BMLA Advice for re-opening laser/IPL clinics – new training course

The BMLA has issued some guidance on re-opening medical laser/IPL clinics with a view to staff/patient safety. It has some very useful information in it. Click here for the advice. I can now offer a training course on re-opening clinics in the UK. This course includes a Powerpoint training sessions for all staff which discusses… Continue reading BMLA Advice for re-opening laser/IPL clinics – new training course

Before ‘IPL’, there was ‘Supraherence’!!

Terrible name! Thank goodness we dropped it.   Back in 1996 we were developing the world’s first IPL system for hair removal. Except, back in 1996 the name ‘IPL’ had not been coined! We were using a strange expression – “supraherence”. I honestly can’t remember why we came up with that!! We had done a… Continue reading Before ‘IPL’, there was ‘Supraherence’!!

How long have you actually treated patients/clients wth lasers?

A bit of fun…. If you treat 10 tattoo patients a day with a Q-switched laser (using a 10 nanosecond pulse width) and each treatment requires, say, 1000 pulses, then the total treatment time is 0.1 milliseconds. This is the actual time you have applied the laser energy! If you operate your laser clinic for… Continue reading How long have you actually treated patients/clients wth lasers?

New paper – my musings on back-scattered laser light from tattoo treatments

New Paper – click here I just had a new paper published in the journal ‘Lasers in Medical Science’. It discusses the amount of back-scatter light emanating from the skin during laser treatments. It is much higher than we had previously thought. This comes from new Monte Carlo modeling which found that back-scattering is much… Continue reading New paper – my musings on back-scattered laser light from tattoo treatments

New LPA website

As of now I have a new website covering my LPA stuff – laserprotection.net. It also lists all my publications to date – My Publications. Please visit if you are interested in having your laser/IPL facilities checked for compliance etc. If you need any advice on your laser/IPL equipment please let me know.   Mike.

Laser energy, energy density, fluence, leprechauns and star bursts……

  I constantly hear laser users talking about the ‘energy’ they are using to treat tattoos, hair, blood vessels etc. However, it is clear that many don’t really understand what they mean. I often read about treatments using “500” or “250” or “never above 600” joules, millijoules or whatever!! I think these are the numbers… Continue reading Laser energy, energy density, fluence, leprechauns and star bursts……