IPL Photofacials
- The claim
- Evens tone, clears sun spots and broken capillaries, and rejuvenates skin.
- The verdict
- Genuinely good at pigment and vessels. Close to useless for texture or lines, which is half of what it is sold for.
- Worth it?
- Yes if the complaint is brown spots or redness. No if the complaint is texture, laxity or lines.
What the evidence supports
Intense pulsed light is a broad-spectrum device targeting melanin and hemoglobin, and it does that well: solar lentigines and telangiectasia respond reliably over a series. What it does not do is remodel the dermis in any meaningful way, because it is not depositing energy where that would happen. It also carries real risk in darker skin types, where competing epidermal melanin can absorb enough energy to burn.
Why this entry is short
This is a graded stub. The verdict, the grade and the citations are settled and reviewed; the long-form write-up is queued behind a recorded consult-room explanation, in the order these questions actually come up in the office. The row is here now because an evidence index with twenty honest lines is more use than one with four essays and nothing else.
What this is based on
- Shin et al., objective evaluation of intense pulsed light photorejuvenation in Asian skinJournal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology · 2011
- Jiang et al., combined bipolar radiofrequency, intense pulsed light and infrared diode laser for global facial photoagingLasers in Medical Science · 2017
Grades describe the quality of the human evidence, not my opinion of the treatment. Where the literature changes, the grade changes and the review date moves with it.
The full guide
All guides →Fractional CO2 Recovery, Day by Day: What the Two Weeks Actually Look Like →
The most powerful resurfacing tool we have, and the one most often used on the wrong patient. Here is what the treatment does to skin, who it suits, and an honest day-by-day account of the recovery nobody describes in advance.
Newsletter
The one email a week that isn't selling you something.
What changed in facial rejuvenation this week, one guide we updated, and why it matters. Written by Jay Keni, MD.