Cold Laser Therapy Differences

Many of you know that along with acupuncture, we include cold-laser therapy (low-level therapy) in many of our treatments. Did you know that all all cold-laser therapy devices are NOT created equal? There are several different devices in use within the industry. Some are great... and some are NOT. What a makes a great one?... or better yet.. what makes a bad device? It all comes back to basics.... power (milliwatts) and color (wavelength). There are several consumer lasers and even some commercial lasers with power output of 5 to 7 milliwatts. Is this good? Let's put this in perspective. Most laser pointers used in presentations range from 1 to 5 milliwatts. Poor-quality healing lasers have power output in the 5-7 milliwatt range....suggesting that these devices are BARELY stronger than a laser pointer. And yet, they charge several hundred or thousands of dollars. All clinical research showing effective wound healing, anti-inflammatory effects, and acceleration of tissue growth does NOT use lasers at these weak power levels. Most studies use lasers from 30 to 500 milliwatts. In case you're wondering, the lasers used in our clinic include the Apollo system which uses a probe containing 4 lasers at 500 milliwatts per laser.