Intense pulsed light (IPL) is a technology used by cosmetic and medical practitioners to perform various skin treatments for aesthetic and therapeutic purposes, including hair removal, photorejuvenation (e.g. the treatment of skin pigmentation, sun damage, and thread veins) as well as to alleviate dermatologic diseases such as acne.
[1][2][3][4][citation needed] IPL is increasingly used in optometry and ophthalmology as well, to treat evaporative dry eye disease due to meibomian gland dysfunction.
The resulting light has a spectral range that targets specific structures and chromophores (e.g. melanin in hair, or oxyhemoglobin in blood vessels) that are heated to destruction and reabsorbed by the body.
IPL shares some similarities with laser treatments, in that they both use light to heat and destroy their targets.
[14][13] The polychromatic light can reach multiple chromophores in human skin: mainly hemoglobin, water, and melanin.
[13] As the light is absorbed, the bulb and most of the hair shaft are heated, destroying the hair-producing papilla.
[18] It is also claimed that heat conversion occurs directly in the darker capillaries that bring blood to the follicle.
[21] Certain skin conditions, health irregularities, and medications can impact whether it is safe for a person to receive a light-based hair removal treatment.
[22] In August 1997, IPL was reported to have permanently removed terminal hair in two patients who underwent multiple treatments to their beards.
It is at least as effective as pulsed dye lasers and can penetrate deeper with reduced risk of purpura and hyperpigmentation.
A series of IPL can be used for facial rejuvenation, improving skin laxity and collagen production.
IPL is employed in the treatment of a range of dermatological conditions including photodamage induced dyspigmentation and vascular changes, poikiloderma of Civatte, rosacea, acne vulgaris, sebaceous gland hyperplasia, broken capillaries, telangiectases, vascular lesions (small blood vessels), pigmented lesions (freckles, liver spots, birth marks ), melasma, actinic keratosis, photorejuvenation, basal cell carcinoma, and Bowen's disease (squamous cell carcinoma).