There is a laser clinic close to me that uses an ultrasound gel with a continuous air cooling machine instead of the cryogen spray with their GentleLase. Does anyone know the pros and cons between the two approaches in terms of treatment effectiveness and pain differences.
Thanks.
The only machines that use cryogen are Candela machines. Other machines have different cooling. I would be more concerned with the actual machine they’re using, settings, and their experience.
They use the GentleLase. It should be one of the later models since it has an 18mm spot size. They don’t use the cryogen spray. Instead they use some kind of continuous cooling device that blows air in combination with an ultrasound gel.
They state that it is more effective than the cryogen in avoiding any skin damage.
I guess my concern with going with them is whether the ultrasound gel will decrease the effectiveness of the treatment compared to a GentleLase with cryogen. I didn’t know if any studies had been done comparing the two cooling methods.
Candela does offer an air cooling option with an adapter for accepting the Cryo unit. Both should be quite effective. Efficacy will not change. They are using air cooling because it is cheaper.
The one that blows cold air i think is called Zimmer. The cryogen solution costs money for every pulse the machine fires while the Zimmer i believe is just the one time cost of the machine.
Thanks all.
I think the ultrasound gel they use is Aquasonic…I believe it is a clear gel that also helps with keeping the skin cool…I just didn’t want anything applied to my skin that inhibits the laser energy.
Many laser machines use gel, it’s mostly just to make the hand piece slide smoothly on the skin.
I believe with IPL as well the ultrasound gel actually has something to do as well with how it removes the hair and not just to glide through.
Gel is mostly for epidermal protection.
I just had Apogee with the air cooling, I think I prefer it to the cryogen only because cryogen makes it slower it’s like boom pause boom pause, boom pause. Where as with air its constant so they can fire the laser faster like shot shot shot shot etc.