What laser to buy – a PicoSure or PicoWay Candela picosecond laser

Currently, the laser market has a large number of models for removing tattoos and age spots. The most popular among professional doctors are the models Nd: YAG Q-Switched lasers or ruby ​​(mainly for removing age spots). These types of lasers effectively “crush” accumulations of pigments of melanin or dyes and for a small number of procedures, complete elimination of tattoos or unwanted pigment spots is achieved.

Recently, however, a large number of picosecond lasers with various characteristics have appeared on the market, and therefore doctors often also wonder what picosecond laser to buy and whether picosecond lasers are really in fashion again. This is partially caused by new trends, partially increased requirements to reduce the rehabilitation period after the procedure by doctors and patients.

Advantage of picosecond lasers over Q-Switch

What is the advantage of picosecond lasers over Q-Switch and how effective are they? The term picosecond lasers themselves means that their pulse duration is very short and is measured in picoseconds. Despite the fact that the difference between picoseconds and nanoseconds is measured 1000 times, in reality, the durations of picosecond lasers and Q-Switch differ only a few times – if most picosecond lasers generate spikes with a duration of 500-700 ps (i.e. hundreds of picoseconds), then Q-Switch lasers – with a duration of several nanoseconds (1000-5000ps). Shorter pulses of picosecond lasers give them the advantage that the effect of the beam on the skin is more delicate – the photothermal effect of the laser beam is minimized and all the photon energy is transformed into a photoacoustic effect, i.e. crushing of dye particles. For shallow-lying tattoos, a gentle picosecond laser action minimizes side effects.

Disadvantages of picosecond lasers

1. The energy of all picosecond lasers is extremely limited by physical principles, which makes it impossible to use them with laser nozzles having a large spot size (which significantly slows down the speed of the procedures) or use for procedures where a high energy density is needed (for example, for exposure to deep chromophores )

2. Also, a certain negative factor for the use of picosecond lasers is their high cost on the market (several times more expensive than Q-Switch lasers), and there is no tendency for cheaper picosecond lasers to appear due to their structural complexity and the use of a number of additional expensive optical elements. Therefore, before choosing which picosecond laser to buy PicoSure or PicoWay Candela, the doctor or the clinic owner should thoroughly calculate the budget and the real payback period of this equipment.

Comparative analysis of the most popular picosecond lasers on the market

The most famous picosecond laser models on the market are PicoSure lasers from Synosure and PicoWay from Candela. It is these models that are most often considered primarily when business owners decide which picosecond medical laser to buy. Both companies are well-known manufacturers and most doctors justifiably trust both the technical characteristics indicated in the catalogs of these models and the clinical results obtained. Despite the similarities in energy characteristics and pulse durations, the main fundamental differences between the two models are as follows:

1. PicoWay is able to work immediately at 3 wavelengths of a choice of 532, 785 and 1064nm, which significantly increases the selectivity of exposure to dyes of various colors.

2. PicoSure as an active medium has an alexandrite laser crystal (operating at a wavelength of 755nm), which is one of the most expensive and high-quality laser active media.

Both models work well for tattooing and tattoos of various colors and shades, so in order to choose which doctor to buy a picosecond laser it is better to take into account the following factors:

1. The cost of equipment and the cost of service.

2. Warranty and lifetime.

3. The presence of a service center in your city or region and the delivery time of the main nodes (because when servicing imported equipment, some nodes and modules, unfortunately, can take months due to customs procedures).

Despite all the variety of technologies and models of laser devices, the fact that the use of professional laser equipment is best suited for laser devices with solid-state active media remains unchanged for professional doctors. they are capable of providing high characteristics of laser radiation and at the same time have very long operating lives.