Room 4 has a new laser, and a longer patch-test list

The laser in Room 4 was replaced over the August bank holiday. It is a newer KTP platform with finer pulse control and, more usefully, contact cooling that holds the epidermis at a stable temperature through a longer pulse instead of chilling it in bursts.

What this changes in the room

Sessions are slightly shorter — a full face is now closer to twenty-five minutes than thirty. Pulses are a little less sharp because the energy is delivered over a longer window rather than dumped. Several patients who came back in the first fortnight described it as duller rather than hotter, which is the correct answer.

Clearance per session should be marginally better on fine telangiectasia. We will know properly in six months, when we have enough paired rig photographs to say something that is not just an impression.

What changes before the room

This is the part worth reading. The new platform’s settings are not interchangeable with the old one’s, so we have restarted our patch-testing thresholds from a conservative base.

In practice: if your skin is Fitzpatrick IV or above, you now need a patch test seven days ahead of a first session, where previously we tested from V. If you were treated here on the old platform and are coming back for a top-up, you need one too, once.

The Thursday list

Room 4 still runs one laser list a week, on Thursdays, because the interlock and blackout make it a poor room for anything else and we would rather batch it than half-convert a room every other day. Patch tests are done any day, in Room 1, and take longer to book in than to perform.

If you are mid-course, nothing about your plan changes except the machine you will be under. Your remaining sessions are at the price you were originally quoted.