Laser hair removal can be a great way to get rid of unwanted hair permanently, but if you don’t know much about lasers you may be worried about the possible health risks. One question that many people have about laser hair removal is whether it might be able to cause cancer.
What is Laser Hair Removal?
In order to understand the potential risks of laser hair treatment, it’s worth taking a moment to think about the way it works. A laser is a beam of light that is all focused in one direction. The lasers that are used for hair removal treatments are made up of specific wavelengths of light, from the visible or infrared range.
The laser will heat up the pigment inside the hair in order to kill the follicle. Once the follicle has been destroyed, that hair won’t be able to grow back. The laser treatments performed at the Dermadoc clinic are targeted at the hair follicles, so it won’t penetrate deep into the skin or have any effect on the surrounding skin. It won’t cause the same damage as the broader wavelengths of light used during IPL treatment can.
Laser Treatment and Skin Cancer
One concern that you might have about laser treatment is whether this type of light could increase the risk of skin cancer. Skin cancer is associated with exposure to certain types of light in the UV range. We are exposed to UV in sunlight and some artificial light sources, such as tanning beds. It is a high energy wavelength that is beyond the human range of vision.
UV light is so powerful that it can damage the genetic material inside our cells. If the wrong part of the DNA is damaged, then it can cause the skin cells to become cancerous. It usually takes many years of exposure to sunlight or other types of UV for this to happen. The same kind of damage is also responsible for many of the signs of ageing, such as wrinkles.
Although laser hair removal uses light energy, it does not include any UV light. The wavelengths that are used to target the hair follicles have a longer wavelength and are less energetic. There is no risk that they could damage the genetic material in your cells, so having laser hair removal won’t increase the risk of skin cancer.
Could Laser Treatment Cause Other Forms of Cancer?
Since the lasers used for hair removal don’t contain any UV light, they can’t cause skin cancer. However, you might still be worried that the treatment could put you at risk of other forms of cancer.
Laser hair treatment is very safe when it is performed by an experienced doctor at a reputable clinic. There is no evidence that having laser treatment can increase the risk of any type of cancer or any other illnesses. We have been using laser to remove unwanted hair for many years, so we know that there are no long-term effects for our patients either.
