideal’ wavelength. Er-YAG, Er-Glass, CO2 all have been tried with limited success though the fractional technology has improved the safety profile considerably.

Laser beam quality – M2 definition (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Innovations happen when dogmas are challenged!

Scientists from Philips Research in Eindhoven have prototyped a system that do not depend on selective photothermolysis and hence not on any specific chromphore/wave length. The new system uses advanced optics to focus a laser beam below the epidermis. High laser intensity at the focal point induces a little known (to me) phenomenon called ‘Light Induced Optical Breakdown’ (LIOB) creating a mini ‘explosion’ along a short distance!

Graph showing the history of maximum laser pulse intensity throughout the past 40 years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This conceptually different system has many advantages. Since it uses a converging beam, the laser intensity on the surface is very less and hence the surface changes and pain are virtually nil. However the sub-epidermal effect is similar to or probably more than ablative systems. So you end up giving ablative results at no pain and no downtime.

This should bring a paradigm shift in the present selective photothermolytic systems.

I give full five peels for this technology.

What is peel score?