Tips for Purchasing Veterinary Laser Therapy

Veterinary laser therapy has spread through the animal medicine world like wildfire. Many veterinarians have jumped on this bandwagon and have started purchasing laser therapy equipment en masse. They are very enthusiastic about this line of treatment and have started entering this field with great gusto.

Now, laser therapy is a great option for treating many types of ailments and injuries in animals and no doubt it solves many problems which appear to be intractable with traditional methods such as surgery and medicinal drugs, but it is not a catchall solution to all varieties of problems.

It is easy to jump onto this bandwagon without doing the proper research and preparation. This can lead to all sorts of trouble. Veterinarians can purchase laser therapy equipment that is not suitable for the problem at hand or which are not calibrated correctly. If they use such equipment upon the animals they are treating, it will only worsen their ailments and injuries.

So it is best to do an adequate amount of research before purchasing laser therapy equipment. One should carefully study the working, functioning, and applications of the laser therapy equipment they are going to purchase before actually going through with the purchase.

 

So here are some tips for purchasing a veterinary laser therapy machine.

Things to consider before going through with the purchase –

1. Check the wavelength and the power range –

The science behind veterinary laser therapy is that the veterinarian directs a certain amount of light over the area of the animal’s body which has been affected by an injury or an illness. Now the exact amount of light that is directed at the animal’s body has to be calculated in terms of ‘dosage’.

If the animal is exposed to too much laser light his condition might become worse and if he doesn’t get enough light his condition will not improve. So the veterinarian should calculate how much dosage of laser light should be administered to the animal in advance and purchase laser therapy equipment of an appropriate wavelength and power range.

2. Understand the concept of photobiomodulation –

Over the past few decades, great advances have been made in the field of veterinary laser therapy. Understanding the way lasers work and how they cause therapeutic effects in animals has grown tremendously. It is now known that it is the special nature of the photons of light that causes the therapeutic effect, and not just the heat from the laser.

Scientists have also discovered the knowledge that when the skin of animals is exposed to the light of certain wavelengths it absorbs the light and the bodies of the animals start to produce certain chemicals which have a healing effect on the illnesses and ailments of the animal body.

So a veterinarian should properly understand the concept of photobiomodulation so that he is able to select laser therapy equipment that works according to those principles.

3. Choose a laser of the right power level –

The nature of laser light is such that it scatters over the targeted tissue area and does not make contact with the body of the animal in a focused way. A veterinarian should take this into account while selecting the laser therapy equipment so that he selects a laser that is of a high enough power level that it is able to deliver an adequate dosage of light to the animal’s body.

4. Make sure that the laser is durable –

The fiber optic cable, the handpiece, and the laser’s lens are all extremely fragile and prone to being damaged. So a veterinarian should select laser therapy equipment that is sturdy enough for use in an environment filled with large, frightened, and frantically writhing animals.

5. Make sure that the laser can be cleaned easily –

The construction of the laser therapy equipment should be such that it should be simple and easy to clean it after each use. One should also be able to clean it quickly enough that it is ready for use in the next case.

6. Make sure that the laser can be stored properly –

Some kinds of laser therapy equipment are of a very high power level and consequently, are very large, unwieldy, and difficult to carry. So a veterinarian should make sure that they either have adequate storage space for the large lasers or that they avoid purchasing large lasers.