A Short History of Laser Therapy

 

Light has been recognized as a healing source of energy since the early days of recorded time. Ancient Greeks, Romans, and

Egyptians practiced helio-therapy, or healing using sunlight to treat various ailments; to this day, jaundiced infants are still placed in

sunlight to resolve their condition.

 

 in the 17th century, Sir Isaac Newton identified the visible spectrum when he separated light into many colors with a prism. 

 

Albert Einstein first explained the theory of stimulated emissions of energy in 1917, which became the basis for the production of

lasers. 

 

In the 1940s and 1950s, scientists and engineers worked to produce a device based on the principles of stimulated emissions of

energy, which was then called a MASER (microwave amplification by stimulated emissions of radiation), useful for its immediate

application in microwave communication systems; additionally, they conceived of an optical Maser, or device for creating powerful

beams of light using higher frequency energy to stimulate what was termed the lasing medium. As a result, the first laser was

invented in 1960, using a Ruby as a lasing medium.

 

In 1967, Hungarian physicist Endre Mester pioneered laser medicine, including discovering the biological benefits of stimulated

light energy on living tissues, including enhanced wound healing. Since that time, scientists and physicians have grown to

understand more about the nature of stimulated light energy and its beneficial effects, all the while developing new techniques and

devices for the use of lasers in medicine.

 

Laser therapy has been evolving rapidly in the United States since around 2002, with the introduction and widespread use of very

low powered class III laser devices called cold lasers. Cold lasers have become widely accepted and used in medicine since that

time, even though clinical research studies show very little difference between low-level laser therapy and placebos.

 

Although low-level cold lasers are still widely used to this day, the more recent utilization of powerful Class IV therapy lasers has

led to faster, more optimal clinical results. The deeper penetration and increased absorption of higher volumes of laser energy

from Class IV lasers have proven to be instrumental in providing optimal clinical results when treating a wide range of medical

conditions and injuries.

 

 

 

 

 

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