PicoSure: The Celebrity Pico Laser in Singapore

PicoSure is a pico laser which is also known as the Fan Bing Bing laser because guess what? Fan Bing Bing was caught by paparazzi trying to sneak into one of the first PicoSure clinics in Taipei to perform this treatment.

Locally here in Singapore, Jamie Yeo has also become a big lover of this laser machine ever since she tried it with me and look at her glowing skin below! Celebrities have to look good constantly and they would not try any unproven treatment.

The youngest top-ranked badminton player in the world, Dai Tzu Ying is also the official ambassador of PicoSure in Taiwan.

A lot of my Singaporean patients who have been to me before, know that I didn’t like to perform laser treatments before. But after trying PicoSure out, I have accumulated a big number of laser patients.  So why is there such a big change now to be a big proponent of PicoSure?

It is my personal philosophy of “WOW NOW”.I want my patients to feel empowered and confident and happy with the results of their aesthetic treatments in just one treatment. That’s why I believe in delivering obvious visible results after just ONE SESSION, and also why I trained intensively in filler and threadlift injections, rising to be a top trainer of fillers and threadlift brands in the Asia Pacific region.

Therein lies the crux of the problem: previous laser machines I tried wasn’t “WOW NOW”. They didn’t deliver VISIBLE RESULTS in ONE SESSION(to be honest, I had only tried Korean copycats of the Medlite and Revlite – so this comment may not be fair to Cynosure).

I am also a firm believer in value-for-money. My own consumer philosophy is that I do not mind to pay more if I know I’m getting a product with results and no side effects, and the service rendered is top notch. Therefore, I vowed to translate this philosophy to all my patients.

After all, happy patients mean that they themselves come back again, and they bring their family members, friends and colleagues along. It also gives me immense satisfaction to know that I am good enough for them to want to tell others about their treatments, as we know medical aesthetic treatments can be taboo for many people.

LOOK NO FURTHER – PICOSURE IS SUCH A MACHINE.

Picosecond means 1×10^-12seconds. Nanosecond means 1×10^-9 seconds. A pico laser produces laser pulses with a pulse width of 0.000000000001 seconds. Yes, that is 12 digits behind the decimal point. A nanosecond laser produces laser pulses with the pulse width of 0.000000001 seconds (9 digits behind the decimal point). A pico laser produces pulse widths that are 1000 times shorter than the nanosecond lasers.

”What’s the big deal about a much shorter pulse width? The nanosecond Q switch Nd:Yag lasers are commonly available and can do the job also.”- you may ask.

Well, the jump from nanosecond laser to PICOSECOND laser is A BIG DEAL. When the pulse width is so much shorter, it leads to :

1. Laser absorption by pigments leading to lesser sessions needed and clearance of pigments
2. Much lower chance of side effects like Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation (PIH)

Just imagine a Commando officer trying to steal a top-secret document from the enemy’s office. He probably is more stealth-like, takes a shorter time to find and retrieve the document without messing up the whole office. In fact, nobody would realise that the document is stolen.

Now imagine a normal police officer doing the same. He brings a search warrant, making sure everybody in the officer knows that he is there to do his job. He brings many other junior officers, rummages through all the cabinets and papers, and in the end, he may not even find the top-secret document that he wants to find!

In this analogy, the Commando would be the Picosecond Laser and the police officer the Nanosecond Laser. The Pico laser generates photo-acoustic energy (laser energy becoming only mechanical energy which breaks the pigments into sand-like pieces which can be removed by the skin easily), without side effects. The Nanosecond Laser generates more photo-thermal energy (laser energy converted into heat) and heats the melanin in the skin. When melanin is stimulated excessively, it proliferates and becomes darker, resulting in side effects of Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation.

Would you want the Pico Laser or the NanoSecond Laser to treat your pigmentation?

Let us find out what PicoSure is compared to other pico-lasers in the market.

1. It is the first commercially available Pico Laser. Cynosure company is the inventor of the picosecond laser technology. They were also the inventor of the nanosecond technology (present in Medlite and Revlite and subsequently copied by all the copycat machines from Korea, Israel etc). Therefore, Cynosure, being the inventor of this technology, is way ahead of their counterparts in terms of the technological developments of laser technology, thus delivering reliable, safe, reproducible results.

2. It is a 755nm Alexandrite laser – the previous popular pigmentation lasers ( Q-switched Nd:Yag lasers) were either 532nm or 1064nm. The 532nm laser was good for removing superficial pigments and the 1064nm lasers were good for removing deeper dermal pigments, however Cynosure (the inventors of the Medlite and Revlite – original Q switched Nd:Yag lasers) outdid themselves this time.

Their research and innovation discovered that 755nm is even better than 532nm or 1064nm at removing tattoos and pigments! Cynosure was similar to Medlite and Revlite in the world of medical pigmentation treatment, they could have easily rested on their laurels and not spent any further funds on research, and just keep reaping the benefits of their original Q-switch Nd:Yag Medlite and Revlite. But what did they do? They invented the first commercial Picosecond 755nm Alexandrite laser (which is a super risky investment if this new technology didn’t deliver!)

3. It is US FDA-approved for pigmentation removal, tattoo removal and acne scars removal.

Before the invention of PicoSure and the Focus Lens Array, many lasers (e.g Q switched Nd:Yag, long-pulsed lasers etc) that claimed to stimulate the skin to produce collagen hardly delivered their promises at all. All they did was generate a lot of diffuse heat which didn’t show much results. This was one of the main reasons I disliked performing lasers and FOCUSED (pun intended) mainly on injectables and threadlifts (because I like to deliver visible results in just ONE SESSION OF TREATMENT).

Once I tried the Focus Lens on my patients, they all messaged me back after just 3-4 days, thanking me for the treatment as they can feel their pores shrink already and their skin glowing and smooth! At first, I thought it was just a one-off when the first patient messaged me, but as the testimonials kept coming, I knew I was onto a winner in PicoSure’s Focus Lens Array.

It is a special lens that can be fixed onto the Picosure flat handpieces (6mm, 8mm or 10mm handpieces) to shrink pores and make our skin produce collagen and elastin for skin rejuvenation (read: smoother, firmer, glowy, fairer and healthier skin with smaller pores). It is made up of multiple hexagons overlapping each other (looking like a beehive and thus the mainland Chinese patients have coined PicoSure as 蜂巢皮秒 .)

The Focus Lens is able to focus the laser energy into 20x in the deeper layer of the skin, creating sites of Laser-Induced Optical Breakdown (LIOB), that stimulate the surrounding fibroblasts of the deeper skin layer to produce collagen to replace the breakdown spots. Every laser company will claim their pico laser’s MLA mode is similar to the Focus Lens – but only PicoSure has the proof to show for it with multiple clinical papers, histology and studies that prove it. This leads to the next point of PicoSure being an intelligent laser for acne scars treatment.

If you’re familiar with other machines for acne scars treatment, they are mostly fractionally ablative lasers or radiofrequency or both. Fractionally ablative lasers (eg fractional CO2) remove 20-30% of the top layer of the skin, and leaving the surrounding untouched healthy skin to regenerate the removed skin. Not only is there heat damage, but there is also mechanical/physical damage to the skin as well. Infini involves physical poking of fine needles into the acne scars before it releases the RF energy that is full of heat.

It is no surprise that poor wound healing, scarring and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation are common side effects of fractional lasers/RF and Infini.

Subcision – a popular method for acne scar treatment is severely painful and has bad downtime of pain, swelling and even bruising. This is due to the nature of the treatment using mechanical sharp force to break open tethering acne scars.

PicoSure Focus Lens causes very specific localised spots of collagen regeneration without damaging the skin surface – thus there is NO DOWNTIME and MINIMAL SIDE EFFECTS as compared to semi-ablative fractional lasers / RF.

This is where PicoSure shines through as the super intelligent laser of the future, able to perform the ultra-difficult task of removing acne scars and yet not removing the top layer of the skin, resulting in virtually ZERO DOWNTIME. PicoSure is fast making fractional lasers obsolete with this Focus Lens technology.

Great Skin! Jokes aside, you should expect your skin to become warm, and slightly red (like a mild sunburn effect). The warmth and redness takes between 1-8 hours to go away. We apply a cooling healing growth factors mask to soothe the skin’s redness .

Depending on your condition, I may also recommend other complementary treatments to be done together with PicoSure. You can find out more about those during consultation.

The laser treatment itself takes 20-30 minutes, the pre-laser numbing cream takes 10-20 minutes, the post-treatment mask takes 20 minutes.

One should do Picosure once a month, until you achieve fantastic skin, and then perform maintenance treatments once every 2-3 months thereafter.

The cost of PicoSure Pico Laser in Singapore starts from $380.

Be sure to call or Whatsapp me at +65 88089887 or DM me @dr.isaac.wong on Instagram or PM me on Facebook to try out this Celebrity All-in-One Laser from the USA!