It is also an opportunity for you to raise your questions, see ‘before and after’ examples and get an approximate cost for each session. Ask about eye protection and skin cooling too, as these are essential elements of safe treatment.
Giving informed consent
Any IPL or laser treatment could potentially cause unwanted side effects, such as mild burning or blistering (with the risk of scarring if the blisters take time to heal) or long term darkening or lightening of the skin due to pigment changes. The clinic should give you information on both the benefits and risks of the treatment, so that you can make an informed choice before proceeding. You should be given information on the treatment risks and benefits to take home to read after any consultation or treatment.
Realistic outcomes
It is important that you are not over-sold the capability of the treatment. For some treatments it is clinically very difficult to provide a guarantee of permanency or the total number of treatments that will be required. Many unwanted conditions are induced/controlled by hormones, and are therefore prone to reoccur later in life as hormone levels alter. Most conditions can be significantly improved after laser/IPL treatments and therefore the clinic should give you reasonable expectations of the likely outcome.
Your suitability for laser treatment
Contrary to popular belief, darker skin tones have a higher your risk of developing an unwanted side effect from Laser/IPL treatment.