What should I ask my doctor about laser treatments?
Asked by: Anonymous
Answers (2)
Knowing What To Ask the Laser Practitioner (RN, PA, NP, MD)
A good starting place is to do your own research on the particular laser or skin care condition that you are seeking treatment for. By educating yourself on the basics, you will be much more prepared in a consultation. Much information is readily available via the internet and websites such as these.
- Always ask who will be performing the laser treatment. Keep in mind that the person's title does not equate to training.
- How are the staff trained? Have they treated your skin type before?
- What laser/technology do they use and how will it treat your skin condition?
- What should my expectations be? In what time frame will I reach my goals?
- What are potential adverse outcomes from this treatment?
- Are there before and after photos of THEIR actual patients?
- What other options or modalities may be used?
- Is there downtime associated with the treatment and what is the recovery period like?
- Ask why their facility uses this laser - with all of the technology available (older and new), they should have a ready answer for you as to why they chose this particular laser.
I think you need to ask who is doing this procedure and are they a licensed medical person. We have only RNs, ARNPs, physician assistants and doctors performing our procedures. We feel the most confident with that.
The next question to ask is what kind of lasers do you use? I think there are Cadillacs and Mercedes in lasers and then I think there are old broken down Volkswagens. There are certainly ones that are the highest end, highest quality and standards applied to them and they’ve been around the longest and have a reputation. The companies are not fly-by-night companies versus a brand new company coming out with something new that are not highest power, wattage, those kinds of things.
If they don’t know about their own lasers then I don’t want them touching me. So I think that’s important too. I think they just need to ask some questions and what you can ask them about their training. In our particular setting, the medical professionals have 120 hours of training. It is not just hands-on training; it includes laser physics. So they are understanding, "How does laser light work?" and how can they manipulate and change the particular energy to get the best result. If you don’t really understand that and you’re just doing a cookie-cutter approach and you’re just looking at a book that says do XYZ and put that on every single person, you will not get the best results.
I really think that you’ve got to ask some questions for safety and to know that you can be confident that you will get what you paid for.
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