Laser hair removal is one of the very popular laser treatments offered by dermatologist for the removal of unwanted body hair. Today not only females who are suffering from hirsutism or hypertrichosis get this treatment but this it’s gaining much more popularity amongst males as well to get rid of unwanted body hair. Now a day varieties of laser and light technologies are available in market for the purpose of laser hair reduction, some of those are ILP, Diode Laser, LP Nd:YAG 1064 laser etc. Though it is the most popular laser treatment but not enough data regarding the long term efficacy and safety of laser hair removal is available.
Method:
Before starting laser treatment complete clinical history and physical examination was carried out. Base line investigation was carried out in case of hirsutism or in case of history of menstrual irregularities or history suggestive of some hormonal imbalance. Those are given below
- Family history of hirsutism
- MC irregularity
- Documented PCOD
- Patient is on hormonal treatment
- Obesity
- Other endocrine disorders
Informed written consent was taken from every patient before starting the laser treatment. Pre treatment and post treatment photographs were taken at each visit. First marking of the area was done, followed by shaving of the area to be treated. External Cooling in form of application of Ice or external cooler zimmer (cryo 5) was applied to skin to bring the surface temperature to around 10⁰C. Treatment with Diode laser was given in the marked area with slight overlapping (around 10%). Energy (fluence) was adjusted by the clinical response of mild to moderate erythema and perifollicular edema. Pulsed width of 30 ms was used for non tanned patients were as pulsed with of 100ms was used for very dark skin or tanned skin. Post treatment emollient and Sunscreen of at least 30 SPF was prescribed for the exposed treated part. Gap of not less than 2 months was given in between two laser treatment sittings.
At Dr Dhepe’s SkinCity , PG institute of Dermatology, we have an experience of more than 10 years for Laser hair removal with different technologies available in market. The technologies we have for laser hair removal are – 3 Diode lasers, 1- LP Nd:YAG laser, 1-IPL. So, we conducted study to find out long term efficacy and safety of laser hair removal in Indian patients. 920 cases including study from around 15 districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka over a period of 3 years, Most of them completed 4 to 8 sittings. Final analysis of data was done of the basis of Efficacy, Long term efficacy, Safety and economics (cost of entire treatment).