BBL – Broadband Light Before and After
Broad Band Light (BBL) is an advanced light technology capable of treating a variety of skin concerns including pigmentation, blood vessels, rosacea, melasma and acne to promote overall skin rejuvenation. BBL by Sciton is the world’s most powerful IPL device, delivering impressive results with fewer treatments and minimal downtime.
BBL uses light energy to heat the upper layers of the skin. The heat absorbed by the targeted areas will stimulate your skin cells to regenerate. This makes the treatment ideal for freckles and sunspots, small vessels, and rosacea. BBL also offers Forever Young technology which uses BBL energy to change the expression of genes associated with ageing, resulting in long-term younger and healthier skin. This treatment is safe for treating multiple areas of the face and body. Forever Clear is another BBL technology for treating acne, producing incredible results tailored to the patient.
What to Expect
Following a review of your medical history and your skin concerns, we will determine whether BBL treatment is the ideal solution for you.
During your treatment, a BBL handpiece will be used to gently heat up the skin with flashes of filtered light. As the light energy passes through the surface of the skin, it has a therapeutic effect on the pigmented and damaged cells and tissue. Along with releasing pigmented cells and reducing blood flow to broken capillaries, the treatment will also stimulate collagen production, which will help gradually smooth out fine lines and wrinkles and improve skin tone.
Patients can expect a pinching or stinging sensation during their treatment, however, a gel or cold compress will be used to cool and soothe the skin. The average BBL treatment takes about 30 minutes, but this will depend on the area that needs to be treated. One to three treatments are recommended to achieve optimal results, though severely sun-damaged skin may require more than this.
Directly after your treatment, pigmentation and imperfections will appear darker and your skin will appear slightly red and swollen. This mild redness is normal and typically will only last a few hours. Over the course of the next week or two, any darkened spots will flake off and the redness produced by broken capillaries will dissipate.
We will provide you with a specific set of aftercare instructions that should be carefully followed in order to enhance your results and protect your skin from further damage going forward.
What Can Be Treated with BBL?
The face, neck, arms, legs, back, hands and décolletage are the areas that are most often treated with Sciton’s BBL technology. The powerful light wavelengths can be customised to treat a variety of skin concerns, giving you a smoother and brighter complexion. Here are the issues that can be addressed with this treatment:
- Redness: Diffuse redness associated with broken capillaries
- Pigmentation, sunspots and melasma: Reduce the appearance of freckles and pigmentation associated with sun damage to the face and body
- Rosacea: Treat the symptoms associated with rosacea
- Active Acne: Forever Clear BBL destroys acne-causing bacteria, soothes inflammation, and reduces redness
- Skin rejuvenation: Forever Young BBL has been shown to change the expression of genes associated with ageing for long-term younger, healthier skin
Ideal Candidates for BBL
While we will need to analyse your skin prior to determining whether you are the right candidate for this treatment, overall, it is ideal for the vast majority of skin types. Previously lasers were often limited to fairer skins, but BBL technology allows us to safely treat almost all darker skin types too. If you have blotchy, sun-damaged or discoloured skin, BBL can reduce the appearance of sun and age-related imperfections. Additionally, if you are concerned about signs of ageing like lines and wrinkles or skin laxity, this procedure can offer great results as a non-invasive option.
BBL Results
The results of your BBL treatment will gradually improve over one to three weeks once the pigmented spots start to flake and fade. Any redness will also start to improve throughout this time as the excess blood vessels begin to break down. It is beneficial for patients to follow their aftercare instructions, which may include staying out of the sun, using a high SPF sunscreen, and taking care not to rub or irritate their treated skin.
Most people will need a repeat treatment after four weeks until their skin goals are achieved.
