I was wondering if it was safe to have laser hair removal done on the entire neck. A nurse I spoke to said it is dangerous because the thyroid gland is located in the neck. Please let me know what you think because I would love to get rid of some dark hairs on my neck.
(By the way I use the LightSheer Diode Laser)
Thank you so much,
Michy
No one knows if it is truly safe to have laser on the neck because this probably hasn’t been studied yet, scientifically, using large samples of people. Remember,we’re talking hair removal here. I don’t think a lot of doctors care about investigating the effects of laser hair removal on the neck and the thyrod gland. We can only presume it is okay at this point in time. I have not seen any data supporting the statement made by the nurse. If he or she can produce evidence to back up that advise,it would help you with your decision.
My instinctive, conservative bias would probably make me gun shy on performing laser in that area. You can do some researching yourself. Start with www.pubmed.com and ask other professionals. It would be interesting to hear what an endocrinologist has to say about the thyroid and laser hair removal. Please share what you learn with hairtell.
Dee
Unless your thyroid gland is very prominent or close to the surface I would not be too concerned. I used to have a large Austin Powers tuft of hair right over that area and have had 4 laser treatments follwed by 6 electrolysis sessions spread out over the last 2 years.
The laser energy does not penetrate too far past the skin (somewhere around 4 to 6mm), so any energy left down at the depth of the thyroid glands would be very minimal at best.
This is the same logic that can be used for treating areas in the groin and underarms were large concentrations of lymph nodes reside.
If you are truly concerned about this please go to a medical doctor and get their opinion, making sure to bring information on the laser energy and wavelength that you are interested in.
Chris