Tatoo removal treatment
Traditional treatments
Until lasers were invented the most common forms of tattoo removal included traditional surgery, dermabrasion and cryosurgery.
Excision, traditional surgical removal was previously the best way of completely removing tattoos that did not cover very large areas. However, the procedure is very crude and simple, effectively cutting off the skin that has been decorated under local anaesthesia. With larger tattoos, it may be necessary to perform several surgical procedures removing the tattoo in stages. In such cases a skin graft taken from another part of the body may be necessary. The disadvantage with this method is that the surgery will leave a scar.
Dermabrasion is another surgical procedure in which the physician attempts to make tattoos less noticeable by sanding them using a tool with a metal wheel that has a rough surface. The surgeon moves the rotary device over the tattooed skin causing it to be worn away. Local anesthesia is injected into the area before the treatment. When the procedure is over, the skin looks like it has been rubbed vigorously with a metal brush leaving a tender shallow wound which takes a few weeks to heal. Because some bleeding will occur, a dressing is applied to the area immediately after treatment. Like excision the procedure requires local anesthesia and sedation.
Cryosurgery is another treatment that has been used on tattoos. An in-office procedure, the mechanism of destruction is necrosis, which results from the freezing and thawing of the skin cells containing the colour pigments.
Laser treatment
Although traditional procedures are still used today, lasers have become the standard treatment for tattoo removal because they offer an effective alternative that is low-risk, bloodless and has minimal side effects. Today, the Q-switched Nd:Yag laser is among the most frequently used lasers for the removal of unwanted tattoos.
Is the treatment painful? People who have had tattoo removal by laser say that the laser feels like a rubber band snapping the skin. While a local anaesthetic is not necessary some practitioners will apply a local anesthetic cream to the area to be treated beforehand to numb this sensation. Each procedure only takes a few minutes but often more than one treatment is necessary to completely remove the tattoo. Three-week intervals between sessions are required to allow pigment residue to be absorbed by the body. Following treatment, the doctor will apply an antibacterial ointment and dressing to the area, which should be kept clean with continued application of ointment as directed by your doctor. Your skin might feel slightly sunburned for a couple of days and the treated area may remain red for a few weeks.
Lasers work by producing short pulses of intense light that pass harmlessly through the top layers of the skin to be selectively absorbed by the tattoo pigment. This laser energy causes the tattoo pigment to break into smaller particles that are then removed by the body's own immune system (scavenger cells).
Because black pigment absorbs all laser wavelengths, it's the easiest to remove. Other colors, such as green, selectively absorb laser light and can only be treated by selected lasers based on the pigment color.
The Fotona Q-switched Nd: YAG laser range with a frequency doubled KTP Nd:YAG laser is the ideal tool to effectively remove multi-coloured and complex tattoos.