A simple mistake….
I’ve just been contacted by a lady with eye problems. She couldn’t find her usual laser safety glasses and was about to treat some nail fungus
So she used her IPL glasses “because they offered protection between 200 and 2000nm”. She used a QS laser at 1064nm followed by a second pass at 532nm.
She stopped after just a few shots of the 532nm energy because “it was blindingly bright”. The 1064nm light would have been ‘brighter’, except it’s invisible!
Later that day she started feeling pain ‘behind’ both eyes. Her optician says her eyes are “good” with no signs of damage.
I’ve advised her to go to her GP and seek a consultation with an eye specialist in hospital. Hopefully she will get a good response from him/her.
I’ve also told her that the glasses MUST protect against BOTH wavelengths and intensities (power densities). IPL glasses are completely useless for QS lasers. For most QS lasers used in tattoo removal you must use an Optical Density level of at least 7 – this means that they occlude those particular wavelengths by a factor of 10 to the power 7. I.e. 10,000,000.
The current value of the MPE for eyes at 1064nm indicates an OD of around 6.5 (for nanosecond pulses). Hence, stick to 7 and above to keep your eyes safe folks!!
For more on this topic please read https://aestheticsjournal.com/feature/the-last-word-safety-glasses
Cheers,
Mike.
Mike Murphy's Blog 