Light and Laser Advanced Acne Treatment Options
If traditional over-the-counter acne treatments are not sufficient to treat your acne, there are a variety of advance acne treatment methods that may help. There are also other reasons to seek alternative acne treatments.
The most severe types of acne often need more complex methods of treatment. For some people, the desire for advanced treatment option is often driven by desire to avoid the side effect of acne medication. No matter what the reason, advanced acne treatments offer an option that is appealing to many. Among the most prevalent are light and laser treatments.
The good news is that there are forms of light that are much safer than UV.
Blue Light Therapy for Acne
One advanced form of light treatment for acne is referred to as "blue light therapy". The name comes from the color of the light that is used in the treatment.. Blue light therapy helps kill the bacteria that causes acne. There is, however, a side effect. Blue light therapy affects the skin's oil and can cause slight skin dryness. The narrow band light used in blue light therapy contains a minimal amount of UV wavelengths.
Blue light treatments take place over about a month long period, where patients receive treatments twice per week. Blue light therapy is most effective on acne forms that are less sever than those that produce nodules or cysts.. Unfortunatley, nodules and cysts can actually be made worse with blue light therapy. Several studies have shown dramatic improvements that ranged from a 40% decrease in the number of lesions to a complete remission of the lesions. About two-thirds of blue light therapy patients benefitted from a 59% to 67% reduction of inflammatory acne lesions.
Light Heat Energy (LHE) and Pulsed
Light Heat Energy (LHE) is another form of light therapy that has similar results. Like blue light therapy, LHE kills bacteria - just in a different manner. LHE also works by decreasing the natural skin oil referred to as sebum. Excess sebum production is considered one of the major factors affecting acne growth. The sebaceous glands are shrunk by the green light used in LHE treatments..
The FDA has approved LHE therapy for the treatment of mild to moderately severe acne. LHE treatment helps reduce both inflammatory and non-inflammatory acne LHE treatments last one month and consist of two treatments per week. . In contrast, Drug-based treatments often take longer than two months.
In certain cases, light therapy is combined with prescription medications for a more effective treatment approach.
ALA (5-aminolevulinic acid)
ALA is used to improve acne light treatment. ALA is applied to the skin as a compound. ALA doesn't have antibacterial properties of common acne treatments such as Accutane. The skin more sensitive to light by ALA, thus increasing the effectiveness of light treatment.
It's kept on for 15 minutes to an hour, during which the patient receives blue or red light treatment. ALA is still a relatively new treatment, so precise numbers are not available. Early results, however, do suggest the treatment is both effective and safe.
Laser Acne Treatment
Laser light treatment differs from other light treatments in that the laser light is a more focused light source. Standard light consists of waves that scatter in many directions. Laser light waves all move in the same direction and are often referred to as "coherent." This property of laser is why they are beneficial for many uses.
As with all forms of light, the main difference between lasers is their wavelength.. One of the most popular laser acne treatments uses a 1450 nanometer (nm) wave. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. The 1450 nm laser treatment is particularly safe and effective.
Studies have shown that just one laser acne treatment reduced acne lesions by almost 40%. Two treatments decreased them by nearly 60% and with three the number rose to over 80%. Topical anesthetics are used during the treatment to help with the minor pain.
