Used properly, there are many benefits to using lasers for medical situations.

Laser surgery uses non-ionizing radiation, so patients aren’t exposed to harmful radiation. Lasers can also help surgeons accomplish complex medical tasks during surgery such as reducing chances of wound infection, reducing blood loss, helping to achieve better wound healing and decreasing discomfort after surgery.

If you’re a cosmetic surgeon looking to expand your practice, getting a medical laser device or devices is a good way to make that happen. In fact, there are many medical laser suppliers who can set you up with what you need.

But when it comes to medical lasers, one must take care with them. There are benefits to both owning and renting medical lasers and ultimately you want to make the best choice for what works for your practice.

First, you want to consider how often you will offer cosmetic laser services. If it’s all the time, then buying or leasing lasers from medical laser suppliers might make the most sense. But if it’s something that’s only going to be offered a few times a month, then renting from medical laser suppliers might be the way to go.

Before you buy or rent anything, keep in mind the following:

• Buying a brand new laser machine from medical laser suppliers might cost as much as $100,000 or more.
• Machines will more than likely be in need of repairs every so often or at the very least they are going to require regular maintenance.
• Rented lasers from medical laser suppliers, especially malfunctioning one will cause delays and cost money to repair.

If you choose to your own your own medical laser equipment, benefits and disadvantages of doing that include:

• The fact that you can offer cosmetic laser services all the time.
• You won’t have to worry about scheduling complex laser procedures for the specific day or days you might have laser services available if you rent one.
• Since you own the laser equipment, you can take the time to get to know it inside and out. You’ll know every part and every function on the equipment, so hopefully you’ll find your machine more reliable than a rented one.
• As previously mentioned, the initial cost of equipment from medical laser suppliers can run as high as $100,000 or more. While it may pay off in the long run, it’s a huge initial investment to make and you’ll have to decide if that’s worth it or not.
• If you do decide to buy your own medical laser equipment, you’ll have to put your money and faith into the machine you buy. If something goes wrong with it, you won’t be able to switch machines.
• As beneficial as having your own equipment can be, you’ll have to take the time to get to know the equipment and you may have to spend time showing others you work with how to use it.

Should you choose instead to rent medical laser equipment, advantages and disadvantages of that include:

• You avoid having to make a huge investment up from on a machine.
• If you’re unfamiliar with how the machine works, you can rent the machine as well as the services of a technician who can make things easy by operating the machine for you.
• Since you’re renting, you can try different machines to find the one that fits your needs best. So if the latest and greatest equipment hits the market, you can rent it and test it out.
• While renting offers more flexibility, the equipment you rent may not always be the most reliable.
• If you plan on offering cosmetic services to clients on a frequent, it may be more cost effective to buy rather than rent.

Whether you choose to own or rent medical laser equipment, take time to figure out what’s best for the needs of your practice. Talking with medical laser suppliers will help you find the best equipment whether you’re looking to make a short-term rental or long-term investment in ophthalmic lasers, cosmetic lasers, aesthetic lasers or cold therapy lasers.