BBL: how to tell if a machine was set high enough to produce a result?

It could be normal to only be slightly red after this procedure and have that disappear in a few hours. When you are using it for anti-aging and preventative treatments, the ideal settings will produce a slight redness that will pass within a few hours. If you are going in for corrective treatments than the settings will need to be a bit higher and likely you will have redness lasting 1-2 days that can be easily covered up by makeup. The first treatment is often performed at more conservative settings and when you go back for your next scheduled treatment you should mention that you would like a more aggressive setting if over the 4-6 weeks after the treatment you don’t achieve a noticable effect.
The Scition BBL is unique in that the settings can be fine tuned by delivering the same amount of energy over a shorter period of time, changing the temperature of the crystal, changing the spot size, increasing the energy administered or changing the filter used.
When treating vessels and pigmented areas, higher settings are used and often vessels will turn darker or flatten out and pigmented areas will turn dark and flake off in 1 week. By 4 weeks, there should be a noticable change in these areas and if there isn’t then notify your doctor and they will likely increase the settings. Starting at a low but likely effective setting helps to reduce the risk of side effects and slowly titrating up is the best way to ensure a meaningful effect is achieved. The frequency of treatments can be as important as the intensity of each individual treatment. The number of pulses delivered in a treatment can make a big difference so that one treatment is as effective as two. The way the photofacial is supposed to be delivered is a two pass techinique with 30% overlap between pulses at the forever young settings then a targeted treatment for vessles and areas of hyperpigmentation. This can end up being 260 flashes on a face alone. Many clinics do not deliver this many pulses and in my experience it is the number one reason why patients are not satisfied with BBL or IPL treatments.