Before Treatment: Sun Protection is mandatory.  We cannot treat recently sun-exposed or tanned skin.  When your melanocytes (pigment producing cells) have been recently "turned on" by sun exposure, there is risk of a suboptimal result.  Your face will be cleansed beforehand and photos will be taken.  No numbing is necessary.

During Treatment: Safety goggles will cover your eyes, and gel will usually be spread onto the skin. You will feel a cold piece of glass on the skin.  The BBL pulses feel like a heated rubber band snap.  The cold glass and gel helps to minimize discomfort. No topical numbing is necessary.  Sometimes chilled air is used to help as well. 

Immediately After Treatment:  Your skin may feel warm, and you may be more red and puffy than usual with some raised wheals (welts) of skin.  BBL done for brown spots will actually temporarily darken your brown spots.  It's rare to get bruising or blisters, but they can occur with larger vessels.    

Days following treatment:  Puffiness and freckle darkening can get worse during the first 24-72 hours after treatment.  Swelling usually fades within 24-72 hours, and the freckles that darkened typically flake off over about a week.  Puffiness can be minimized by: holding ice packs or cool compresses (with very dilute white vinegar kept in the fridge) on the treated areas (for no more than 10 minutes at a time), taking Tylenol (Acetaminophen), and taking Bendaryl (diphenhydramine) or another anti-histamine.  Do not aggressively scrub the brown spots, they will flake off on their own.  Makeup may be worn as long as there are no open sores.

Some patients have significant swelling in the days following treatment, especially when combined with other treatments like Halo Pro or other resurfacing lasers.  As long as there are no spreading open oozing areas, this is expected, normal, and fades significantly 1-3 days post treatment.  Significant swelling usually means you'll get a great result, and measures mentioned above can be helpful.   Sometimes an oral steroid is used to reduce the swelling.  If you have concerns about the swelling, please call 419-948-3376.

Months following treatment:  Usually 2-3 treatments spaced 6 weeks apart will achieve the optimum result.  The most dramatic result and swelling occurs with the first treatment because there is more "target" for the BBL to treat.  Some patients are happy with 1 treatment.  To maintain the result, since blood vessels and brown spots can grow back, usually touch up treatments are necessary.  Anything that causes flushing or continued sun exposure will make blood vessels and brown spots grow back more quickly.  After the corrective treatments, many patients benefit from the BBL Forever Young Program, which is done at least 3-4 times a year.  In studies, patients who aged 12+ years chronologically, were actually rated to be younger in photos taken 12 years later.  The studies also showed that BBL Forever Young causes gene expression changes by turning on the genes associated with younger skin.