Profect™ Medical Imaging System

Digital skin imaging analysis uses multi-spectral imaging to reveal damage on and beneath the surface of our skin that is not detectable by visual examination alone.

Digital skin imaging allows our expert skin care specialists to evaluate your skin health and appearance based on six criteria that affect your complexion: wrinkles, spots, pores, evenness (skin tone color variation), porphyrins (evidence of bacteria in your pores) and pigment spots caused by overexposure to the sun. Digital skin imaging analysis also uses comparative data with other women of the same age and ethnicity to provide additional information about your complexion results.

The Profect™ photography system is now available at Laser Spa Group. This ultraviolet digital imaging reveals damage to the skin caused by sun exposure and other harmful agents before it becomes noticeable to the naked eye. Unlike simulated black- and-white ultraviolet photography, the Profect™ allows you to take TRUE color and black-and-white ultraviolet images that reveal a much broader range of conditions in the skin. This helps to highlight areas of the skin that need the greatest amount of attention to minimize and reverse sun damage.

Since the Profect™ camera unveils photo-aging in skin, it serves to provide a snapshot of your skin's future. The camera also uses a digital imaging system which highlights moisture content and acne inflammation in the skin.

• Spots: Spots are typically brown or red skin pigmentation including freckles, acne scars, hyper-pigmentation and small blood vessels.
•  Pores: Pores are the circular surface openings of sweat gland ducts.
•  Wrinkles: Wrinkles are furrows, folds or creases in the skin which increase with age and sun damage.
• Texture: Texture evaluates skin smoothness.
• Porphyrins: Porphyrins reveal bacteria lodged in pores.
• UV Spots: UltraViolet spots reveal areas of sun damage.

We offer a complimentary Skin Analysis to all our clients.

Understanding UV Photography for the Medical Office

Since the invention of the Wood’s lamp in 1903, UV imaging has been used in dermatology to help identify and better visualize epidermal dermatologic conditions. Current technology, offered in systems such as the Profect® PhotoPro and Profect® Facial Studio, works by emitting a flash of UV light (at approximately 365nm) and taking a picture simultaneously. The ultraviolet light is absorbed into the skin and reflected back to the camera lens. UV light has been shown to penetrate the stratum corneum and epidermis, thus it reflects dermatological conditions in these layers. Likewise, epidermal melanin absorbs the UV light and therefore reflects the absence of color, black. Comparing before and after UV images is one way medical offices can visualize treatment results.

Use of a medical photography system with ultraviolet technology, like the Profect® PhotoPro or Facial Studio, helps the medical practitioner identify dermatological conditions such as:

Understanding Cross-Polarized Photography for the Medical Office

 Cross-polarized photography, offered with the Profect® PhotoPro, is a photographic technique that is used to document hemoglobin and melanin conditions not visible with the naked eye. Cross-polarized images are captured when a filter over the light source and a filter over the camera lens are set at 90º to each other. These filters eliminate “glare” from the skin’s surface (light reflected back to the camera without absorption into the skin), and capture “back-scattered” light (light that has been absorbed in the skin, scattered and reflected back to the camera). Absorption of light by hemoglobin in subsurface blood vessels causes the light’s wavelength to lengthen, therefore the visible light reflected back to the camera shows better contrast of those blood vessels. In a similar way, visibility of melanin is also enhanced. This enhanced visibility can be particularly useful for medical personnel to better assess a patient’s pigmentation or vascular condition and to identify improvement between one photo session and the next