Maybe this issue came up before, but I could not find it. Sorry if it did…
Are there any studies about long term effects of the laser treatments? After all, energy is applied, which can potentially harm cells in way that may result in skin cancer. I know, the laser light used is certainly not in the spectral range where it is absorbed by DNA or RNA (around 230-260nm), but anyway.
Anybody have some insights on that??
Good question…in fact this is the only thing keeping me from going ahead and having laser done on myself. I’m guessing that it hasn’t been in use for hair removal long enough to collect this sort of data…anyone know?
I don’t think there will be any harm, LASER is just “intensed” light beams.
My two bits on this would be that yes damage to the skins structure probably does occur to some extent but with proper treatment should be either impossible to see with the unaided eye or at least fall within the look of normal skin texture. Proper treatment has to cause thermal damage and subsequent scarring to the cells the cause the hair to grow. This scarring my manifest itself as a minor change in the texture or color of the skin.
I have my doubts as to the cancer risks of LHR since the frequency and power density of the light used is not too effective at causing damage to the DNA structure without also killing the whole cell. In essence genetic mutations are most unlikely to happen with LHR compared to a few days in the sun without protection from the more energetic and damaging UV frequency of light.
Chris
The radiation used in laser and electrolysis is non-ionizing radiation. That is much safer than ionizing radiation like x-rays and gamma rays. However, there are no long-term large scale studies on possible effects of this sort of short-term intense treatment to the skin. It remains an unknown risk. However, electrolysis has been performed for 125 years and laser for 30 and there have been no observed patterns of increased diseases of any kind in patients of either method.