A handpiece for laser treatment of a target surface on a patient, such as a skin surface, mitigates the effects of backscattered radiation at high optical power levels that can heat the handpiece to dangerous levels, as well as exposing practitioners and patients to the backscattered light and/or the handpiece structures heated thereby. A standoff affixed to the handpiece is configured to guide the handpiece position with respect to the target surface during use, such that the angle of incidence of treatment light is held near a predetermined angle that is not perpendicular to the target surface. This angle decreases the fraction of treatment light scattered directly back toward the handpiece, and the standoff may additionally be used to set a preferred distance to the target surface. Systems for laser treatment using a handpiece having these features, and methods for laser treatment using the handpiece are also provided.

A method and system for thermal and non-thermal laser treatments includes a visible laser source. A laser beam in the visible spectrum is generated by the visible laser source and produces a modulated laser output. Laser controls allows the user to generate the pulsed output with variable pulse characteristics to provide selective, localized and user controlled thermal and or non-thermal biological effects at a targeted tissues. This laser system modulates the delivered laser energy to produce accurate and selective targeting of the pigmented cells of the treated tissues to induce therapeutic effects via gentle warming of the cells without significant collateral damage to surrounding tissues.