As with any other medical treatment, laser hair removal treatment can have some side effects. These side effects can be greatly reduced if you have the treatment performed by a qualified practitioner and follow their guidelines for care before and after the procedure. The side effects which could be involved as a consequence of laser hair removal treatment can be temporary or sometimes permanent.
Temporary Side Effects
There are several temporary side effects which can occur immediately after a laser hair removal treatment. These temporary effects eventually go away with time, though some can take days, weeks, or even months to completely resolve. The following are some common temporary side effects which might develop after your treatment:
Pain
A patient can have pain both during and after the procedure. Pain during the treatment is normally alleviated by using a local anesthetic or other methods as prescribed by the practitioner. Pain after the procedure may be improved through the use of a prescribed pain relief medication. In addition, sometimes cold packs can help.
Swelling
It is normal that there may be some swelling at and around the area that was treated. Depending on what area you have chosen to treat, this side effect may be more or less of a problem. This problem may be relieved through use of topical treatments prescribed by your practitioner.
Redness
A patient can also observe redness in and around the treated area, but redness is probably the least serious side effect of laser hair removal. However, it may be more of a problem if you have treated a well seen or visibly noticeable area, such as on your face. This problem can be resolved by using a topical treatment prescribed by your physician.
Blistering
The patient can develop blisters on the skin after the treatment. Blistering is a painful, noticeable, and embarrassing temporary side effect. This often occurs due to the use of higher influence laser especially in the case of dark skin. These can be soothed with the help of tissue cooling through a contact chill tip or cryogen spray.
Hyperpigmentation
Some times a patient’s skin can develop dark spots on and around the treated areas. These spots are called hyperpigmentation. This side effect usually takes considerable time to get cure, but it usually resolves itself without requiring any treatment.
Permanent Side Effects
There are some permanent side effects that a patient can have after a laser hair removal treatment. The chances for these side effects can be reduced greatly if the treatment is performed under the supervision of a good practitioner. The following are some of the permanent side effects that a patient can have after the treatment:
Skin discoloration
There may be a permanent lightening of the skin in the treated area. As the laser works by attacking the pigmentation in darker colored hair it can sometimes affect darker colored skin as well. How skin lightening occurs is not clear, but it seems the laser can destroy the skin melanocyte pigment producing cells. The skin discoloration may be permanent though it can very slowly recover in some cases.
Burns
Burns are also possible as a side effect of laser hair removal, but they are very rare and they are usually the work of less qualified technicians. It can be painful, but burns will heal with appropriate after care.
Scaring
Scaring mostly occurs when the area is treated by someone who is minimally trained or by an accidental over-treatment. Scarring is the result of severe burns as a result of inappropriately applied laser hair treatments. If the laser light applied to remove the hair is significantly in excess of what the skin can handle then burning will occur deep in the skin dermis. When this happens the skin heals by formation of a scar.
Laser hair removal is a safe treatment but, as a rule, some temporary side effects are possible, including darker or lighter marks, especially in dark skin and tanned skins. There is no risk of burning if the device is correctly attuned to the skin color of the individual receiving laser treatment.
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