kosmeds,
On a TECHNICAL level, I would agree with you: more people in general are exposed to types of sun radiation than IPL radiation, lipid peroxidation is not 'exactly the same' thing as fat loss and some of your other points.
However, I am approaching this from a public advocacy point of view with the objective of stressing that lasers, laser devices are NOT as 'safe' as the laser industry leads the public to believe. To do that, I need to 'break down' some concepts or over simplify them. Otherwise the SALIENT message of RISK would be lost.
Consider that this is an industry in which the INFORMATION relative to consumer safety is HIGHLY CONTROLLED by that industry and controlled in such a way to generate profits for that industry. You state the "real problem" is that operators of the laser devices are "under experienced". Well, yes, that is true BUT that resolves to the real problem being that the laser industry, with sole motivation of PROFIT, gladly sells these things to under experienced operators.
I'm surprised you would even intimate they have some kind of 'victim' status;
"It's really not fair to point to IPL and suggest its soley responsible for problems." An industry, entity, etc that has it's aim at CONTROLLING information and does so in accordance with generating profits where in the wake of those confluent goals, you find patients HARMED by the devices promoted, DESERVES to have one of it's devices singled out.
Yes, with regard to sun exposure, that too is a culprit for skin damage. But consider that the SUN is not an industry aimed at controlling information that exposes it's potential dangers. The LASER (industry) is.
In terms of 'fairness' the playing ground is UNFAIR in FAVOR of the laser industry which is essentially a propaganda machine. Consumers have little hope of protecting themselves from that type of propaganda machine if we are to drowned the potential dangers of laser devices with blue stocking technical arguments as to why it's 'unfair' to single some of them out. The environment is that laser marketing propaganda needs to be challenged so that fewer patients fall victim to it.
In terms of technical knowledge, in my opinion, a patient with NO technical knowledge who is just intuitively distrustful of all these new devices coming to market is probably better off than someone buying into the information the laser industry puts out.
kosmeds wrote:People don't get IPL every day, but they do get UV exposure every day. It looks like a single IPL session is about twice as bad as a single high dose of UV exposure--maybe an hour at the beach for a sensitive skin type. But a lot of people here think that high protection from UVA radiation is a waste of time. What they forget is that the damages are cumulative. They use Zinc Oxide in such a way as to deliver may be a factor of 2 in UVA protection for the first two hours of use tapering down to essentially 0 2- 4 hours later.
Another thing is that lipid peroxidation is not exactly the same as fat loss. It's still fat but its damaged fat. People can be damaging their protein and carbohydrate-like skin components, too, with sun and invasive procedures and so-called minimally invasive devices.
If it removes skin, it's going to do damage, no matter what the method, and it's going to generate a host of oxidative stress reactions. Peels of all strengths, lasers, anything irritating will do this to varying degrees. Adding routine, incidental exposure to the sun or using a weak sunscreen ineffectually, if at all, makes it worse and prolongs recovery.
It's really not fair to point to IPL and suggest its soley responsible for problems. Almost anything capable of making a a significant difference to the skin that is too strong for daily or several weekly uses for a long period of time is going to generate problems.
The real problem with IPL and these other "gentle" devices is that under inexperienced operator hands some people are getting much deeper damage than what they expected or paid for. There's also a greater potential for scarring the deeper the damage is.
Probably the safest things of all for skin jobs are regular use rx retinoids, dermaroller, and of course blocking out UV and especially UVA to the fullest extent practicable. But people don't like to use powerfully protective sunscreens and they don't like to use rx retinoids, either. And when you've let damage accumulate too far, you really will need something more powerful than these, at least in the beginning.
