Will the treatment be painful?

Each Laser pulse causes a brief stinging sensation and after treatment, the area may continue to sting/feel warm for a few hours.

Although LASER treatment is often uncomfortable, most people tolerate the treatment well. There are various methods of cooling the skin before the start of treatment, which helps to protect the epidermis (top layer of the skin) and make the treatment more comfortable.

If you find the treatment particularly painful, your practitioner can advise you about suitable analgesia (pain relief).

We do not routinely offer anaesthetic cream for patients undergoing Vascular LASER treatment or LASER hair reduction, as this is not usually required and may reduce the effectiveness of the treatment. You may be offered local anaesthetic cream for pigment LASER treatments or fractional ablative LASER treatments.

A small proportion of our patients (e.g young children or those undergoing extensive treatments) will undergo their LASER treatment under general anaesthetic.

Because LASER light is very powerful, your eyes need to be protected by wearing goggles during treatment. If the eyes are not adequately protected, LASER light can cause permanent damage resulting in loss of vision.

For treatment near or around the eye, it may be necessary for you to have an internal protective contact lens inserted using local anaesthetic eye drops. The contact lens would be removed immediately after your treatment and an eye patch would be applied to be kept in place, for 4 hours following treatment. This is to reduce the risk of injury to the eye as your blink reflex would be temporarily disrupted from the anaesthetic drops. If your treatment involves an internal contact lens, we advise that you do not drive until it is safe to remove the eye patch.

In order to comply with LASER safety rules , you cannot be accompanied by friends or relatives in the treatment room unless there are extenuating circumstances.