At Bayview General Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, we offer the world’s first picosecond laser, the PicoSure® system from Cynosure Lutronic, a game-changer in the tattoo removal field. In this month’s blog, we’ll take a closer look at PicoSure and the factors that determine how many sessions you’ll need to remove your tattoo.
Just as there’s no one-size-fits-all tattoo, there’s no single standard for removal. Some of the factors that spell out how easy or hard a tattoo is to remove include:
Professional tattoo artists tend to use better quality ink that’s more dense than pigments used by amateurs, meaning
Tattoos persist because the ink particles are too large for your body to dispose of through the circulatory and lymphatic systems. Cosmetic lasers break up pigments, so they cross that threshold and become small enough to flush from your body.
PicoSure does the job better than other lasers due to its powerful, short-duration bursts of laser energy. Lasers can produce both heat and power.
Power is what breaks up tattoo ink into particles small enough to flush from the body naturally. The heat by-products can be a concern, as heat can damage the skin around the treatment area.
That’s where PicoSure’s picosecond duration becomes important. The laser flash is so short, about 750 picoseconds, or about 100 times faster than a nanosecond laser, that heat buildup isn’t significant.
The pressure wave created by the short burst, however, is substantial. This photomechanical energy is the secret behind PicoSure’s ability to remove tattoos.
If there’s an average for PicoSure, it’s 4-8 treatment sessions to significantly reduce the appearance of an average tattoo. Because the disposal of treated tattoo pigment happens naturally, these sessions should be spaced so that we can see the full extent of fading from the previous treatment. It’s a good idea to space sessions from 6 to 10 weeks apart.
If you have stubborn ink colors or particularly dense ink layers, you may need more treatments, perhaps 8-12. Much depends on your particular tattoo and how much reduction is enough for you.
Find out more in consultation with Dr. Richard Blanchar and the team at Bayview General Medicine. Book your appointment by phone or online today.
