BBL vs IPL vs pico laser:
a filtered lamp, a lamp, and a laser

Is BBL the same as IPL, and is either of them a laser?

BBL is a form of IPL. On this page BBL means BroadBand Light, not the Brazilian butt lift, which is covered under unevenness after a BBL. BroadBand Light is the name Sciton gives its intense pulsed light platform, and Forever Young BBL is a treatment protocol run on that platform rather than a different machine. Like every IPL, it is a flash lamp: a xenon lamp emits a broad spectrum of light, and interchangeable cut-off filters remove the shorter wavelengths so that the band delivered to the skin starts at, for example, around 420, 515, 560 or 590 nm and runs up into the infrared. What distinguishes BBL within the IPL family is engineering rather than physics: the filter set, the cooled crystal in contact with the skin and the control over pulse width. A small pilot study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology examined gene expression in skin after a course of broadband light treatments; it was a pilot in a handful of patients and describes a laboratory finding rather than a result anyone can expect.

Neither BBL nor IPL is a laser. A laser emits one wavelength, chosen because one target absorbs it far more strongly than the tissue around it. A pico laser adds a second property: its pulses last around a trillionth of a second, short enough that a pigment particle is fragmented mainly by a pressure effect before much heat spreads into the surrounding skin. A lamp spreads its energy across many wavelengths and delivers them over milliseconds, so it works by heat and it heats more than one target at a time. That difference is the whole of the comparison.

What does broadband light target, and what does a pico laser target?

Every light treatment works through a chromophore, the molecule that absorbs the light and turns it into heat or pressure. Oxygenated haemoglobin absorbs strongly between roughly 500 and 600 nm, melanin absorbs across the whole visible range and into the near infrared, falling as wavelength rises, and water absorbs in the far infrared. A broadband pulse from 515 or 560 nm upwards is absorbed by haemoglobin in small vessels and by melanin in sun spots and in the epidermis at the same time, which is why IPL and BBL are sold for redness and pigment together and why the skin around the target takes up part of every pulse.

A pico laser is built around melanin and ink. At 532 nm it is absorbed strongly and stays superficial, which suits freckles and sun spots; at 1064 nm it travels deeper and is absorbed less by epidermal melanin, which makes it the more conservative choice in darker skin; 755 and 785 nm sit between. Haemoglobin is not its target, and a picosecond pulse is too short to hold heat in a vessel wall for the milliseconds needed to close it, so a pico laser does nothing useful for a red mark. The yellow laser vs pico vs pulsed-dye page covers that limit in detail.

“A lamp heats everything that absorbs it. In skin with more melanin, that includes the skin. I would rather choose one wavelength for one target than ask a broad spectrum to be gentle.”

Dr Sin YongOn broadband light in Fitzpatrick III to V skin

Why does IPL or BBL need more caution in Asian skin?

Because the epidermis in Fitzpatrick III to V skin contains more melanin, and melanin absorbs the shorter end of a broadband spectrum strongly. A lamp cannot leave those wavelengths out without a higher cut-off filter, and a higher filter also removes part of the energy meant for the target. The result is a narrower margin: enough energy to close a vessel or lift a sun spot is closer to the energy that heats the epidermis and triggers post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, the darkening that follows inflammation and that can be slow to fade in reactive skin. Early reports of IPL photorejuvenation in Asian patients described it as workable with contact cooling and conservative settings, with pigment reactions the complication to plan around.

Melasma is the second caution. Heat is one of its triggers, and a broadband pulse over the cheeks of someone with melasma can darken the patches it was meant to lighten. The melasma treatment page explains why the diagnosis comes before any light, and why laser, where it has a role, is conservative and sits inside a plan built on photoprotection and topical therapy. A pico laser is not exempt from this: fluence, wavelength, interval and sun exposure decide its behaviour too, as set out on pico laser on Asian skin. The difference is that a picosecond pulse at a longer wavelength leaves less heat in the epidermis than a millisecond broadband pulse, which is a wider margin rather than a safe one.

Where broadband light is a reasonable fit

• Fair skin, Fitzpatrick I to III, with diffuse redness or flushing and scattered superficial sun damage.
• Fields of post-acne redness in lighter skin once the acne is controlled, where the trial literature supports IPL and pulsed-dye class devices.
• Hair removal on lighter skin with dark hair, with the caveat that it is a lamp and not a laser; see laser hair removal.

Which suits redness, which suits pigment, and which suits dull tone?

The useful question is not which device is newer but which target the concern actually is. Redness is blood in vessels; a sun spot is a deposit of melanin; dullness and uneven tone in Singapore skin are very often low-grade inflammation rather than a deposit at all. Each of those wants a different wavelength and a different pulse. Broadband light answers the first two at once in fair skin. In Fitzpatrick III to V skin the two targets are better separated, so that the vessel is treated with a wavelength chosen for haemoglobin and the pigment with a wavelength and pulse chosen for melanin, each at a setting that respects the epidermis.

What does Dr Sin Yong use instead of BBL or IPL, and why?

BBL and IPL are not used here. The reason is the population: most patients in Singapore sit in Fitzpatrick III to V, and a device whose energy is spread across wavelengths the epidermis also absorbs gives up margin in exactly the skin that has the least to spare. Dr Sin Yong separates the targets instead. Pigment that is a deposit is treated with the picosecond laser, his T2 Frax Radiance protocol on the DEKA TORO, with the wavelength chosen for the depth of the pigment and the fluence for the skin, and with a test area where the reaction is uncertain. Dullness that is inflammation rather than deposit is treated with R2 Glow, long-pulsed 755 and 1064 nm directed at the inflammatory activity that keeps producing pigment. Redness, pores and texture that occur together are considered for the 675 nm 少女光 Laser on the DEKA RedTouch Pro, and established vessels for a wavelength chosen by their colour and depth.

What decides the plan is the examination rather than the request: what the mark is, how deep it sits, whether the skin has darkened after a previous treatment, whether melasma is present, and how much sun the skin sees between visits. Aftercare is broadly the same for each: daily sunscreen, no picking at a darkened spot while it sheds, actives paused, and a review timed to when any darkening would appear. Fees follow the plan and are set out in writing after assessment, as described on how fees are quoted.