In saint Louis Missouri, laser tattoo removal services are provided by dermatologists, gynecology doctors, vein specialists, cosmeticians, professional laser clinicians, and even tattoo artists in tattoo shops. For a man or woman without education on laser medicine, how should he or she choose from so many different service providers or how could he or she tell the quality of a service provider?
Obviously, the street smart way is to go through all the reviews the service providers received most recently. However, reviews only represent a few limited personal experiences with the business or service providers. The most objective way is looking at the before & after photos.
In scientific journals, physicians and other professionals publish their results with their before & after photos. In advertisement materials, laser companies frequently show their before & after photos to demonstrate the excellence of their laser machines. In all cases, the before & after photos should include how many visits it takes to achieve the results. For example, Cynosure Inc presented the following before & after photos for their Medlite C6 laser for tattoo removal application in their 2015 ads materials.
In Cynosure Inc’s before & after photos, the rose tattoo on the light skin person was totally removed in 6 visits. It is considered an excellent work by Cynosure Inc. What it really means is that this those tattoos are removed within significantly less visits than the estimated visit number. If a before & after photo does not tell you how many visits it takes to achieve, it tells you very little about their quality because most black tattoos will not have a chance to stand after enough laser treatments with a mainstream laser, not cheap lasers. When a before and after photo is presented to you during your consultation session, you should ask (1) how many visits it actually takes to get that result and (2) what is the estimated visit number for that tattoo to be removed. If the actual visit number is significantly less than the estimated one, it is a great job.
Let me give you an example here. The figure below shows the before image of a tattoo on the hand back and the after image in 4 weeks after only one visit.
This person has a skin type 3. The location factor of that tattoo is 5. Tattoo color factor is 1. Ink amount factor is 1. According to the Kirby-Desai scale calculation, the estimated visit number is 10 visits. In reality, he took only 1 visit to get it almost removed. He is qualified for enlisting into forces. But he does get two rounds of laser treatments during his only visit to our office.
Let’s look at another example. The figure below shows the before image of a tattoo on the fingers of a girl and the after image in 8 weeks after two visits. This girl did a total of three visits. She did not come back for the 4th visit because the tattoo was gone. That is why we do not have the photo after recovering from third laser treatment visit.
This girl has a skin type 4. The location factor of finger tattoo is 5. Tattoo color factor is 1. Ink amount factor is 2. According to the Kirby-Desai scale calculation, the estimated visit number is 12. In reality, she managed to get it done within three visits. She does has two-rounds of laser treatments per visit in our office.
If a service provider shows a ton of before and after photos without telling you how many visits it takes, it is not very informative. You should know what questions to ask now.
In summary, when you examine a before & after photo, you need to compare the actual visit number to the estimated visit number (or the Kirby-Desai scale number) in order to determine whether it is an excellent job. During your initial consultation session, you can always get the information by asking good questions. If you do not see any excellent job from a service provider during your consultation session, you can tell the quality of that service provider is not at high end.