What does LASER stand for and what is it’s story?

Do you know what LASER stands for?

LASER stands for:

• Light
• Amplification (by)
• Stimulated
• Emission (of)
• Radiation

From its first elaboration until today, this technology has found a consistently wider range of applications.
Okay, so where did it all start?

History:

The first laser light source was perfected in 1960 by T.H. Maiman but lasers started being used successfully in the 1970’s, firstly in surgery, then for therapy, but enough so to introduce the concept of laser therapy. The development of technology and improvements in the knowledge of how light affects the organism has today caused the laser to become one of the most widespread forms of physical therapy.

The first lasers used for therapy were soft lasers, in other words low powered, for example the He-Ne laser that issues a continuous beam of light visible at 632 nm at a power of between 1 and 50 milliwatts. Because of the scarce power and the optic properties of the red light, the Helium-Neon laser bio-stimulates the top layers of the skin but does not take energy to a depth.

Diode Lasers

…were introduced in the 80’s, firstly low power diodes at 904 nm pulsed emission and subsequently continuous diodes that emit in the near infrared, which can supply up to several hundreds of milliwatts. The wide diffusion that followed diode laser entry into the market was essentially tied to their high level of efficiency and their small size, which makes them the most flexible therapy instruments of their category.

The start of the ’90s was characterized as by the introduction of high power lasers, some coming directly from surgery such as the C02 and Nd:YAG continuous which, when used in a defocused manner, permits therapy applications with power emissions up to 20 W. The C02 laser, in addition, represented the entry of automatic scanning power lasers into laser therapy.

A true pursuit of power was triggered at the end of the ’90s, above all with the technological evolution of CW diode lasers that could radiate increasingly high power with wavelengths having a high penetrating power, such as the 808 nm diode.

The problem of applying continuous sources of high power during therapy is tied to the danger of tissue heating, which confirms that high power does not necessarily mean high levels of efficiency. What often makes the difference in terms of therapy results in the choice of wavelength, the emission method and the spot size.

MLS technology arose from this intuition in 2001, and it overtook the high power fashion using an efficient combination and synchronization of wavelengths and selected emission methods to obtain the best biological reply.

The use of Nd:YAG pulsed systems in physical therapy is relatively recent and coincides with the entry on the market of HILT® technology which, working with particularly short impulses characterized by very high peak power, radiates a large volume of tissue, from the top to the deeper layers, in total safety.

How was MLS technology created?

MLS Laser Therapy was created with the aim of obtaining an efficient and simultaneous action on pain, contracture, inflammation and oedema, exceeding the limits of traditional LLLT (low power or class III lasers) and HP (high power or class IV lasers) laser therapy. Click here to see if Laser Therapy is right for your practice.

LLLT, in fact, applies very low power and, given that the biological processes generated by laser-tissue interaction are prevalently of a photochemical type, they are limited to surface biostimulation. The application of LLLT often implies long treatment times, it needs more sessions and the therapy results are felt only at the end of the treatment cycle.

From the start of the ’90s many producers followed the fashion of high power emission, thinking mistakenly that greater power corresponded to better efficiency. On the contrary, unless suitably controlled, high power can thermally damage the treated tissues. It follows that the majority of CW HP therapy lasers cannot work at the maximum power declared by the manufacturer without causing damage.

ASA, established in 1983, is a world leader in the research, design, production and distribution of medical apparati designed to listen to, interpret and solidify the requirements of professionals and patients. ASA’s energy is focused on three therapies – Hilterapia®, MLS Laser Therapy®, and Magnetotherapy. There have been devices developed from their research in the united laboratory of the Clinical Physiopathological Department of Florence University, and in ASA headquarters in Arcugnano (Vicenza-Italy), which coordinates the study activity of the international network of medical collaborators.

ASA has exceeded the limits of traditional low power laser therapy and the fashion of high power emission because of its insight, which is supported and validated by careful scientific research that includes:

• Analysis of all the medical literature available.
• Study of the biological action and efficiency of different wavelengths and different therapy doses (1-60 J/cm2).
• Comparison studies between different emission modes: continuous, pulsed, CW-PW combined, and CPW synchronized.
• Comparison studies between different application modes: contact, fixed pointing, and scanning.

A New Impuslse: MLS – Multiwave Locked System

The MLS impulse combines and synchronizes specific continuous and pulsed emissions. The component emissions are synchronized by a characteristic and patented control system call Multiwave Locked System.

MLS is a new therapy that makes it possible to:

• Obtain synergy of the therapy effects of component emissions
• Obtain a notable attenuation of the symptomatology already from the first applications
• Avoid tolerance phenomena
• Notably reduce the healing times
• Guarantee long-lasting results
• Work in total safety

The MLS impulse is the result of the combination and synchronization of continuous and pulsed emission systems of different wavelength. It was developed by following scientific research that studied the biological and therapy effects of different emission components and methods.

These results demonstrate a very important fact: combined and synchronized emission is perceived at a cellular level as a biologically “new” stimulus that can induce a characteristic effect which cannot be obtained using single emissions separately or in a simple combination. The results also confirm the extreme efficiency of the MLS impulse in transferring energy to cells and tissue in an optimal manner, where the term “optimal” means a transfer that can induce a biological reply at a top level.

There are many reasons why MLS Laser Therapy stands out from the rest – Find out more here.

Already know the benefits? Further research if MLS Laser Therapy is right for your practice here!