Dr. Nordyke is a certified laser physician in both Long Pulse and Q Switch Laser Technologies for the treatment of nail fungus. Dr. Nordyke has developed his own laser protocol that works with both Q Switch and Long Pulse lasers (1320 and 1064 wavelength). TriLaser refers to variable power levels, in both Q Switch Laser and Long Pulse Laser, that allow the laser to reach deep into the dermis, without burning the upper layers of the nail and or nail bed.
Differences between Long Pulse and Q Switch
The most important differences between long pulse therapies (1064 and 1320 wavelengths for example) and Q Switch are the following:Long pulse penetrates into the tissue, and delivers energy in the form of heat, that in effect can kill fungus. Different wavelengths have variable depths of penetration. The 1064 Laser is the most commonly used long pulse wavelength used to treat nail fungus. “Simply using a long pulse laser on an advanced case of nail fungus will take a very long time to resolve, and often requires the doctor to remove the nail if the nail has advanced disease”, states Dr. Nordyke.
In many cases with long pulse lasers, it may take up to 10 visits to resolve.
“Q Switch Lasers also penetrate into the tissue, states Dr. Nordyke, but instead of using heat as the primary form to kill the fungus hyphae, it works on the principle of cavitation, which has proven to be superior to killing fungus.”"Cavitation basically breaks apart the fungus, and to date the results have been amazing. We took it one step further, and use the principles of cavitation and heat to eliminate fungus. Their is no pain at all with the Q Switch laser, but the long pulse laser can be painful, depending on the level of power.
“The reason we use both types of Laser formats in eliminating nail fungus, is because I believe that fungus has proven to be an extremely strong and resistant organism. They work in synergy to make nails look healthy and normal once again.
To appreciate the TriLaser Procedure, it is important to understand how invasive nail fungus is to the nail bed, and how aggressive the infection can spread. Nail fungus often erodes the nail bed, causing deep channels where the fungus resides into the tissue (dermal layer). It also causes infection up near the matrix of the nail, which is responsible for nail growth.
“If you have an infection that is either discolored, thick or lifted throughout the nail, your infection is not just on the surface of the nail bed, but deeper into the dermis”, states Dr. Nordyke. “If you cannot reach the entire infection, or deep into the dermis where the infection resides, you will never ever make the infection go away. This is why oral medications have a high failure rate with these types of infected nails. “Everyone is concerned about the side effects with oral medications (rightly so), but it is my opinion that oral medications just have a significant failure rate for nail infections”.
